Halsted is host tonight, and he didn't bring a guest for the grilling! He waits for the normal grilling time and puts the entire group to the question, "Who here knows of a murder?" Because the previous crimes were minor inconveniences, not big crimes, Halsted wants to solve the biggest mystery, a murder. One by one, the members admit they don't know of any murder mysteries to appease him. Then Gonzalo mentions his sister's death, an unsolved murder because some drug addict must've come in and tried to rob her. The members try to help him, but the police have already been quite thorough. Even Henry claims to be stumped.
This story has been reprinted twice; Tales of the Black Widowers (1974) and The Return of the Black Widowers (2003).
Examples that woke up late:
- Accidental Murder: Gonzalo asks Henry why Alex may have killed his wife (Gonzalo's sister), and Henry responds that it was probably an accident; an argument that just went a little too far. When it was over, Alex panicked and called Gonzalo to create an alibi for when the neighbors would've heard the murder.
- Adaptation Distillation: In-Universe, Halsted is adapting The Iliad into limericks, one book at a time. The third book goes as follows:Menelaus, though not very mighty,
Was stronger than Paris, the flighty.
Menelaus did well in
The duel over Helen,
But was foiled by divine Aphrodite. - The Alibi: Gonzalo claims that Alex could not have been home during Marge's murder because they were together at nine, when the witnesses say the murder took place.
- Awful Wedded Life: Gonzalo reports that Alex and Marge fought often, and it was after one of those fights that Alex asked if he could visit Gonzalo for awhile.
- Clock Discrepancy: Gonzalo is already awake when a phone call comes at a time that is actually an hour later than he thinks it is (because he hasn't yet set his clock forward for Daylight Savings Time) and thus unwittingly provides a false alibi.
- Doing In the Wizard: The club members aren't willing to let Gonzalo describe any sort of psychic abilities without challenge, and he isn't interested in defending his view.
- The Drifter: Accourding to Gonzalo, Alex isn't very motivated and just goes from small jobs to small jobs, earning and borrowing for day-to-day life.
- Driving Question: Can the club solve a murder mystery?
- Exact Words: Henry would never break the rules of confidentiality the meeting uses, which is "[a]nything said in that room can't be repeated outside", so before giving The Summation, he and Gonzalo find an unused corner outside of the room.
- Fairplay Whodunnit: The clues are all presented during the grilling, and the audience can deduce how the murderer has escaped detection after Henry has admitted failure.
- Fancy Dinner: The Black Widowers meet every month at the Milano, a fancy restaurant in New York City, tonight's dinner is manicotti and trout.
- Featureless Plane of Disembodied Dialogue: Very little of the characters are described, and the room itself has more detail than usual simply to establish that Henry and Gonzalo are not in the room where they have to keep the conversation a secret.
- Framing Device: The Fancy Dinner and grilling provide a location and characters to hear about the murder of Gonzalo's sister.
- Genre Savvy: Halsted's claim that between the seven members, one of them must know of a murder, is rebuked by Rubin, who insists that he's been reading too many mystery stories. Subverted Trope, as Rubin is quite surprised to learn it's a common plot, since he doesn’t read mystery stories.
- He-Man Woman Hater: In this story, it's revealed that members (including guests) cannot be women. It's the only actual rule, the rest being guidelines or traditions.
- Mystery Magnet: Now that the club has been firmly established as a place that solves mysteries, Halsted wants to solve the ultimate crime: a murder mystery.
- Orwellian Retcon: Dr Asimov didn't like the title that the magazine gave this story ("The Biological Clock") because he felt it gave too much away. So he changed it back when editing Tales of the Black Widowers.
- Phone-In Detective: Henry is able to deduce the mystery of Marge's murder merely from having the timing described.
- Previously on…: Halsted recaps the previous four mysteries, dismissing them as uninteresting compared to Murder.
- Puzzle Thriller: Discussed Trope, Halsted wants to solve a murder since there's always a mystery at the meetings now. Rubin, the resident author, explains why mysteries are a type of logic puzzle. (Note that the character describes a Fairplay Whodunnit, which was Dr Asimov's preferred story.)"A proper mystery is as mathematical a puzzle as anything you can prepare and it has to be constructed out of much more intractable material." — Rubin
- Shout-Out:
- Rubin complains that Halsted has been reading too much Agatha Christie, and mentions Miss Marple.
- Avalon quotes from The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, "The moving finger writes".
- The Summation: Henry, at first, admits he cannot solve the mystery. Later, he takes Gonzalo into a different room to reveal how he had been tricked into giving a false alibi.
- Til Murder Do Us Part: Alex kills Marge in a fit of anger, because he doesn't like the person she's trying to turn him into. Panicking, he calls up his brother-in-law to get an alibi for when she died.
- Title Drop:
- The original title, "The Biological Clock", appears when Drake grouses about how he isn't an early riser like Gonzalo.
- The new title, "Early Sunday Morning", appears when Gonzalo is grousing about being an early riser, even on Sundays.
- Twin Telepathy: Gonzalo lays some claim to telepathy and precognition, but isn't willing to defend it against the skeptical club members.
