Howard Engel CM

Order of Canada

The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

 (born April 2, 1931) is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 mystery

Mystery fiction

Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...

 writer and CBC

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...

 producer who resides in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

. He is well known to Canadian readers for his series of Benny Cooperman detective novels, set in the Niagara Region

Regional Municipality of Niagara, Ontario

The Regional Municipality of Niagara , also known as the Niagara Region, or, colloquially, "Regional Niagara", is a regional municipality comprising twelve municipalities of Southern Ontario, Canada....

 in and around the city of Grantham, Ontario (which strongly resembles the real city of St. Catharines

St. Catharines, Ontario

St. Catharines is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in Ontario, Canada, with 97.11 square kilometres of land...

, Ontario, where Engel was born). Engel is a founder of Crime Writers of Canada

Crime Writers of Canada

Crime Writers of Canada is a national organization for Canadian crime writers, founded by Howard Engel.-Arthur Ellis Awards:Its annual awards are the Arthur Ellis Awards. The award statue itself is wooden model of a hanging man. The arms and legs move when the statue's string is pulled.The award is...

.

From 1962 to 1978 he was married to Marian Engel

Marian Engel

Marian Engel, OC, née Marian Ruth Passmore was an award-winning Canadian novelist.-Summary:Born May 24, 1933 in Toronto, Ontario, to teacher parents Frederick Searle and Mary Elizabeth Passmore...

, a noted Canadian writer of literary fiction who died in 1985. They had two children, twins Charlotte and William, born in 1965. Charlotte currently is with Bravo Canada, and William works for Reels 4 Realty. Engel subsequently married Canadian novelist Janet Hamilton. The couple have one son, Jacob Engel, born in 1989.

In 2000, Engel suffered a stroke

Stroke

A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...

 that left him with alexia

Alexia (disorder)

Alexia occurs when damage to the brain causes a patient to lose the ability to read...

 sine (Latin for without) agraphia, a condition which prevents him from being able to read written words without a major effort, while retaining his ability to write. 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, is largely based on personal experience. 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, and another novel, "East of Suez", in 2008.

In February 2007, Engel was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada

Order of Canada

The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

, receiving it at the 100th investiture.

Novels

• The Suicide Murders (1980), ISBN 0-7720-1304-7
• 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
• 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
• Murder in Montparnasse (1992), ISBN 0-670-84068-8
• There Was an Old Woman (1993), ISBN 0-670-85259-7
• Getting Away With Murder (1995), ISBN 0-670-86078-6
• Mr. Doyle and Dr. Bell (1997), ISBN 0-670-87755-7
• A Child's Christmas in Scarborough (1997), ISBN 1-55013-922-3
• My Brother's Keeper (2001), ISBN 1-55278-327-8 (with Eric Wright
  Eric Wright (writer)
  Eric Wright is a professor and Canadian writer of mystery novels.Wright was born on Kennington Park Road, in South London, England. He is the son of seamstress Caroline , and carter Joseph Wright. Wright was born to a large poor family of ten children...
  
  )
• The Cooperman Variations (2001), ISBN 0-14-029744-8
• Memory Book (2005), ISBN 0-14-301665-2
• East of Suez (2008)

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 987-0-00-200714-6

Anthologies

• Criminal Shorts: Mysteries by Canadian Crime Writers (1992), ISBN 0-7715-9160-8 (ed. with Eric Wright)