Asimov's Mysteries is a terrific collection of short stories by one of my favorite science fiction writers. The idea, Asimov writes in the preface, was to set a mystery (usually a murder mystery) in a science fiction setting. Keep in mind that nearly all these stories were written in the 1950's when this was rarely, if ever, done. Of course, Asimov, being Asimov, isn't content with simply setting a typical murder mystery on Omicron Ceti III; he makes the science fiction element essential to solving the crime.

With the exception of one throwaway story, a two-page fiction that seems to exist only so Asimov can make a bad pun with the final sentence (he says as much in the story's afterword), the others are superb. My favorite is "Obituary." It's one of the best time-travel stories I've ever read (imagine a time-travel story in which the characters don't actually go anywhere, but other versions of themselves do), with an unforgettable ending.

Asimov's strength was always his ingenious plots and Asimov's Mysteries contains thirteen of the best.