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. ( )

A collection of short mystery puzzle stories, which have appeared in various magazines in the 1970s, as well as a few which were never published before. The Black Widow Club is a group of intelligent men who meet once a month for dinner at a restaurant in a private room. They invite one guest for the evening with the condition that they may grill him unmercifully on any subject they choose, beginning with the question, "How do you justify your existence?" Generally a puzzle will come up, they will look at it from all angles, argue about it and then turn to the waiter, Henry, for the answer.

The puzzles were not terribly difficult and the characters grow on you. In several of the stories he gives praise (or bashes) to other authors of his time. One story in particular gave me a great surprise, being the Tolkien fan that I am.

What I found more charming than the stories presented, were the little bits of explanation in the "afterward" of each story by the author. He revealed the areas where he was spoofing himself, why he wrote the tale and what brought it to his mind. ( )

As usual, Isaac writes some pretty good mysteries usually solved by the waiter for the Black Widower Club. ( )

These are Asimov's best characters, and that alone carries the stories. The mysteries themselves are not terribly interesting, but the dialogue and interaction is so good that you hardly care. The first book is better, but this one hold your attention nicely. ( )

Entertaining short mystery stories by Asimove from the point of view of the assortment of characters in his Black Widowers club. ( )