Part of Series
Canadian P.I. Benny Cooperman takes to the wilderness in this one - Ontario's beautiful Algonquin Provincial Park. He's staying at Petawawa Lodge. Just the basics mind you but the swimming and fishing are great. Benny is keeping an eye on super-successful evangelist Norbert Patten, head of the Ultimate Church. Patten's hiding out as he waits for an American Supreme Court decision on the validity of his church. He's hoping to dodge some bitter enemies at the same time. Patten's return to the locale of his youth triggers some macabre happenings. When the body of Indigenous guide Aeneas DuFond is discovered in a flooded culvert, Benny takes a closer look at some of the lodge visitors - among others, we have the elderly but commanding Maggie McCord and her nasty, no-good son George; Aeneas' schoolteacher brother Hector; illicit lovebirds Des and Delia, and the gorgeous and mysterious Aline Barbour. Join Benny as he finds danger in the wilderness. He does bump into a bear, but that's far from the worst of it.
Author
Howard Engel was a pioneering, award-winning Canadian mystery and non-fiction author. He is famous for his Benny Cooperman private-eye series, set in the Niagara Region of Ontario. He and Eric Wright are two of the authors responsible for founding Crime Writers Of Canada. He had twins Charlotte and William with authoress, Marian Engel. He has a son, Jacob, with his late wife, authoress Janet Hamilton: with whom he co-wrote "Murder In Space". A stroke in 2001 famously caused "alexia sine agraphia". It was a disease that hampered Howard's ability to comprehend written words, even though he could continue to write! He retired in Toronto, where he continued to inspire and mentor future authors and writers of all kinds. Maureen Jennings, creator of the Murdoch novels and still-running television series, is among them. Unfortunately, he died of pneumonia that arose after a stroke. True animal-lovers: Howard's beloved living cat, Kali, is included by their family in his obituary.
