The Return of the Black Widowers

The Return of the Black Widowers is a collection of mystery short stories by science fiction author Isaac Asimov featuring his fictional club of mystery solvers, the Black Widowers. It was first published in hardcover by Carroll & Graf in November 2003.

This book is the sixth and last of the six books featuring the Black Widowers. It was assembled and edited after Asimov's death by Charles Ardai, and collects the last six stories Asimov wrote for the series. These six previously uncollected stories are preceded by an introduction by Harlan Ellison, nine stories selected by the editor as the best from the previous Black Widowers collections, and an homage by William Brittain. They are then followed by a reprinted tale featuring a fictionalized version of Ellison (bringing the reprinted Widowers stories to ten), a new Black Widowers tale by Ardai, and an afterword by Asimov on the creation of the series drawn from his autobiography I, Asimov.

Contents

• "Introduction" (Harlan Ellison)
• "The Acquisitive Chuckle" (from Tales of the Black Widowers)
• "Early Sunday Morning" (from Tales of the Black Widowers)
• "The Obvious Factor" (from Tales of the Black Widowers)
• "The Iron Gem" (from More Tales of the Black Widowers)
• "To the Barest" (from Casebook of the Black Widowers)
• "Sixty Million Trillion Combinations" (from Banquets of the Black Widowers)
• "The Wrong House" (from Banquets of the Black Widowers)
• "The Redhead" (from Banquets of the Black Widowers)
• "Triple Devil" (from Puzzles of the Black Widowers)
• "The Men Who Read Isaac Asimov" (William Brittain)
• "Northwestward"
• "Yes, But Why"
• "Lost In a Space Warp"
• "Police at the Door"
• "The Haunted Cabin"
• "The Guest's Guest"
• "The Woman in the Bar" (from Banquets of the Black Widowers)
• "The Last Story" (Charles Ardai)
• "Afterword" (from I, Asimov)

External links

• "The Return of the Black Widowers" - a book review by John H. Jenkins