Tales of the Black Widowers (original 1976; edition 1976)

by Isaac Asimov

Series: Black Widowers Mysteries (1)

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722	11	31,376	(3.69)	7
There were six of them. Professional men and their waiter. They gather at the Milano Restaurant once a month for good food and good conversation. But lately the Black Widowers have added a new entertainment to their meetings. They have begun to solve mysteries, murders, and conspiracies of seemingly impossible dimensions.… (more)

▾Book information

Member:	hmrouen
Title:	Tales of the Black Widowers
Authors:	Isaac Asimov
Info:	Fawcett (1976), Edition: First Thus, Mass Market Paperback
Collections:	Your library
Rating:
Tags:	Mystery

Work Information

Tales of the Black Widowers by Isaac Asimov (1976)

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English (9) Italian (1) Spanish (1) All languages (11)

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Showing 1-5 of 9 (next | show all)

Well thought out plots as per the usual Isaac standards.

I think he rivals Arthur Conan-Doyle here. (

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Nick-Myra | Mar 25, 2023 |

Crime/mystery solver men's club. Meets once a month and discusses possible solutions to puzzle of the night. Fun little puzzles. OK book. (

)

ikeman100 | Jun 2, 2020 |

The Black Widowers are an amusing (if chauvinistically all-male) group of bickering friends who meet once a month for dinner, with an invited guest to provide variety. Over the twelve courses presented, they (invariably Henry the waiter) develop a tradition of solving some problem or mystery for the guest. Some of the twists are better than others but the setting adds charm to the stories, all of which I found eminently enjoyable. (

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Michael.Rimmer | May 28, 2018 |

Fun little mysteries written in Asimov's approachable, friendly style. Not terribly deep, but one shouldn't crack open a book of short, formulaic stories expecting that anyway. (

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mrgan | Oct 30, 2017 |

Short puzzle stories rather than crime and detection tales, each resolved by Asimov's Sherlock Holmes, namely Henry the impassive waiter and confidante of members of the Black Widowers dining club. (

)

NaggedMan | Dec 26, 2013 |

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Belongs to Series

Black Widowers Mysteries (1)

Belongs to Publisher Series

Zwarte Beertjes (1679)

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Canonical title

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

1974 (collection)

People/Characters

Important places

New York, New York, USA

Milano Restaurant, New York, New York, USA

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

to Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, to David Ford and to the Trap-door Spiders for reasons detailed in the introduction

First words

Introduction: Because I have a friendly and personal writing style, readers have a tendency to write to me in a friendly and personal way, asking all kinds of friendly and personal questions.

The acquisitive chuckle: Hanley Bartram was the guest, that night, of the Black Widowers, who monthly met in their quiet haunt and vowed death to any female who intruded—for that one night per month, at any rate.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Dannay, Fred (Ellery Queen)

Blurbers

Original language

English

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

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Wikipedia in English (2)

File:Tales of the Black Widowers cover.jpg

Tales of the Black Widowers

▾Book descriptions

There were six of them. Professional men and their waiter. They gather at the Milano Restaurant once a month for good food and good conversation. But lately the Black Widowers have added a new entertainment to their meetings. They have begun to solve mysteries, murders, and conspiracies of seemingly impossible dimensions.

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Book description

This short story collection contains the first 12 Black Widowers stories, most of which initially appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

The Acquisitive Chuckle
Ph as in Phony (The Phony Ph.D.)
Truth to Tell (The Man Who Never Told a Lie)
Go, Little Book! (The Matchbook Collector)
Early Sunday Morning (The Biological Clock)
The Obvious Factor
The Pointing Finger
Miss What? (A Warning to Miss Earth)
The Lullaby of Broadway
Yankee Doodle Went to Town
The Curious Omission
Out of Sight (The Six Suspects)

Where EQMM chose different titles from Asimov's originals, he normally reinstated his own titles for book publication; in such cases, the EQMM titles are given in parentheses.

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