Howard Engel

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Howard Engel (born April 2, 1931) is a Canadian mystery writer and CBC producer who resides in Toronto, Ontario. He is well known to Canadian readers for his series of Benny Cooperman detective novels, set in the Niagara Region in and around the fictitious city of Grantham, Ontario (which strongly resembles the real city of St. Catharines, Ontario, where Engel was born). Engel is a founder of Crime Writers of Canada.^[1]

From 1962 to 1978 he was married to Marian Engel, a noted Canadian writer of literary fiction who died in 1985. They had 2 children, twins William and Charlotte, born in 1965. Engel subsequently married Canadian novelist Janet Hamilton. The couple have one son, Jacob Engel, born in 1989.

In 2000, Engel suffered a stroke that left him with alexia sine (Latin for without) agraphia, a condition which prevents him from being able to read written words without a major effort, while retaining his ability to write. His most recent novel, Memory Book (2005), in which his character Benny Cooperman suffers a blow to the head and is similarly affected, is largely based on personal experience.

In February 2007, Engel was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.

1 Bibliography
2 Notes

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Novels

The Suicide Murders (1980), ISBN 0-7720-1304-7
The Ransom Game (1981), ISBN 0-7720-1364-0
Murder on Location (1982), ISBN 0-7720-1384-5
Murder Sees the Light (1984), ISBN 0-670-80304-9
A City Called July (1986), ISBN 0-670-81268-4
A Victim Must Be Found (1988), ISBN 0-670-82298-1
Dead and Buried (1990), ISBN 0-670-83116-6
Murder in Montparnasse (1992), ISBN 0-670-84068-8
There Was an Old Woman (1993), ISBN 0-670-85259-7
Getting Away With Murder (1995), ISBN 0-670-86078-6
Mr. Doyle and Dr. Bell (1997), ISBN 0-670-87755-7
My Brother's Keeper (2001), ISBN 1-55278-327-8 (with Eric Wright)
The Cooperman Variations (2001), ISBN 0-14-029744-8
Memory Book (2005), ISBN 0-14-301665-2

[edit] Non-fiction

Lord High Executioner: An Unashamed Look at Hangmen, Headsmen, and Their Kind (1996), ISBN 1-55013-704-2
A Child's Christmas in Scarborough (1997), ISBN 1-55013-922-3
Crimes of Passion: An Unblinking Look at Murderous Love (2001), ISBN 1-55263-355-1