Member of the Order of Canada
Awarded on: 2006-10-05
Invested on: 2007-10-26
Howard Engel has played an instrumental role in the revival of the crime fiction genre in Canadian literature. He broke new ground as the author of the Benny Cooperman mystery series featuring heroes, villains and locations that are unequivocally Canadian. With his tales of a private investigator based in small-town Ontario, he has given readers across the nation and around the world a sense of our stories, our values and our various regional characteristics. As a distinguished visitor at the University of Toronto and a founding member of the Crime Writers of Canada, he has also fostered the development of students and fellow authors.