On this page

This page lists novels and non-fiction by Howard Engel.

Cover images are, when possible, of the first edition and a recent paperback or digital edition.

By Howard Engel:
- novels
- non-fiction

Edited by Howard Engel:
- anthologies

The Suicide Murders

Howard Engel

1980

A Benny Cooperman novel.

"She was cool, attractive - a real society lady - and she was in trouble. Benny Cooperman, a private eye with a hard head and a tender heart, was ready to help her in any way he could. But when her husband commits suicide the day Benny begins his investigation, the detective realizes he's dealing with something beyond a simple 'family affair.' Probing into the curious circumstances surrounding the death, Benny finds himself in the midst of a strange group indeed - one that involves a mysterious psychiatrist, shady eminent citizens, and soon a few more suicides - or murders."

The Ransom Game

Howard Engel

1981

A Benny Cooperman novel.

"Benny Cooperman is slowly going crazy. It's winter in Grantham, Ontario, and he has nothing better to do than watch the frost creeping in under his door. Nothing, that is, until blue-eyed, long-legged Muriel Falkirk enters his office because her boyfriend, the notorious Johnny Rosa, has gone missing. It's been ten years since Johnny pulled off a sensational kidnapping, and he's served his time. But now he's skipped parole - or been murdered - and Muriel wants to know where he is. But a lot of other people do, too, most of them interested in the unrecovered half-million-dollar ransom."

Murder on Location

Howard Engel

1982

A Benny Cooperman novel.

"Hollywood elite have gathered at Niagara Falls to make an epic thriller, Ice Bridge. When Benny wanders onto the set, he isn't looking for a part. He's tracing a woman missing from Granthan, his home and usual beat. Has she been hit with a lust for stardom? Or is her lust something more conventional - and a lot more dangerous?"

Murder Sees the Light

Howard Engel

1984

A Benny Cooperman novel.

"Canadian P.I. Benny Cooperman takes to the woods in this one - Algonquin National Park, where he's staying at primitive Petawawa Lodge and keeping an eye on super-successful evangelist Norbert Patten, head of the Ultimate Church. Patten's hiding out as he waits for a Supreme Court verdict on the validity of his church, hoping to dodge some bitter enemies at the same time. His return to the locale of his youth seems to trigger some macabre happenings. When the body of stoic Indian guide Aeneas DuFond is discovered in a culvert, Benny takes a closer look at some of the lodge's visitors - among others, we have commanding Maggie McCord and her nasty, no-good son George; Aeneas' schoolteacher brother Hector; illicit lovebirds Des and Delia and gorgeous, mysterious Aline Barbour."

A City Called July

Howard Engel

1986

A Benny Cooperman novel.

"When Rabbi Meltzer and the President of Grantham’s synagogue knock on Benny’s office door, they aren’t looking to sell raffle tickets. Of that much, he’s sure. They need his help in tracking down a missing lawyer who has disappeared with the life savings of half of the Jewish community. Benny knows he’ll never see a dime out of it, but what can you do? It’s summer in the city—and it’s going to be a hot one."

A Victim Must Be Found

Howard Engel

1988

A Benny Cooperman novel.

"Benny Cooperman, Grantham's soft-boiled private eye, finds himself mixed up in the art world. More out of water a fish can't get. After all, Benny only heard of Picasso last year, and now he's hot on the trail of some missing paintings by Wallace Lamb - a trail that leads him to some of Grantham's illustrious elite who buy, trade, and sometimes steal pictures. As this private eye soon learns, art can lead to murder - Benny's own client is found dead and the shoes peeking under the curtains at the scene of the crime belong to Benny!"

Dead and Buried

Howard Engel

1990

A Benny Cooperman novel.

"In his latest case, Benny Cooperman is sure that toxic waste isn't something you should spend too much time thinking about - it just isn't good for your mental health. But when Jack Dowden's widow appeals to Benny to investigate the death of her truck-driving husband, our favorite gumshoe finds himself up to his egg salad-stained lapels in the deadly filth of Kinross Disposals. As he unearths clues - and PCBs - the body count rises, and Benny Cooperman does everything he can not to end up dead and buried."

the Whole Megillah

Howard Engel

1991

A privately published, limited edition Benny Cooperman novella.

"Benny Cooperman was expecting his time in Toronto to be spent watering plants, feeding gerbils and sampling the local sandwich shops, but a house-sitting gig for his brother soon leads to another case for the endearing private detective. A dealer in rare books asks Benny to investigate the theft of a rare Jewish manuscript from his home. But before Benny can make any sense of the obsessive world of antique book collectors, his client turns up dead and the robbery isn’t at all what it seems."

