by Isaac Asimov
First published 2005
Henry Jackson serves dinner to the Black Widowers, a monthly gathering of six men who transform their meal into an intellectual battlefield. Each meeting brings a guest with a puzzle that stumps conventional logic. The club members fire questions across the table while Henry quietly observes from the sidelines. When the academics and professionals exhaust their theories, Henry steps forward with the solution that eluded everyone else. The waiter sees what the educated minds miss. These six cases test the limits of deductive reasoning as ordinary problems hide extraordinary complexity. Each mystery reveals how careful observation trumps academic brilliance. The Black Widowers discover that their most valuable member wears an apron and serves the coffee.
Genres: short-stories, mystery, detective, academic
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family
Period: 20th-century
335 pages · Paperback · Da Capo Press