The Union Club Mysteries is a collection of mystery short stories by American author Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...

 featuring his fictional mystery solver Griswold. It was first published in hardcover

Hardcover

A hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...

 by Doubleday in 1983 and in paperback

Paperback

Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...

 by the Fawcett Crest imprint of Ballantine Books

Ballantine Books

Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...

 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The book collects thirty stories by Asimov, most reprinted from magazines and a few previously unpublished, together with a foreword and afterword by the author.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

P. G. Wodehouse

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...

 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

Black Widowers

The Black Widowers is a fictional men-only dining club created by Isaac Asimov for a series of sixty-six mystery stories which he started writing in 1971...

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.

Contents

• "Foreword"
• "No Refuge Could Save
  No Refuge Could Save
  No Refuge Could Save is a short story by Isaac Asimov. It is the first of the Union Club Mysteries; overall these mysteries are not rated highly, but this is considered to be one of the best in the series.-Plot:...
  
  "
• "The Telephone Number"
• "The Men Who Wouldn't Talk"
• "A Clear Shot"
• "Irresistible to Women"
• "He Wasn't There"
• "The Thin Line"
• "Mystery Tune"
• "Hide and Seek"
• "Gift"
• "Hot or Cold"
• "The Thirteenth Page"
• "1 to 999"
• "Twelve Years Old"
• "Testing, Testing!"
• "The Appleby Story"
• "Dollars and Cents"
• "Friends and Allies"
• "Which is Which?"
• "The Sign"
• "Catching the Fox"
• "Getting the Combination"
• "The Library Book"
• "The Three Goblets"
• "Spell It!"
• "Two Women"
• "Sending a Signal"
• "The Favorite Piece"
• "Half a Ghost"
• "There Was a Young Lady"
• "Afterword"