Dead and Buried

By Howard Engel

Benny Cooperman is sure that toxic waste isn’t something you should spend too much time thinking about—it just isn’t good for your mental health. But when Jack Dowden’s widow appeals to Benny to investigate the death of her truck-driving husband, Canada’s favourite gumshoe finds himself up to his egg-salad-stained lapels in the deadly filth of Kinross Disposals. As he unearths clues—and PCBs—the body count begins to rise, and Benny does his best not to end up ... Dead and Buried.

Book 7 in the Benny Cooperman Mystery series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: May 6, 2008
• ISBN: 9780143179795

Howard Engel

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.

Reviews for Dead and Buried

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Who else but a Canadian could write a mystery starring Benny Cooperman, small town private investigator who drives a beat up car and whose favourite meal is a chopped egg sandwich? In this outing Benny is hired by the widow of a man killed while working for a waste disposal company. The death was considered an accident by the coroner but the widow is sure her husband was killed, especially since she keeps getting money from the company every time she asks questions. Benny is apprehensive about taking the case because he was once punched in the nose by the man who owns the waste disposal company. When he learns that his assailant is no longer working at the company but instead for the parent company he feels a little better and starts to investigate. Soon he is learning more than he cares to know about PCBs and dioxin and other toxic waste. He also stumbles across a dead body and almost gets taken for a boat ride with no return. (He is saved from that fate by two friends of his parents who come along in the parking lot of the seafood restaurant where he was taken. See what I mean about the Canadianness?) Benny solves the case, of course, but the perpetrator can't be prosecuted.I like these Benny Cooperman mysteries but this isn't the best one that I've read. It moved along pretty slowly until the final few chapters. As well, Engel was using the book as a soapbox about toxic waste and I felt he overdid it a little. There are lots of issues about toxic waste but I find it hard to believe companies are putting barrels of the stuff under the floral clock in Niagara Falls.Nevertheless, it's a nice light read for a summer's day and I hope the person who finds the book enjoys it.