I started reading the fourth book in this series today, which inspired me to write to my sister, who reads a bit of "detective fiction"...and who knows a bit about Isaac Asimov...to see if she had read any of these books. She wrote back and indicated that she had not and asked for more information about them. My first instinct was to pack up the books that I owned and send them to her. But then it hit me that I only owned two of them--the first and the third--so that wasn't very satisfactory. When I looked online to see about purchasing the other four books I was somewhere between surprised and astounded. All of them cost more than I usually pay for used books, and some of them were outrageously priced--$100, sometimes much more. But I had found books two and four at Internet Archive, so I thought I would give that a try. I had no luck at all. I found the two books I had already found there (including the one I am reading now), but none of the other four books seemed to be available. Then I remembered how tricky the index to Internet Archive can be at times. I started trying variations on titles and author, and eventually hit upon one that worked. I compiled a list of the titles and links to Internet Archive for the series to send to my sister. I thought someone else out there might be interested as well, so here you go.
Oh. And as for background information, here's the short version: The Black Widowers is a group of men who meet once a month to share a dinner. They also invite a guest who is interrogated, usually beginning with the question, "How do you justify your existence?" More than a little bit corny, to be admitted, but it usually doesn't linger there. Inevitably the guest has a problem which the Black Widowers then try to solve. They prove themselves incapable of this, however, and the waiter Henry (who is an honorary Black Widower) then comes in to present the solution. There is little variation from this scheme, yet even after reading 36 of the stories (12 per book), I find myself wanting to read more. One warning, however: Asimov cannot resist allowing misogyny to creep into his stories. Sometimes he manages to rise above himself to counter that cretinous attitude, but it's still very irritating (and completely unnecessary), to say the least. So caveat emptor.
Tales of the Black Widowers
https://archive.org/details/talesofblackwido00asim/mode/1up
More Tales of the Black Widowers
https://archive.org/details/moretalesofblack0000asim
Casebook of the Black Widowers
https://archive.org/details/casebookblakwido00isaa
Banquets of the Black Widowers
https://archive.org/details/banquetsofblackw00asim/mode/1up
Puzzles of the Black Widowers
https://archive.org/details/puzzlesoftheblackwidowersisaacasimov/mode/1up
The Return of the Black Widowers
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