Customer Reviews

Murder at the ABA: A puzzle in four days and sixty scenes

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Asimov was such a prolific and varied writer that it's not difficult for committed readers to treat him almost as a personal friend. As well as literally hundreds of science fiction novels and stories, he wrote articles and books on almost every subject from physics and evolution to biblical commentaries, and occasionally, just occasionally, would insert himself into the thick of things. Which means that there are two types of reader who will approach Murder at the ABA in two entirely different ways. Those who have not reached that oneness with Asimov will probably read it, and reach the end in bewilderment. At least, that's what one has to assume from the generally negative reaction ABA received.

But those of us who worship at the Cult of Asimov will treat it differently. For this is a tremendously odd, readable, and funny work, and while the in-jokes may be lost on Asimov novices (they were on me), the book's other strands of humour, from the depiction of the victim (right down to the sexual fetishes) to the author himself, make this a hilarious and enjoyable read.

Murder at the ABA concerns an entirely fictional (honest) author, Darius Just, who attends a convention of the American Booksellers Association, only to find a colleague dead in his hotel room. Police and the hotel believe the death was accidental, but Just suspects otherwise, investigating the events that lead up to the death and finally catching the culprit.

Whether this is a book for the devoted detective novel reader is open to question, and it may be Asimov but is certainly isn't science fiction. It is, however fun, light, satire and damned readable with it.

A confession: I am probably one of the few general readers of my generation who until now had not read a book by the prolific Isaac Asimov. When I found MURDER AT THE ABA referenced in an article on metafiction, I figured now was the time. I am not sorry.

Asimov was commissioned to write this confection to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the American Booksellers Association (ABA). For its mercenary origins, it is inspired and original, though an experienced mystery buff may find it by the numbers. It had me chasing the red herrings. It is told in the urbanely sophisticated voice of Darius Just, a writer of literary fiction that is apparently more critically than commercially acclaimed. He becomes the amateur Sherlock Holmes when he finds his former protégé, now a bestselling writer of questionable quality books, dead while both are attending the 1975 ABA convention. Another writer friend, one Isaac Asimov, encourages Just because, coincidentally, he has been commissioned to write a book by the ABA and the detective story would fit the bill. Enter the metafiction part providing another level of comic invention.

Is this 30 year-old book dated? Of course it is but on small points. Characters make critical calls on rotary phones. Some of the plot points are archaic in light of the fact that had cell phones been present, things would have happened differently. The comic, lightly sexual banter between men and women is of an erstwhile sophisticated variety. Freud comes to bear upon the character of the victim. The new and burgeoning feminist movement is referenced with fondness. A character tells a joke that would be changed to a "blonde" genre in this era.

I have read many books by the esteemed Dr. A, and this is certainly one of the weakest of them all. A none too surprising tour of a book & authors convention with workaday characters presumably based on real people (but who cares). The only lively character is Asimov himself, who is portrayed as lecherous, gluttonous and overbearing, tho still lovable. 90% of the interrogation by the amateur sleuth is dull and irrelevant and serves only as parsley to cover up the (miniscule) actual clues. But even here, the clues are introduced as clumsily as in his Lucky Starr on Mars, where out of nowhere a character flashes what turns out to be the murder weapon. Asimov wrote much better mysteries in ^A Whiff of Death^ and especially ^The Caves of Steel^, not to mention some of his superlative science fiction. Skip this one.

Asimov has decried the mysteries of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes as being unfair to the reader. If you pay attention, Conan Doyle rarely presents vital clues before Holmes has a chance to solve the mystery, making it impossible for the reader to beat him to the punch. Here Asimov has written a mystery after the Agatha Christie style whereby necessary clues are provided, albeit disguised, throughout the story, making for a much more satisfying experience for the mystery buff.

As a mystery it's an "above average" tale, but most readers may well read this piece of Asimoviana more for the insight into Asimov and his world of writers and publishers and bookseller's conventions - most especially since he has inserted himself into the story. Inpired by the book, "Murder at Frankfurt", and though the story itself is fictitious, it is set at the real-life 1975 convention of the American Bookseller's Association held in New York that year. The protagonist Darius Just is loosely based on Asimov's friend and inestimable SF writer in his own right, Harlan Ellison.

Frankly, the greater mystery, and the one of greater interest to Asimov buffs such as myself, is unravelling the truth from the fiction with regards to the events of the convention and to the character of Harlan Ellison and, if you're familiar with the people and events of the 1975 ABA convention, others who were present. (It's quite entertaining to cross-reference the events in the book with Asimov's autobiography "In Joy Still Felt".) Though Asimov goes to great pains to fictionalise every character in the book, it is nevertheless quite obvious that many characteristics of Just and others are actually based in fact.

For conventional mystery buffs, the book is good. For fans of Harlan Ellision, the book provides entertaining insights. For devotees of Asimov's life who may have been born too late to meet him or attend his conventions, the book is invaluable.

Terrible book. No wonder it's hard to find. There's no reason to keep it in print.

The narration of a crime/mystery scenario was not among Asimov's strongest virtues. I haven't come across another Asimov novel with the same theme, so I'm certain that Asimov realized his limitations in this particular field.