Murder Sees the Light

Benny Cooperman #4

by Howard Engel

Benny Cooperman is camped out at the Petawawa fishing lodge watching over a famous televangelist who has gone into hiding while waiting for a court decision. It seems like a simple assignment—that is, until the lifeless body of missing Indian guide Aeneas DuFond is found. Suddenly Cooperman is reeled into yet another deadly mystery, and everyone at the lodge becomes a suspect.
 
Cooperman’s a detective with flair. Kinder and gentler than your average PI—and ironically squeamish about violence—he’s the creation of author Howard Engel, a master of the crime genre whose enthusiastic fans include Ruth Rendell, Donald E. Westlake, Julian Symons, and Tony Hillerman. Engel’s readership spans 13 countries, including Japan, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, the United States, and his native Canada.
 

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Canada, Fiction

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 1985

About the author

Howard 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.

Reviews

[Jack Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars. This takes me back to my teenage years and 20s in central Ontario. Algonquin Provincial Park, Muskoka, Huntsville and Dorset for summer in the outdoors - canoeing, swimming, climbing the rocks, and exploring the woods. Howard Engel's personal experience must have been as enjoyable as mine. The only difference? Benny Cooperman likes to fish and I'd sooner get mine at Loblaws! There's a delightful mystery too. Our P.I. gets hired by a lawyer in Grantham (in reality, St. Catharines), 325 kilometres to the south near Niagara Falls, to keep an eye on Norbert Patten, the charismatic head of the Ultimate Church. His client has learned that Patten is hiding out near Petawawa Lodge on Big Crummock Lake in the Park awaiting the results of a case before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding his church. His alias? Norrie Edgar. His cottage next door to Benny's lodge is actually owned by a powerful U.S. Senator. Soon the body of a reclusive local guide, Aeneas DuFond, is found submerged in a flooded culvert. Accidental? And then another body shows up in the woods. Benny barely escapes, but this reader was smiling all the way. (Fe2023/Oc2025)

[Craig Sisterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was last in Canada a few years ago I nabbed several local crime novels, including this one (from a secondhand store - the image above is the cover of my book). And recently I plucked it off the shelf to give Howard Engel a try. It's interesting reading a book that was published 35 years ago, with the absence of so much modern technology but still a few decades more modern than the interwar and wartime classics from the likes of Christie, Marsh, Hammett, and Chandler et al.

The fourth in the Cooperman series (14 novels published between 1980 and 2008) sees the private eye heading into the wilderness of Alqonquin Park, a rugged place of interconnecting lakes and waterways more suitable for canoe-driven excursions than multi-day hiking trips. It's a bit of a fish out of water situation for urbanite Cooperman, who has to adjust to his surroundings while trying to keep an eye on the leader of an evangelical church who is in hiding. There's a cast of interesting characters, and Cooperman has to sift through a variety of events and personalities to piece things together.

I spent a couple of days canoeing through Algonquin several years ago, and enjoyed revisiting the Park via Engel's storytelling. It is a special place. There's a nice tone to Engel's writing, and I came away from my first taste of the Cooperman series seeing it as a bit of a softer Canadian take on the classic hardboiled private eye tale, with the added twist of the rural setting in this instalment moving things further from the mean streets. The mean gravel roads, hiking trails, or lake currents, perhaps.

As Engel is reported as saying over the years, he was inspired to write private eye tales by the likes of Chandler and Hammett, but his Benny Cooperman tales were more soft-boiled than hard-boiled.

Cooperman comes across as the sort of thoroughly decent investigator who it would be enjoyable to spend time with over several books. A Jewish Canadian private eye who relies more on his brains than brawn. The story flows smoothly, and Engel has a nice unobtrusive prose style that still has a touch of personality to it. The mystery storyline itself knits together well as things unfold in an enjoyably leisurely (more than fast-paced, page-tearing) way - with some nice cleverness along the journey.

Along with a lovely dose of wit and humour threaded through proceedings.

Overall, I finished my first taste of Howard Engel's Benny Cooperman series with a smile on my face. Like a sunny day on the lake, there was just something lovely and pleasantly enjoyable about it all - even with the murders and dark deeds thrown in. A book and series worth (re)visiting.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I continue to enjoy spending time with Benny Cooperman learning more about his versatility with each very different book. There is no set routine to his PI work. This book gives us Benny the outdoorsman, the fisherman, the swimmer, the chess player, the ladies man, the priest absolving sins of the guilty on stage exit. It's just good fun although he again is nearly taken from us.
He heads into the woods and lodges with a group of characters steeped in hickory smoke.
The clever plotting and descriptions of people and places is intelligent with healthy portions of humour.
His client wanted Benny to pose as a fisherman to keep an eye on a very wealthy evangelist/entrepreneur whose church was being examined by the courts for tax worthiness while he was keeping low profile at a lake retreat. "He was too accustomed to the European hot spots. He was in the park for two reasons. He needed a place to sweat out the decision, and he probably needed to get new papers." In a very short time Benny was playing chess with the big shot after saving his life.
The action gets heavy as murders and murder attempts play out in this remote location. There is a history that ties several people to bad acts years ago, a hidden gold mine, a bear and so much more.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the Cooperman series and this was no exception. Benny's self-deprecating recounting of his adventures only hints at his capabilities. As narrator, Benny doesn't brag and it's by reading between the lines that you see the clues that he sees.
All is revealed at the end, of course.

Along the way, I love Howard Engel's similes in the style of a hard-boiled detective but with a gentle twist. After a harrowing adventure: "I pulled the curtains together where I could find any and addressed myself to sleep. I didn't seal the envelope. I didn't add a return address." At an unexpected visit from a beautiful neighbour: "I had shed my [bathing] trunks and was walking around in a towel sarong...I felt ill-prepared to throw myself into the role of host, since I was only a tuck away from total candour."

Engel writes in a clear, easy style that keeps the story going along at a good pace.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars for me. I enjoyed reading the story of Benny staying at a retreat in the woods and spending time fishing while he keeps an eye on a fugitive. 3/4 of the way through the book, the plot became too complicated for me to follow. The murderers were not brought to justice, and that was a very unsettling way to end the book.
If you are not already a huge fan of Benny Cooperman (which I am), I could not recommend this book. The characters were not as well developed as others in this series and the mystery is disappointing.

[C. (Comment, never msg). · Rating 4 out of 5]

Benny travels from Niagara Falls to a nature setting of vast terrain and interest. This book was Howard’s second to go onscreen. Its movement from place to place suits a film. It only enthralled me gradually but there is always pleasure in spending time with Benny and Howard’s sheer originality. I love the manner in which Benny innocently, impartially, yet accurately parries his quarry’s blunt proselytizing of religion! One must never speak to a decent person as if they were “on a doomed path” merely because it isn't your path.

Dunking a camera was obviously a ploy to eliminate a group photo but a superfluous subplot, compared to the history branches that emerge. All other motives, split into the problems of different characters, stretched too far back into unseen history for readers to guess. I was happy to let Howard tell me this story. Characters were interesting and well-varied. I would say the scope enveloped too many plots. Suggested motives were: Aboriginal discrimination, political smearing, rumours of a secret Algonquin Park mining source, and even instances of cult dabbling. Much was made of an old mill, its past fire, and previous lodge owners.

I don’t mind history that is unknown to readers because we acquaint most of those people in the present day. However the mill and previous lodge owners were foreign links that didn’t fit on the chain. The mill isn’t among our settings and we only see the former owners superficially. Also, Benny’s sharp eye on details pertaining to the lodge’s dock, required quite a leap as a break in any of these cases. There were mishaps and threats but the exciting notes in the novel all derived from sequences on an island. It is events there that were suspenseful and eerily atmospheric; my kind of mystery fodder.

[Mark Lisac · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been meaning to read a Benny Cooperman mystery for more than 20 years. It turns out that all I've been missing is some mild fun. The mystery plot itself feels British; Cooperman's first-person narration is clearly based on Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer and Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe. The story is entertaining enough, give or take a few discoveries that range from the mildly to the wildly improbable — worth 3.5 stars. But I was disappointed by the derivative style. Cooperman is a kinder, gentler version of Archer and Marlowe, and more of an everyman with middle-brow tastes and aptitudes. If Engel meant the pale imitation as an ironic Canadianization of the formula, OK. But it is pale; even the murders and their setting don't carry the dramatic weight instilled by Macdonald and Chandler. May pass as a decently written, genial diversion (better than a number of others) when looking for amusement on an otherwise boring day and not in a demanding mood.

[Bruce Retallack · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Benny Cooperman as a character, and I love the humour that infuses the book from start to finish. As with other Engel books I have read, I found the plot overly Byzantine and reliant on some far-fetched coincidences to develop layers of confusion and conflicted motivations. Otherwise, I would give a higher rating to this thoroughly enjoyable (and only mildly dated) mystery.
Update - I just reread this, and while my rating hasn't changed I was particularly struck by the originality and vividness of Engel's similes and asides. So worth reading for the prose as much as for the story itself.

[Fiona Robinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay story, reasonably well written, but really not up to the standard of murder mystery of Ian Rankin, Elizabeth George or other such writers. A bit of a disappointment. I don't think I'll be going for more of his books. Too many excellent books out there.

[Kwoomac · Rating 1 out of 5]

hated this book. Actually I only read the first 25 pp before I gave up on it, which is rare for me. seemed to be about church and government.

[Ronjoseph50 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Benny Cooperman #4

[Rogue Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was drawn to Engel because of his later work and finding the earlier not as interesting. Setting though is fantastic, really can see the remote regions he writes of

[Madelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the 4th book in the series and I liked it. Good mystery series.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just not for me.