Murder in Montparnasse: A Mystery of Literary Paris

Howard Engel

1992

"Michael Ward is a journalist newly arrived to the Left Bank. When he falls in with Jason Waddington, an expatriate American writer who introduces him to the cafe scene and his crowd of writers and artists, Ward soon discovers that Jack de Paris is not the only trouble afoot in the City of Light. Rumor has it that Waddington has written a damaging roman a clef about his friends, and tempers are rising even as fear of the killer grips the city. When the body of Laure Duclos is found, it seems their circle has finally been touched by Jack. But Ward has his doubts and begins to wonder whether Laure was truly Jack de Paris's latest victim, or if someone else was using the serial killer as a convenient cover to protect themselves."

There Was an Old Woman

Howard Engel

1993

A Benny Cooperman novel.

"Benny Cooperman, the working-stiff private eye, is back, this time trying to sort out the kerfuffle surrounding the plumbing, a dead old woman, and a crooked politician. It all starts with a noisy toilet. Benny's janitor, Kogan, is too preoccupied with the death of his girlfriend, Lizzy Oldridge, an elderly woman who appears to have starved to death. Lizzy may have died hungry, but she had plenty of money, and somehow former alderman and mayoralty candidate Thurleigh Ramsden, an unsavoury character if there ever was one, has gained control of it. As Benny gets enmeshed in the case the body count increases alarmingly - but what’s happened with the plumbing?"

Getting Away With Murder

Howard Engel

1995

A Benny Cooperman novel.

"In his most baffling case yet, Benny Cooperman is snug in his bed in quiet Grantham, a town near Niagara Falls, when three unsavory thugs drag him out of bed and present him like a trophy to notorious crime boss, Abram Wise, 'the biggest crook in North America who's never been to prison.' Someone has made two attempts on the gangster's life and he wants Benny to investigate. An expert in offers you can't refuse, Wise convinces a reluctant Benny to take the case."

Mr. Doyle and Dr. Bell

Howard Engel

1997

"The year is 1879 and in Edinburgh, Alan Lambert has been tried, convicted, and sentenced to hang for the murder of a dazzling opera star and her lover. But Lambert's brother believes he's innocent and pleads with Dr. Bell, a celebrated professor of anatomy, to uncover the truth. Bell agrees and sets out to crack the case with his keen powers of deduction and the help of his student, Arthur Conan Doyle."

A Child's Christmas in Scarborough

Howard Engel

1997

"Howard Engel has written the perfect parody of a present day Christmas in the suburbs. In his irreverant yet delightfully nostalgic style, Howard Engel tells a story of family, laughter and love. Engel's ear for the rhythm of Thomas' original book combined with his hilarious accounts of uncles, aunts and cousins stuffed into an overcrowded living room, draining the punch bowl and scavenging for presents, brilliantly captures the comic and nostalgic moments of the season."

My Brothers Keeper

Howard Engel & Eric Wright

2002

A Benny Cooperman and Charlie Salter novel.

"This short, engaging mystery brings together two of the great crime solvers of Canadian literature: Howard Engel's somewhat bumbling private investigator, Benny Cooperman, and Eric Wright's smooth, retiring police detective, Charlie Salter. When Dr. John Davidson Horner, the chief of staff at Toronto's Rose of Sharon Hospital, disappears, Benny Cooperman is brought into the case by his brother Sam, a surgeon at the hospital, who feels he might be implicated in a yet-to-be-published memoir Horner has written that exposes the sins of a number of staff."

The Cooperman Variations

Howard Engel

2001

A Benny Cooperman novel.

"Vanessa Moss, a former high school beauty who has grown up to become Head of Entertainment at a television network, asks Benny to protect her. A friend was murdered while at her house, and Vanessa fears she was the target. So Benny travels from Grantham to the National Television Corporation headquarters in Toronto. There, Benny poses unconvincingly as Vanessa's executive assistant amidst a tangle of competing executives, back-biting lawyers, arrogant producers, and hopeful hangers-on surrounding Vanessa, ready to ingratiate or unseat. But do they want to kill her? When another NTC employee is murdered, Benny wonders whether Dermot Keogh, the world famous cellist who died recently in a diving accident, may not also be a victim of foul play. As Benny tries to protect his client, gives the local cops a hand and avoids making enemies of his new colleagues, he quickly discovers that taking care of Vanessa Moss is a seductive but risky business."

Memory Book

Howard Engel

2005

A Benny Cooperman novel.

"Recovering in a Toronto hospital from a serious blow to the head, private investigator Benny Cooperman struggles with memory loss and a condition that has rendered him able to write but unable to read, a circumstance that compromises his ability to remember his attacker and the case he was on the brink of solving."

East of Suez

Howard Engel

2008

A Benny Cooperman novel.

