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Benny Cooperman #10
The Cooperman Variations
Benny Cooperman's favourite lunch counter and diner have closed down and the fittings have been sold to Americans. The nation mourns the accidental death of its greatest artist, cellist Dermot Keogh. And it's April and there's already a heat wave.
Things are just not the way they used to be.
Alas, not just the plots and settings have changed in Howard Engel's 10th Benny Cooperman mystery. While Canada's favourite fictional detective is still his smart-alecky but unsophisticated self, "Dim Sum may be unknown in Grantham, Mr. Cooperman, but we in Toronto have had it for nearly forty years", his talents seem washed out if not washed up.
This one's a nasty little mystery set in the high-tech, high-pressure world of a Toronto TV station far up the road from his native Grantham.
Robyn Gillam of York University adds, "All the stock figures are here - the former high school love goddess who calls at the detective's office wondering if she's in the path of a killer, the small-town lawyer, the slobbish cops, and the heavies in dark glasses. What's missing are the gritty small-town ambience and naked class antagonisms that drive best hard-boiled detective fiction, including Engel's early novels. Burdened with the bland homogeneity of the contemporary city and with convoluted literary references, the tale becomes progressively less gripping. In fact Cooperman hasn't been himself since 1990's Dead and Buried, when his creator first fell for the suits and the happy ending. The warning of his first sentence--"I should have seen the writing on the wall"--should have been a message to readers as well."
Librarian's note: characters, settings, etc. have been completed for the series of 12 novels and 2 novellas: #1. The Suicide Murders (1980), #2. The Ransom Game (1981), #3. Murder On Location (1982), #4. Murder Sees The Light (1984), #5. A City Called July (1986), #6. A Victim Must Be Found (1988), #7. Dead And Buried (1990), #7A. The Whole Megillah (1991) (a novella), #8. There Was An Old Woman (1993), #9. Getting Away With Murder (1995), #10. The Cooperman Variations (2001), #10A. My Brother's Keeper (2001) with co-author Eric Wright (a novella), #11. Memory Book (2005), and #12, East Of Suez (2008). A thirteenth, Over the River, was scheduled for 2018 but never came out.
Things are just not the way they used to be.
Alas, not just the plots and settings have changed in Howard Engel's 10th Benny Cooperman mystery. While Canada's favourite fictional detective is still his smart-alecky but unsophisticated self, "Dim Sum may be unknown in Grantham, Mr. Cooperman, but we in Toronto have had it for nearly forty years", his talents seem washed out if not washed up.
This one's a nasty little mystery set in the high-tech, high-pressure world of a Toronto TV station far up the road from his native Grantham.
Robyn Gillam of York University adds, "All the stock figures are here - the former high school love goddess who calls at the detective's office wondering if she's in the path of a killer, the small-town lawyer, the slobbish cops, and the heavies in dark glasses. What's missing are the gritty small-town ambience and naked class antagonisms that drive best hard-boiled detective fiction, including Engel's early novels. Burdened with the bland homogeneity of the contemporary city and with convoluted literary references, the tale becomes progressively less gripping. In fact Cooperman hasn't been himself since 1990's Dead and Buried, when his creator first fell for the suits and the happy ending. The warning of his first sentence--"I should have seen the writing on the wall"--should have been a message to readers as well."
Librarian's note: characters, settings, etc. have been completed for the series of 12 novels and 2 novellas: #1. The Suicide Murders (1980), #2. The Ransom Game (1981), #3. Murder On Location (1982), #4. Murder Sees The Light (1984), #5. A City Called July (1986), #6. A Victim Must Be Found (1988), #7. Dead And Buried (1990), #7A. The Whole Megillah (1991) (a novella), #8. There Was An Old Woman (1993), #9. Getting Away With Murder (1995), #10. The Cooperman Variations (2001), #10A. My Brother's Keeper (2001) with co-author Eric Wright (a novella), #11. Memory Book (2005), and #12, East Of Suez (2008). A thirteenth, Over the River, was scheduled for 2018 but never came out.
- GenresMystery
280 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2001
2 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Howard Engel
32 books29 followersHoward Engel was a pioneering, award-winning Canadian mystery and non-fiction author. He is famous for his Benny Cooperman private-eye series, set in the Niagara Region of Ontario.
He and Eric Wright are two of the authors responsible for founding Crime Writers Of Canada. He had twins Charlotte and William with authoress, Marian Engel. He has a son, Jacob, with his late wife, authoress Janet Hamilton: with whom he co-wrote "Murder In Space".
A stroke in 2001 famously caused "alexia sine agraphia". It was a disease that hampered Howard's ability to comprehend written words, even though he could continue to write! He retired in Toronto, where he continued to inspire and mentor future authors and writers of all kinds. Maureen Jennings, creator of the Murdoch novels and still-running television series, is among them.
Unfortunately, he died of pneumonia that arose after a stroke. True animal-lovers: Howard's beloved living cat, Kali, is included by their family in his obituary.
He and Eric Wright are two of the authors responsible for founding Crime Writers Of Canada. He had twins Charlotte and William with authoress, Marian Engel. He has a son, Jacob, with his late wife, authoress Janet Hamilton: with whom he co-wrote "Murder In Space".
A stroke in 2001 famously caused "alexia sine agraphia". It was a disease that hampered Howard's ability to comprehend written words, even though he could continue to write! He retired in Toronto, where he continued to inspire and mentor future authors and writers of all kinds. Maureen Jennings, creator of the Murdoch novels and still-running television series, is among them.
