The Union Club Mysteries


The Union Club Mysteries is a collection of mystery short stories by American author Isaac Asimov featuring his fictional mystery solver Griswold. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1983 and in paperback by the Fawcett Crest imprint of Ballantine Books in 1985.
The book collects thirty stories by Asimov, most reprinted from magazines and a few previously unpublished, together with a foreword and afterword by the author. Each story is set at a club known as the Union Club, in which a conversation between three members prompts a fourth member, Griswold, to tell about a mystery he has solved. These are often tall stories, and often based on his time in US intelligence. The format is based on that utilized by P. G. Wodehouse in recounting his golf stories.
According to reviewer John H. Jenkins, these stories are not rated particularly well by Asimov fans, and are less well regarded than his better known Black Widowers mysteries. He does regard a few of them more highly, particularly "No Refuge Could Save" and "Hide and Seek," but feels the brevity and format of the stories allows the author little scope. It is also open to question whether they are supposed to be serious mysteries or tall stories.
Asimov wrote a total of 55 Union Club stories. As well as the 30 in this book, three more were collected in The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov. The other 22 have never been collected in any of Asimov's books. One of these 22, "Getting Even," is also part of Asimov's Azazel series of fantasy stories.

Contents

"Foreword"
  1. "No Refuge Could Save"
  2. "The Telephone Number"
  3. "The Men Who Wouldn't Talk"
  4. "A Clear Shot"
  5. "Irresistible to Women"
  6. "He Wasn't There" *
  7. "The Thin Line"
  8. "Mystery Tune"
  9. "Hide and Seek" *
  10. "Gift"
  11. "Hot or Cold"
  12. "The Thirteenth Page"
  13. "1 to 999"
  14. "Twelve Years Old"
  15. "Testing, Testing!"
  16. "The Appleby Story"
  17. "Dollars and Cents" *
  18. "Friends and Allies"
  19. "Which is Which?"
  20. "The Sign" *
  21. "Catching the Fox"
  22. "Getting the Combination" *
  23. "The Library Book" *
  24. "The Three Goblets"
  25. "Spell It!"
  26. "Two Women"
  27. "Sending a Signal"
  28. "The Favorite Piece"
  29. "Half a Ghost"
  30. "There Was a Young Lady"
"Afterword"
* Also appears in The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov.

Other Union Club stories

  1. "Getting Even"
  2. "State Capital"
  3. "Never Out of Sight" *
  4. "The Magic Umbrella" *
  5. "The Briefcase in the Taxi"
  6. "The Bird That Sang Bass"
  7. "The Last Caesar"
  8. "The Speck" *
  9. "Triply Unique"
  10. "The Year of the Feast"
  11. "The Queen and King"
  12. "Upside Down"
  13. "The Suspect"
  14. "Straight Lines"
  15. "Child's Play"
  16. "New England Equinox"
  17. "Ten"
  18. "The Common Name"
  19. "The Teddy Bear"
  20. "The Stamp"
  21. "The Legacy"
  22. "The Lost Dog"
  23. "The Last Man"
  24. "Ho! Ho! Ho!"
  25. "Missing"
* Appears in The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov.