Howard Engel CM (April 2, 1931 – July 16, 2019) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' *Mystery, a seahorse that SpongeBob SquarePants adopts in the episode " My Pre ...

author and

CBC CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...

producer who resided in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. He was famous for his Benny Cooperman detective series, set in the Niagara Region in and around the city of Grantham, Ontario, mirroring

St. Catharines St. Catharines is the most populous city in Canada's Niagara Region, the eighth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2021, St. Catharines has an area of and 136,803 residents. It lies in Southern Ontario, south of Toronto ac ...

, where he was born. He was one of the founding authors of

Crime Writers of Canada {{primary sources, date=January 2015 Founded in 1982 by mystery reviewers Derrick Murdock and Doug Marshall, editor John Pierce and mystery and thriller authors Tony Aspler, Howard Engel, Tim Heald, and Larry Morse, Crime Writers of Canada (CWC) i ...

in 1982.

Personal life

From 1962 to 1978 he was married to

Marian Engel Marian Ruth Engel (née Passmore; May 24, 1933 – February 16, 1985) was a Canadian novelist and a founding member of the Writers' Union of Canada. Her most famous and controversial novel was ''Bear'' (1976), a tale of erotic love between an ar ...

, a noted Canadian author of literary fiction, who died in 1985. They had two children, twins Charlotte and William, born in 1965. Charlotte currently is an independent television producer. Engel married Canadian novelist Janet Hamilton. The couple have one son, Jacob Engel, born in 1989. In 2001, he unknowingly suffered a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

that left him with alexia sine

agraphia Agraphia is an acquired neurological disorder causing a loss in the ability to communicate through writing, either due to some form of motor dysfunction or an inability to spell. The loss of writing ability may present with other language or neuro ...

, a condition that prevented him from understanding written words without a major effort without affecting his ability to write.The Man Who Forgot How To Read And Other Stories at bbc.co.uk
/ref> He was later able to write a new novel, ''Memory Book'' (2005), in which his character Benny Cooperman suffers a blow to the head and is similarly affected. He later published ''The Man Who Forgot How To Read'' (2007), a memoir of the time he spent recovering from the stroke, with an afterword by

Oliver Sacks Oliver Wolf Sacks (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurology, neurologist, Natural history, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. Born in London, Sacks received his medical degree in 1958 from The Queen's College, Oxford ...

(who wrote about Engel's reading problems in the book '' The Mind's Eye''), and another novel, ''East of Suez'', in 2008. In February 2007, Engel was appointed a

Member of the Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

, receiving it at the 100th investiture. In 2013, Engel received a

Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal () or The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal was a commemorative medal created in 2012 to mark the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession in 1952. There are four versions of the medal: one iss ...

. He died in Toronto on July 16, 2019, of pneumonia that arose from a stroke, at the age of 88.

Bibliography

Benny Cooperman novels

*''The Suicide Murders'' (1980), (Adapted as an

TV movie starring

Saul Rubinek Saul Hersh Rubinek (born July 2, 1948) is a Canadian actor, director, producer, and playwright. He is widely known for his television roles, notably Artie Nielsen on '' Warehouse 13,'' Donny Douglas on '' Frasier'', Lon Cohen on '' A Nero Wolf ...

) *''The Ransom Game'' (1981), *''Murder On Location'' (1982), *''Murder Sees The Light'' (1984), (Adapted as a CBC TV movie starring

) *''A City Called July'' (1986), *''A Victim Must Be Found'' (1988), *''Dead And Buried'' (1990) *''The Whole Megillah'' (1991) *''There Was An Old Woman'' (1993), *''Getting Away With Murder'' (1995), *''My Brother's Keeper'' (2001), (with Eric Wright) *''The Cooperman Variations'' (2001), *''Memory Book'' (2005), *''East Of Suez'' (2008), *''Over the River'' (2018),

Other Novels

*''Murder In Space'' (1985), (FX Woolf was a pen-name for Howard Engels and Janet Hamilton). *''Murder In Montparnasse'' (1992), *''Mr. Doyle And Dr. Bell'' (1997), *''A Child's Christmas In Scarborough'' (1997), »City of Fallen Angels » (2014)

Non-fiction

*''Lord High Executioner: An Unashamed Look At Hangmen, Headsmen, And Their Kind'' (1996), *''Crimes Of Passion: An Unblinking Look At Murderous Love'' (2001), *''The Man Who Forgot How To Read'' (2007),

Anthologies

*''Criminal Shorts: Mysteries By Canadian Crime Writers'' (1992), (ed. with Eric Wright)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Engel, Howard 1931 births 2019 deaths 20th-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists Canadian male novelists Canadian crime fiction writers Canadian mystery writers Canadian male short story writers Harbourfront Festival Prize winners Jewish Canadian writers McMaster University alumni Members of the Order of Canada 20th-century Canadian short story writers 21st-century Canadian short story writers People from St. Catharines 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers Novelists from Ontario