{{Short description|Canadian mystery author and CBC producer (1931–2019)}} {{Infobox writer | name = Howard Engel | image = Howard Engel3.jpg | imagesize = 200px | caption = Engel in 2007 | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1931|4|2|mf=yes}} | birth_place = St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada | death_date = {{death date and age|2019|7|16|1931|4|2}} | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = Writer, producer | years_active = | genre = Mystery and non-fiction | notableworks = ''Benny Cooperman'' series | spouse = {{ubl|{{marriage|Marian Engel|1962|1978|end=div}}|Janet Hamilton}} | children = 3 }}
'''Howard Engel''' CM (April 2, 1931 – July 16, 2019) was a Canadian mystery author and CBC producer who resided in Toronto, Ontario. 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, Ontario, where he was born. He was one of the founding authors of Crime Writers of Canada in 1982.<ref>{{cite news |last=Black |first=Debra |url=https://www.thestar.com/article/184023 |title=Order of Canada recipients |publisher=The Toronto Star |date=2007-02-21 |page=A12| accessdate=2007-02-21}}</ref>
==Personal life== From 1962 to 1978 he was married to Marian Engel,<ref name="Levin">{{Cite news |last=Levin |first=Martin |date=2019-08-02 |title=Pioneering Canadian mystery writer Howard Engel lost the ability to read, but didn't let that stop him |language=en-CA |work=The Globe and Mail |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-pioneering-canadian-mystery-writer-howard-engel-lost-the-ability-to/ |access-date=2022-07-20}}</ref> a noted Canadian author of literary fiction, who died in 1985. They had two children,<ref name="Levin"/> twins Charlotte and William, born in 1965. Charlotte currently is an independent television producer.{{citation needed |date=August 2021}} Engel married Canadian novelist Janet Hamilton.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Howard Engel: Man of mystery |url=https://www.everythingzoomer.com/style/home-garden/2006/01/01/howard-engel-man-of-mystery/ |access-date=2022-07-20 |website=www.everythingzoomer.com |language=en}}</ref>{{when|date=September 2020}} The couple have one son,{{citation needed |date=August 2021}} Jacob Engel, born in 1989.
In 2001, he unknowingly suffered a stroke that left him with alexia sine agraphia, a condition that prevented him from understanding written words without a major effort without affecting his ability to write.<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012b42j 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.{{citation needed |date=August 2021}} 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 (who wrote about Engel's reading problems in the book ''The Mind's Eye''), and another novel, ''East of Suez'', in 2008.<ref name="NPR">{{cite web | url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92875639 | title=Howard Engel: 'The Man Who Forgot How To Read' | publisher=NPR | work=Talk of the Nation | date=July 24, 2008 | accessdate=August 21, 2015 | author=Conan, Neal | authorlink =Neal Conan}}</ref>
In February 2007, Engel was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada,{{citation needed |date=August 2021}} receiving it at the 100th investiture. In 2013, Engel received a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal.<ref name="ENGEL">{{cite web | url=https://www.saultstar.com/news/local-news/crime-writer-engel-started-in-sault | title=Crime writer Engel started in Sault | date=July 26, 2019 | accessdate=August 21, 2015 | author= Kelly, Brian}}</ref> He died in Toronto on July 16, 2019, of pneumonia that arose from a stroke, at the age of 88.<ref name="ENGEL"/>
==Bibliography==
===Benny Cooperman novels=== *''The Suicide Murders'' (1980), {{ISBN|0-7720-1304-7}} (Adapted as an CBC TV movie{{citation needed |date=August 2021}} starring Saul Rubinek) *''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}} (Adapted as a CBC TV movie{{citation needed |date=August 2021}} starring Saul Rubinek) *''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}} *''The Whole Megillah'' (1991) *''There Was An Old Woman'' (1993), {{ISBN|0-670-85259-7}} *''Getting Away With Murder'' (1995), {{ISBN|0-670-86078-6}} *''My Brother's Keeper'' (2001), {{ISBN|1-55278-327-8}} (with Eric Wright{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}) *''The Cooperman Variations'' (2001), {{ISBN|0-14-029744-8}} *''Memory Book'' (2005), {{ISBN|0-14-301665-2}} *''East Of Suez'' (2008), {{ISBN|978-0-14-305333-0}} *''Over the River'' (2018), {{ISBN|9781770864580}}
===Other Novels=== *''Murder In Space'' (1985), {{ISBN|0-140-08370-7}} (FX Woolf was a pen-name for Howard Engels and Janet Hamilton{{citation needed |date=August 2021}}). *''Murder In Montparnasse'' (1992), {{ISBN|0-670-84068-8}} *''Mr. Doyle And Dr. Bell'' (1997), {{ISBN|0-670-87755-7}} *''A Child's Christmas In Scarborough'' (1997), {{ISBN|1-55013-922-3}} »City of Fallen Angels » (2014)
===Non-fiction=== *''Lord High Executioner: An Unashamed Look At Hangmen, Headsmen, And Their Kind'' (1996), {{ISBN|1-55013-704-2}} *''Crimes Of Passion: An Unblinking Look At Murderous Love'' (2001), {{ISBN|1-55263-355-1}} *''The Man Who Forgot How To Read'' (2007), {{ISBN|978-0-00-200714-6}}
===Anthologies=== *''Criminal Shorts: Mysteries By Canadian Crime Writers'' (1992), {{ISBN|0-7715-9160-8}} (ed. with Eric Wright{{citation needed |date=August 2021}})
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{IMDb name|257088}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Engel, Howard}} Category:1931 births Category:2019 deaths Category:20th-century Canadian novelists Category:21st-century Canadian novelists Category:Canadian male novelists Category:Canadian crime fiction writers Category:Canadian mystery writers Category:Canadian male short story writers Category:Harbourfront Festival Prize winners Category:Jewish Canadian novelists Category:McMaster University alumni Category:Members of the Order of Canada Category:20th-century Canadian short story writers Category:21st-century Canadian short story writers Category:People from St. Catharines Category:20th-century Canadian male writers Category:21st-century Canadian male writers Category:Novelists from Ontario