Guest Blog--Murder on Location by Howard Engel

While visiting my sister in the Seattle area, we stopped at a local bookstore to browse. A stranger approached me and recommended that I read local writer Earl Emerson. Emerson is a Seattle firefighter who writes mysteries. Emerson turned out to write some of the best mysteries I had read in quite awhile. While living in Virginia, I picked up Laura Lippman and began reading mysteries located in Baltimore. Now that I am spending some time in Toronto, it seemed only natural to look for a local author.

At the small library attached to our lodging, I found Howard Engel. Engel has written a series of mysteries featuring a private detective named Benny Cooperman. The one I picked off the shelf has a copyright date of 1982. It was written when electric typewriters were used to make script changes instead of a laptop. In Murder on Location, Benny goes looking for a missing wife and ends up in Niagara Falls where organized crime has become involved in movie making. Organized Crime is almost enough for me to close any mystery book, but I hung in there and enjoyed Benny’s efforts as he followed the clues to the solution of a crime rooted in local history – not too distant history.

Before I recommend that anyone start reading the handful of books by Engel, I think I will try another of his novels. There were so many characters in the book that I sometimes had a hard time keeping track of them. Added to that, a filmography was attached to each of the characters who was an actor in the story. I did sort out all of them by the end of the book and was very impressed with Cooperman’s ability as a detective.

I’ll let you know if Engel’s later books mature along with Cooperman.

In a side note, I learned that an ice bridge forms across Niagara Falls from the Canadian to the American side during severe winters. Without Howard Engel, I never would have known this fascinating fact.