The Cooperman Variations

Engel, Howard

ISBN 10: 0140297448 / ISBN 13: 9780140297447

Published by Penguin Books, Toronto, 2001

About this Item

first edition, first priniting, trade paperback format, mystery featuring detective Benny Cooperman, fine copy, appears unread, signed by the author on the title page, not remaindered, not price-clipped, not ex-libris.

Seller Inventory # 003293

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Cooperman Variations
• Publisher: Penguin Books, Toronto
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140297448
• ISBN 13: 9780140297447
• Binding: Trade Paperback
• Edition: First
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Mysteries

About this title

Synopsis

Benny Cooperman's favourite lunch counter and diner have closed down and the fittings have been sold to Americans. The nation mourns the accidental death of its greatest artist, cellist Dermot Keogh. It's April and there's already a heat wave. Things are just not the way they used to be.

Alas, not just the plots and settings have changed in Howard Engel's 10th Benny Cooperman mystery. While Canada's favourite fictional detective is still his smart-alecky but unsophisticated self ("Dim Sum may be unknown in Grantham, Mr. Cooperman, but we in Toronto have had it for nearly forty years"), his talents seem washed out, if not washed up, in this nasty little mystery set in the high-tech, high-pressure world of a Toronto TV station far up the road from his native Grantham.

Robyn Gillam adds, "All the stock figures are here - the former high school love goddess who calls at the detective's office wondering if she's in the path of a killer, the small-town lawyer, the slobbish cops, and the heavies in dark glasses. What's missing are the gritty small-town ambience and naked class antagonisms that drive best hard-boiled detective fiction, including Engel's early novels. Burdened with the bland homogeneity of the contemporary city and with convoluted literary references, the tale becomes progressively less gripping. In fact Cooperman hasn't been himself since 1990's 'Dead and Buried,' when his creator first fell for the suits and the happy ending. The warning of his first sentence--"I should have seen the writing on the wall"--should have been a message to readers as well."

About the Author

HOWARD ENGEL is the creator of the enduring and beloved detective Benny Cooperman, who, through his appearance in 12 bestselling novels, has become an internationally recognized fictional sleuth. Two of Engel s novels have been adapted for TV movies, and his books have been translated into several languages. He is the winner of numerous awards, including the 2005 Writers Trust of Canada Matt Cohen Award, the 1990 Harbourfront Festival Prize for Canadian Literature and an Arthur Ellis Award for crime fiction. Howard Engel lives in Toronto.