There Was an Old Woman

Howard Engel

Aug 2015 · The Benny Cooperman Mysteries Book 8 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

A Canadian detective looks into a wealthy lady’s mysterious demise in “an entertaining read” (Library Journal).
 
Thanks to a noisy toilet, Benny Cooperman is pulled into a new case—when he learns that his janitor’s elderly girlfriend has died of hunger—despite having plenty of money. The question is why she couldn’t get access to it, and Benny will find himself investigating a lot of unsavory characters to find out, in a novel by an Arthur Ellis Award winner “who can bring a character to life in a few lines” (Ruth Rendell).
 
“Benny Cooperman, the low-key Grantham, Ontario, private eye who has as little success shushing his Jewish mother as getting Kogan, the janitor of his building, to fix the leaky hall toilet, agrees to a trade: If Kogan will deal with the plumbing, Benny will plumb the death of his pal Lizzy Oldridge, who died of starvation . . . Benny’s a charmer.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
“Benny Cooperman is one of the most enjoyable private eyes in crime fiction.” —The Toronto Star
 
There Was an Old Woman is the eighth book in the Benny Cooperman Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
 

About the author

Howard Engel (1931–2019) was born in St. Catharines, Ontario. He was a producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation before emerging as a prolific, award-winning, and much-loved mystery writer, best known for the Benny Cooperman detective novels. After suffering a stroke, Engel developed alexia sine agraphia in 2000, a condition that prevented him from reading without great effort. This, however, did not inhibit his ability to write, and he later penned a memoir about the experience and his recovery called The Man Who Forgot How to Read. Engel was a founder of Crime Writers of Canada, and in 2014, he was the recipient of the organization’s first Grand Master Award. He passed away in 2019 at the age of eighty-eight.