First published in 1968 by Doubleday (USA) and by Rapp & Whiting Ltd
(UK).
Grafton New Edition published
1 December 1969. (PB).
The thirteen short stories in this collection originally appeared in magazines in the 1950s and 1960s and were then re-issued in one anthology with the added bonus of comments by Isaac Asimov himself. I read this when it first came out and I still enjoy it.
In content and atmosphere, they are science fiction, but they have all the ingredients of classic detective stories: crimes that are serious but not too gruesome, clues leading to satisfying resolutions, and above all detectives who rely on intelligent reasoning, not brute force. Asimov admired and wanted to emulate the crimewriters of Britain’s Golden Age, especially Agatha Christie, and described Hercule Poirot as. “the best detective fiction has seen.” His own sleuths are mostly armchair detectives or very nearly. A good example is Wendell Urth, a deceptively gentle old extraterrologist who is mortally afraid of travel and never leaves Earth, yet by sheer brain-power solves problems brought to his door from all parts of the solar system. He features in several stories, as does Inspector H Seton Davenport, an intelligent space-policeman, and on occasion the two work together. When they do it’s reminiscent of Hercule Poirot and Inspector Japp.
There is a fascinating variety of
futuristic scenarios. An expedition to the moon by fortune-hunters stealing
precious extra-terrestrial artefacts…an ambitious scientist on Earth who after
making a stupendous discovery dreams of fame and of his own glowing obituary,
(be careful what you wish for!)…and my personal favourite, Marsport, where
dashing space detective Max solves one of the neatest of Asimov’s mysteries
about drug smuggling, while trying to enjoy the delights of a rowdy, rackety
Martian town. The common factors in all these are recognisable human motives
for crime, like greed, ambition, and revenge.
If you’re not a science buff, don’t worry. Asimov makes sure any science
necessary to the plots – astronomy, for example, or chemistry – is painlessly
explained with no indigestible chunks of information spoiling the flow. Keeping
his readers well-informed enables him to play fair with them in a genre where
authors are inventing many of the “facts” in their stories and could easily
cheat.
As he explains in his introduction to the anthology, “You don’t spring new devices on the reader and solve the mystery with them. You don’t take advantage of future history to introduce ad hoc phenomena. In fact, you carefully explain all facets of the future background well in advance so the reader may have a decent chance to see the solution…Even some of the real facts of our present ought to be mentioned if they are to be used — just to make sure the reader is aware of the world now about him.” There speaks a born teacher, and a born storyteller!
Some of the science has,
inevitably, been overtaken by events in the last 50 or 60 years, but to me that
doesn’t invalidate the stories. Even in one tale where data about a real
planet’s orbit, a crucial plot point, was radically updated after Asimov had
used it, the mystery still hangs together enough to be enjoyable. Asimov’s
afterword to the story mentions the new information, adding, “Well, what can I
do except say that I wish astronomers would get things right to begin with? And
I certainly refuse to change the story to suit their whims.”
For anyone who hasn’t tried an Asimov mystery yet, this collection will make
the perfect launch-pad for an exhilarating journey.
Reviewer: Jane Finns
Jane
Finnis read history at the University of London before working as a
radio producer for the BBC. Her four Roman
mysteries are about life (and death) in first-century Roman Britain. They
feature Aurelia Marcella, who runs an inn on the road to York, and keeps
getting drawn into solving mysteries in what is still a new frontier province
of the mighty Roman Empire. Jane now lives in east
Yorkshire and spends her time researching and writing about the Roman Empire. To read a
review other most recent book Danger In The Wind, click on the title.
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