Isaac Asimov (January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992) is most famous for his science fiction writing, and his non-fiction science popularization. He also wrote mystery short stories, in particular a series called The Black Widowers, published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.
The Black Widowers are a group of men - a patent lawyer, an artist, a writer, a government code expert, a math teacher, who meet at a restaurant once a month, where they are waited on by Henry. At each gathering, one of these brings a guest...who invariably has some kind of mystery for the gathering to solve...and it is always Henry who solves it, after the other members have discussed the problem from all angles.
The mysteries are very trivial - only once or twice in the 50 or so stories is there a murder. Sometimes it's an actual crime, at other times it's just a mystery on human behavior.
For example in one story, an editor for a publishing house has lost a manuscript. He thought the author - speaking on the phone - had said, "I'll bring the manuscript tomorrow," when what he actually said was "I"ll bring the manuscript to Morrow." (Morrow was a publishing house active during the time this story was published.)
"To the Barest" is a story that will please punsters and anagramsters.
In it, a character named Ralph Ottur has just died. Ottur's emblem is an otter holding a fish in its mouth - and the fish is a trout. (Which is an anagram of ottur.) So it's a visual pun as well as an anagram.
I heartily recommend the first three Black Widower anthologies. (There are five - the last two have rather weak stories, in my opinion, but the early ones are fun.)
Tales of the Black Widowers
More Tales of the Black Widowers
Casebook of the Black Widowers
Banquets of the Black Widowers
Puzzles of the Black Widowers
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