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Poor Benny. The last of his hangouts in Grantham (St. Catherines) Ontario has closed without warning and its fittings shipped across the border to the United States to furnish a trendy retro bistro. Benny himself is beginning to think about relocating when the goddess of his high school, Vanessa (then Stella) Moss, now a TV network producer, hires him to come to Toronto as her bodyguard. A woman staying at her house has been gunned down in her doorway, perhaps in a case of mistaken identity. Benny agrees and is plunged into the brittle, high-stakes world of network broadcasting. In this tenth mystery starring Benny, the unaggressive private investigator turns his small- town eye on the power struggles and pretensions of Canada's media centre to unravel the complex (and not altogether coherent) plot that involves the deaths of a rather alarming number of prominent people. I should say that I am very fond of Benny. Who can resist an ageless, if middle-aged, Jewish private detective with a weakness for chopped egg sandwiches and a healthy respect for his momma and poppa? Howard Engel has been doing this sort of thing for a long time and doing it well. Purists will object to the fundamental incoherences in the narrative and to the rather old-fashioned plot devices, including a confession scene, but taken in the spirit in which they are offered, all may be forgiven. Benny's description of his trip to that quintessential Canadian institution, cottage country, is worth the price of admission. Howard Engel spent a long time a a producer at the CBC and his insider's look carries conviction. His faux-naif hero with a wicked sense of humour is the perfect vehicle to convey the absurdities of the networks. Note: This review is based on the Canadian paperback  published by Penguin Canada and released on February 1, 2002 $9.99 CDN
Reviewed by Yvonne Klein, September 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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