Howard Engel
Bio
Howard Engel was born in St. Catharines (near Niagara Falls) in 1931. His father (like Benny's father!) ran a women's clothing store. He now makes his home in Toronto.
Howard taught (for a short while) in Sault St. Marie before moving on to the CBC as a writer and reporter. In 1960, he began reporting from various locations in Europe, including Paris, London, Spain and Cyprus. In 1967, he became Executive Producer of Sunday Supplement, The Arts in Review, and Anthology (for the CBC). He was also involved in the Project Series, which is a documentary programme.
He is a founder of The Crime Writers of Canada and acted as chairperson in 1986-87. In 1994 he received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Brock University. A year later, Howard accepted a position as the Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor in Canadian Culture at the University of Toronto; he served in this position for two terms. In 1997, be became a member of the Senior Common Room and was provided with facilities to continue his work.
Through Engel has held a wide range of positions over the years, he is best known to most of us for his Benny Cooperman mystery series. The series revolves around a Jewish private investigator in Grantham, Ontario (alias for St. Catharines). Several of the novels have been turned into television specials.
Howard was awarded the Arthur Ellis Best Novel Award for Murder Sees the Light in 1985 and the Derrick Murdoch Award in 1998 (with Eric Wright). In 1990 he was awarded the Harbourfront Festival Prize for Canadian literature.
Bibliography
Benny Cooperman Mysteries:
My Brother's Keeper (2002, co-written with Eric Wright)
The Cooperman Variations (2001)
The Reading (short story in the Mystery Midrash anthology, 1999)
Getting Away With Murder (1995)
There Was An Old Woman (1993)
Dead and Buried (1990)
A Victim Must Be Found (1988)
A City Called July (1986)
Murder Sees The Light (1984)
Murder On Location (1982)
The Ransom Game (1981)
The Suicide Murders (1980)
Other Works:
Mr. Doyle and Dr. Bell
Crimes of Passion (non-fiction) (2002)
A Child's Christmas in Scarborough (1997)
Lord High Executioner (non-fiction) (1996)
There Was an Old Woman (1993)
Murder in Montparnasse
Murder in Space (As 'F.X. Woolf'; 1985)
Short Stories:
"The Summer Kidnapping Caper" (1984, Murder Sees the Light)
"My Vacation in the Numbers Racket" (1984, Cold Blood)
"The Three Wise Guys" (1989, Mistletoe Mysteries)
"The Whole Megillah" (1992, BookCity)
"The Ant Trap" (1999, Mystery Midrash)
Links
McMaster University: Alumni Profile
Bookreporter: Murder in Montparnasse Review
Thrilling Detective: Benny Cooperman