A founding member of Crime Writers of Canada, Engel recognized that while Canada has produced some detective writers, ordinary Canadian locales have never achieved literary prominence. Determined to rectify this oversight, Engel vividly brought to life southern Ontario, setting his work — including The Suicide Murders (1980), The Ransom Game (1981), Murder on Location (1982), Murder Sees the Light (1984), A City Called July (1986), A Victim Must Be Found (1988), Dead and Buried (1990) and There Was an Old Woman (1993) — in fictional Grantham (based on his hometown). Engel’s gumshoe, Benny Cooperman, a Jewish bachelor, is an atypical sleuth, but his self-deprecating humour and timorous personality make him a quintessential Canadian private eye.
Awards
- Best Novel (Murder Sees the Light), Arthur Ellis Award (1985)
- Harbourfront Festival Prize for Canadian Literature (1990)
- Derrick Murdoch Award, Crime Writers of Canada (1998)
- Matt Cohen Award, Writers’ Trust of Canada (2005)
- Member, Order of Canada (2006)
- Lifetime Achievement Award, Jewish Book Awards (2010)
- Grand Master Award, Crime Writers of Canada (2014)
- Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012)