"The Cooperman Variations by Howard Engel is the 12th book in the Benny Cooperman mystery series. Benny Cooperman is a private eye in Grantham, Ontario, next to Niagara Falls. At the start of this story, Benny is in a bit of the doldrums. His favorite restaurant has been closed down and he's in between cases. His girlfriend Anna is in Italy and traveling with a man she's met.
Suddenly into this boring life arrives Stella Moss, an old high school mate, one who ever man in school lusted over. She is now Vanessa Moss and head of programming for a major TV network, NTC, headquartered up the road in Toronto. Someone has killed a friend of Vanessa's in Vanessa's home. The question is whether the target was Vanessa and the killer had mistaken her friend for Vanessa or whether the friend was the target. Vanessa hires Benny to be her body guard (employing him as an executive assistant).
Benny heads to Toronto and finds himself in the midst of network intrigue, with every director after Vanessa's job and trying to help the police and at the same time to fight them off. Other people die and Benny tries to tie them together or find a reason. He finds his attraction to Vanessa growing. He travels to the Muskoka region to check out her alibi and the people in cottage company.
The story is somewhat convoluted but holds your attention. Benny is an entertaining character, an excellent private eye, with strong analytical skills and great intuition. The story is very down-to-earth and written with excellent humour. I've always enjoyed the Benny Cooperman stories I've read. Engel is a great writer who makes it entertaining and fun to sit down with Benny at a café and have a chopped egg and white bread sandwich. Still a few to go for me in this series so I'm happy to be able to look forward to them. (3.5 stars)"
Now on to my remaining 2020 Reading Challenges. I'll let you know what they are and the first book in each challenge.
1. 1st Book in a Series.
Of course, this, like all of my challenges, is self-explanatory. I've got a large number of series on my book shelves that I've yet to start. So one of my challenges will be to make a start to as many series as I can.
"There were six of them. Professional men and their waiter. They gather at the Milano Restaurant once a month for good food and good conversation. But lately the Black Widowers have added a new entertainment to their meetings. They have begun to solve mysteries, murders, and conspiracies of seemingly impossible dimensions.
With all the skills of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot combined, these six men and their ever-faithful waiter, Henry, take on challenging cases that will tease your deductive skills to the limit and keep you guessing to the very end.
Contents:
* The Acquisitive Chuckle
* Ph as in Phony
* Truth to Tell
* Go, Little Book!
* Early Sunday Morning
* The Obvious Factor
* The Pointing Finger
* Miss What?
* The Lullaby of Broadway
* Yankee Doodle Went to Town
* The Curious Omission
* Out of Sight"
2. Next in Series.
I've got a large number of series on the go as well. So while I've got challenges to finish some series and another to make a first start on a series, in this one I'll try to at least continue a number of series I've been neglecting.
"Charlotte Kramer, America’s first female president, is beginning her second term and is determined to make her mark on history although events do seem to be conspiring against her. Melanie Kingston, her best friend, just signed on as secretary of defense. Will their relationship survive? Dale Smith is the senior communications advisor to the vice president and knows a secret that could not only ruin her own career but put the credibility of the White House on the line. Tara Meyers is the most popular vice president in recent history, but does her public image match her private life?
When a classified terror threat is made public, all the weaknesses of this presidency are laid bare—and with the country’s safety at stake, someone in the White House isn’t taking any chances."
3. Anything But A Series.
This challenge cover everything but series books; non - fiction, fiction, etc.
"For centuries, the small English village of Dunstonholme has been the scene of mysterious tragedies. Local lore traces these strange events back to the year 1300, when a sect of Christian heretics known as the Children of Paul were involved in a bloody massacre. Since that time, there have been railway disasters, mining accidents, shipwrecks, and other terrible happenings. Now a wave of suspicious deaths has the locals on edge and looking for explanations. Dr. Tom Allen and adventurer J. Moldon Mott think they know what is behind the killings: an ancient evil, dating back seven hundred years, lies hidden underground—and it is preparing to emerge to the surface..."
Monthly Challenge
Each month I will focus on either a specific genre or a specific author. For January I'm going to try and read books by Canadian authors (CanCon). I'll let you know about each other month's challenge at the beginning of that month. That'll give me flexibility to change if I wish. :0)
a. Mordecai Richler - Barney's Version.
"Barney Panofsky smokes too many cigars, drinks too much whiskey, and is obsessed with two things: the Montreal Canadiens hockey team and his ex-wife Miriam. An acquaintance from his youthful years in Paris, Terry McIver, is about to publish his autobiography. In its pages he accuses Barney of an assortment of sins, including murder. It's time, Barney decides, to present the world with his own version of events. Barney's Version is his memoir, a rambling, digressive rant, full of revisions and factual errors (corrected in footnotes written by his son) and enough insults for everyone, particularly vegetarians and Quebec separatists.
But Barney does get around to telling his life story, a desperately funny but sad series of bungled relationships. His first wife, an artist and poet, commits suicide and becomes--à la Sylvia Plath--a feminist icon, and Barney is widely reviled for goading her toward death, if not actually murdering her. He marries the second Mrs. Panofsky, whom he calls a "Jewish-Canadian Princess," as an antidote to the first; it turns out to be a horrible mistake. The third, "Miriam, my heart's desire," is quite possibly his soul mate, but Barney botches this one, too. It's painful to watch him ruin everything, and even more painful to bear witness to his deteriorating memory. The mystery at the heart of Barney's story--did he or did he not kill his friend Boogie?--provides enough forward momentum to propel the reader through endless digressions, all three wives, and every one of Barney's nearly heartbreaking episodes of forgetfulness. Barney's Version, winner of Canada's 1997 Giller Prize, is Richler's 10th novel, and a dense, energetic, and ultimately poignant read."
One last thing to say to everybody.....
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