Union Club series

The Union Club series are a set of mystery short stories written by Isaac Asimov.

Asimov wrote a total of 56 Union Club stories. As well as the 30 in The Union Club Mysteries book, three more were collected in The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov (Doubleday, 1986), and 22 additional stories have been published in various magazines and an anthology, but 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. One Union Club story, "Dumb Luck", remains unpublished.

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.

Full Series

1. "No Refuge Could Save" (under the title "To Spot a Spy")
2. "The Telephone Number" (under the title "The Winning Number")
3. "The Men Who Wouldn't Talk" (under the title "Pigeon English")
4. "A Clear Shot" (under the title "Big Shot")
5. "Irresistible to Women" (under the title "Call Me Irresistible")
6. "He Wasn't There" (under the title "The Spy Who Was Out-of-Focus")
7. "The Thin Line" (under the title "Taxicab Crackdown")
8. "Mystery Tune" (under the title "Death Song")
9. "Hide and Seek"
10. "Gift" (under the title "Decipher Deception")
11. "Hot or Cold"
12. "The Thirteenth Page"
13. "1 to 999" (under the title "One in a Thousand")
14. "Twelve Years Old" ("The 12-Year-Old Problem")
15. "Testing, Testing!" (under the title "Cloak and Dagger Duel")
16. "The Appleby Story" (under the title "The Last Laugh")
17. "Dollars and Cents" (under the title "Countdown to Disaster")
18. "Friends and Allies" (under the title "Mirror Image")
19. "Which is Which?" (under the title "The Perfect Alibi")
20. "The Sign" (under the title "The Telltale Sign")
21. "Catching the Fox" (under the title "Stopping the Fox")
22. "Getting the Combination" (under the title "Playing It by the Numbers")
23. "The Library Book" (under the title "Mystery Book")
24. "The Three Goblets" (under the title "A Flash of Brilliance")
25. "Spell It!" (under the title "Book Smart")
26. "Two Women" (under the title "Cherchez la Femme: the Case of the Disappearing Woman")
27. "Sending a Signal" (under the title "A Piece of the Rock")
28. "The Favorite Piece" (under the title "Face the Music")
29. "Half a Ghost" (under the title "A Ghost of a Chance")
30. "There Was a Young Lady" (under the title "Poetic License")
31. "Getting Even"
32. "State Capital" (under the title "A Chemical Solution")
33. "Never Out of Sight" (under the title "The Amusement Lark")
34. "The Magic Umbrella" (under the title "Stormy Weather")
35. "The Briefcase in the Taxi" (under the title "Circuit Breaker")
36. "The Bird That Sang Bass" (under the title "Riddled With Clues")
37. "The Last Caesar" (under the title "Great Caesar's Ghost")
38. "The Speck"
39. "Triply Unique"
40. "The Year of the Feast"
41. "The Queen and King"
42. "Upside Down"
43. "The Suspect" (under the title "The Taunter")
44. "Straight Lines"
45. "Child's Play"
46. "New England Equinox"
47. "Ten"
48. "The Common Name"
49. "The Teddy Bear"
50. "The Stamp"
51. "The Legacy"
52. "The Lost Dog"
53. "The Last Man"
54. "Ho! Ho! Ho!"
55. "Missing" (under the title "A Safe Place")
56. "Dumb Luck" (unpublished)

Trivia

The Club Union series 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.

See Also

• The Union Club Mysteries
• List of short stories by Isaac Asimov