The Benny Cooperman Mysteries Volume One: The Suicide Murders, The Ransom Game, and Murder on Location

· Open Road Media
Ebook
975
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

The first three mysteries in a beloved and acclaimed series featuring “one of the most enjoyable private eyes in crime fiction” (The Toronto Star).
 
Benny Cooperman is a Canadian Jewish detective with flair, kinder and gentler than the average PI, and squeamish about violence. According to the New York Times: “In Benny Cooperman, the author has leavened the hard-boiled school of detective fiction with comedy and compassion. . . . Canada’s first and foremost private eye is well on his way to becoming a cherished national institution.” Donald E. Westlake adds: “Benny Cooperman is . . . a lot of fun to hang out with.” Collected here are the first three mysteries in the series by Howard Engel, “a born writer, a natural stylist . . . a writer who can bring a character to life in a few lines” (Ruth Rendell).
 
The Suicide Murders: Myrna Yates shows up at Benny’s office asking him to check up on her husband, who she believes is having an affair. It seems like an open-and-shut case, until Benny finds out that the straying spouse has committed suicide. Still, something doesn’t add up: Chester Yates bought a ten-speed bicycle only two hours before he allegedly killed himself. The detective just may have a murder case on his hands, one in which the suspicions of a wife turn out to be much darker than anyone could have imagined.
 
The Ransom Game: It’s February and Ontario is frozen—along with Benny’s private investigation business. That is, until Muriel Falkirk knocks on his door. Her boyfriend, Johnny Rosa, is missing. A decade earlier, Rosa had been involved in the kidnapping of an heiress. He was sent to prison and the ransom money was never recovered. Now Rosa’s out on parole, but he’s nowhere to be found—and it turns out Benny isn’t the only one on his trail.
 
Murder on Location: Niagara Falls is crawling with Hollywood types who are making a movie. But Benny isn’t scouting for talent; he’s investigating the case of a woman named Billie Mason who’s gone missing from Benny’s hometown of Grantham, Ontario. Has she merely been bitten by the acting bug, or is a much more sinister force at play?

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.
 

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.