"Beloved private eye Benny Cooperman is ready to hang up his gumshoes after an attack leaves him with lingering memory problems. But then an old chum goes missing… Hot on the trail of Jake Grange, a schoolfriend who ran a scuba diving business, Benny heads to Murinam, an exotic place with the feel and look of a former French colony. There, Benny encounters a bon-vivant priest, a pretty marine biologist, and an eccentric Englishman in search of kosher food. Of course any of these charming locals could be responsible for Jake's disappearance. But when dead bodies start to appear under the sunny tropical skies, Benny knows he must be getting somewhere."

City of Fallen Angels

Howard Engel

2014

"It's 1940. Canadian journalist Mike Ward, fresh off assignments in Paris, London, Moscow, and Berlin, thinks he's seen it all: the rise of charismatic dictators, the fall of governments, political intrigues too bizarre to believe. Yet despite his tenure in fascist Europe, nothing could have prepared him for his latest posting: Hollywood, where the glitz and glamour of the silver screen mingles with the grit and grime of the criminal underworld. Ward's latest assignment, to cover the "suicide" of a studio executive, is bound to drag him deeper into the shadows of America's bright lights. Set during a time of upheaval in the capital of cinema, and populated by a who's who of colourful historical personalities from both the film and criminal worlds, City of Fallen Angels is a classic period whodunit with a Canadian twist."

Over The River

Howard Engel

2016

A Benny Cooperman novel.

"Struggling with the aftermath of a serious concussion as well as what he describes as a “leaky memory”, Benny Cooperman is back after eight years. He’s hired on a shoestring budget to find background information on a murder victim, Leonard Holbrook, a petty crook and blackmailer, who certainly got what was coming to him — but which of the many possible suspects acted on their very good reasons? Over the river happens to be across the border, where the police of Grantham have no jurisdiction, but where Benny can interview a cast of characters who wouldn’t be out of place in the mysteries of Chandler and Hammett."

Lord High Executioner: An Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen, and Their Kind

Howard Engel

1996

"In Lord High Executioner, Howard Engel produces a wonderfully wise and witty social history of the men and women who represent our agents of death, and who have done our dirty work over the centuries."

Crimes of Passion: An Unblinking Look at Murderous Love

Howard Engel

2001

"The very term "crimes of passion" evokes deep-seated, atavistic responses in everyone's heart. These are the crimes that are born in the emotional core of women and men who are pushed to do the unthinkable. There are never - well, hardly ever - any of the crass considerations of financial gain, no taint of reward; only release. These crimes are direct responses to betrayal, to broken hearts and injured pride. Jealousy, envy and the rest of the seven deadly sins enter through this door, and, like as not, end on the scaffold - except in France, however, where le crime passionnel has most often been treated as an irrational response to the sudden betrayal of a loved and trusted partner, but rarely treated in the courts as common murder. Celebrated crime archivist and writer Howard Engel leads us on a journey through the murky passages of bewildering betrayal and rage too passionate for the subtle legal mind. He explores such infamous cases as Maria Manning, Edith Thompson, Ruth Ellis, Lord Broughton, Dr. Crippin and O.J. Simpson. Their love, lovers, loss and lingering malice combine in this emotional volume, sure to thrill any crime fan or historian."

The Man Who Forgot How to Read

Howard Engel

HarperCollins

2007

"One morning, prolific and bestselling crime novelist Howard Engel awoke to discover he had lost the ability to read. He had experienced a stroke that left him with the rare condition known as alexia sine agraphia - he could write, but as soon as he committed his thoughts to the page, he no longer knew what they were. Other effects of the stroke emerged over time, but none were as dramatic and devastating as this one for a man who made his living working with words. The Man Who Forgot How to Read is the warm, insightful and fascinating story of Engel’s fight to overcome a condition that threatened to end his career. Engel’s remarkable triumph over his affliction - he was finally able to write again and produced another bestselling Benny Cooperman detective novel, Memory Book - will inspire his fans and fascinate anyone interested in the mysteries of the human brain."

Criminal Shorts: Mysteries By Canadian Crime Writers

Editor: Eric Wright and Howard Engel

1992

The contents are:

• The Grand Plan (Jas R Petrin)
• Custom Killing (Howard Engel)
• The Greenhouse Dogs (James Powell)
• Horse Show (Edward O. Phillips)
• Something for Everyone (Anthony Hyde)
• Beach Sights (Bruce Blackadar)
• The Dastardly Dilemma of the Vicious Vaudevillain (Charlotte MacLeod)
• Not Safe After Dark (Peter Robinson)
• Snapshot (Jack Batten)
• What happened to Baby Roo (Tim Wynne-Jones)
• Murder at Angels One Niner (Ted Wood)
• The Debt (Alberto Manguel)
• Licensed Guide (Eric Wright)
• Wade in the Balance (William Bankier)
• Whistling past the Graveyard (Peter Sellers)
• The Mouse in the Mattress (Medora Sale)