Unfortunately, he died of pneumonia that arose after a stroke. True animal-lovers: Howard's beloved living cat, Kali, is included by their family in his obituary.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 17, 2025
4 Stars. I so enjoy Benny Cooperman, Canada's favourite, home-grown private investigator. He starts-off bored in this one. For him, nothing is happening in Grantham (St. Catharines, Ontario, down the Q.E.W. from Niagara Falls). And then things go from depressing to next-to-tragic; both the United Cigar Store and Diana Sweets, "The Di," close down. They're Benny's go-to places for his sandwich du jour, chopped egg. But the sun begins to shine when a long-ago heart throb, Stella Seco, shows up at his office wanting to hire him. He knew her from high school where she was every teenage boy's dream. She now goes by Vanessa Moss and heads the entertainment division of a TV network in Toronto, a thinly disguised Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Vanessa fears for her life. She needs a body guard. Apparently someone murdered a friend staying at Vanessa's home mistaking her for Vanessa. You'll be rocked by the intrigue and jealousies at the network; politics isn't only for politicians. The story continues near Bracebridge in Muskoka cottage country where the mercurial Vanessa does her best to demonstrate that she has a seductive side. (Se2024/Oc2025)
December 31, 2019
The Cooperman Variations by Howard Engel is the 12th book in the Benny Cooperman mystery series. Benny Cooperman is a private eye in Grantham, Ontario, next to Niagara Falls. At the start of this story, Benny is in a bit of the doldrums. His favorite restaurant has been closed down and he's in between cases. His girlfriend Anna is in Italy and traveling with a man she's met.
Suddenly into this boring life arrives Stella Moss, an old high school mate, one who ever man in school lusted over. She is now Vanessa Moss and head of programming for a major TV network, NTC, headquartered up the road in Toronto. Someone has killed a friend of Vanessa's in Vanessa's home. The question is whether the target was Vanessa and the killer had mistaken her friend for Vanessa or whether the friend was the target. Vanessa hires Benny to be her body guard (employing him as an executive assistant).
Benny heads to Toronto and finds himself in the midst of network intrigue, with every director after Vanessa's job and trying to help the police and at the same time to fight them off. Other people die and Benny tries to tie them together or find a reason. He finds his attraction to Vanessa growing. He travels to the Muskoka region to check out her alibi and the people in cottage company.
The story is somewhat convoluted but holds your attention. Benny is an entertaining character, an excellent private eye, with strong analytical skills and great intuition. The story is very down-to-earth and written with excellent humour. I've always enjoyed the Benny Cooperman stories I've read. Engel is a great writer who makes it entertaining and fun to sit down with Benny at a café and have a chopped egg and white bread sandwich. Still a few to go for me in this series so I'm happy to be able to look forward to them. (3.5 stars)
Suddenly into this boring life arrives Stella Moss, an old high school mate, one who ever man in school lusted over. She is now Vanessa Moss and head of programming for a major TV network, NTC, headquartered up the road in Toronto. Someone has killed a friend of Vanessa's in Vanessa's home. The question is whether the target was Vanessa and the killer had mistaken her friend for Vanessa or whether the friend was the target. Vanessa hires Benny to be her body guard (employing him as an executive assistant).
Benny heads to Toronto and finds himself in the midst of network intrigue, with every director after Vanessa's job and trying to help the police and at the same time to fight them off. Other people die and Benny tries to tie them together or find a reason. He finds his attraction to Vanessa growing. He travels to the Muskoka region to check out her alibi and the people in cottage company.
The story is somewhat convoluted but holds your attention. Benny is an entertaining character, an excellent private eye, with strong analytical skills and great intuition. The story is very down-to-earth and written with excellent humour. I've always enjoyed the Benny Cooperman stories I've read. Engel is a great writer who makes it entertaining and fun to sit down with Benny at a café and have a chopped egg and white bread sandwich. Still a few to go for me in this series so I'm happy to be able to look forward to them. (3.5 stars)
November 18, 2020
I think this makes it ten books by this author I have now read and enjoyed. Benny Cooperman, PI, takes a trip to Toronto for the protection of a female media executive he knew earlier in his school days. This woman allows a friend to move into her place to shelter from a man but her friend is shot to death when she goes to the door. The assumption is that someone meant to kill her and she needs Benny to figure out who and why. There are some pretty devious characters Benny has to deal with and finds himself in the crosshairs.
It had been a long time since I read one of these books and it saddened me to realize there would be no others as Engel died last year.
Library Loan
It had been a long time since I read one of these books and it saddened me to realize there would be no others as Engel died last year.
Library Loan
February 22, 2021
I first heard of Howard Engel from a Toronto-based doctor who was giving us a lecture at the old Welland Club. He was making conversation after dinner and mentioned Howard Engel who wrote crime novels based on the City of St. Catharines, but were thinly disguised in the books. Benny Cooperman, a private investigator starred in most of the books from the town of "Grantham". I have always loved reading the book and following the action through St. Catharines and the Niagara Peninsula. The Cooperman Variations was different as most of the action took place in Toronto and Muskoka. I still appreciated the book as I attended the University of Toronto for four years in my youth. Another probable reason for the name was that one of the murders was an internationally known cellist - not unlike a similar musician Glenn Gould whose favourite piece to play was The Goldberg Variations. Benny is hired by a classmate at the Grantham Collegiate Institute (aka St. Catharines Collegiate) to protect her after a friend is murdered in her house when she was away. A real page turner as one murder becomes four by the end of the book. What's the name of this site, Goodreads? Agreed.
January 9, 2010
This author has clearly not heard of the economy of characters principle. I understand that in a mystery novel, a certain number of characters are needed to avoid an obvious ending, but WOW. It seemed like there were new characters introduced constantly, and the vast majority of them did not contribute to the story whatsoever. Furthermore, I didn't care about a single one of them, including the detective and the hateful woman who hired him. All 62,873 characters in this book were boring or despicable.
Read
March 31, 2014Hmmm. Loved the Toronto setting. Nice tale, interesting characters. Easy read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews