With East Of Suez, Howard Engel has created another wonderful story featuring the self-deprecating and intelligent Benny Cooperman. We can't help but admire Benny as he muddles through his days, vainly trying to remember the name for the local three-wheeled taxis, while gradually chipping away at the mystery that surrounds the disappearance of his client's husband. The sounds, sights, and smells of Murinam's capital city Takot come to life vividly on the page as he wanders its streets, sampling the food and chatting to any and everyone who might help him crack the case.

All of the characters Benny meets, from the pretty marine biologist, the Catholic priest running the orphanage, and the writer who specializes in travel books for the Kosher trade interested in exotic locales, are potential players in his little drama and wonderful colour for the reader. Of course any one of them could also be a cold blooded killer, and as the bodies start to pile up Benny has to hope that he can read his own writing quickly enough to prevent himself from joining the body count.

Don't come to the pages of a Benny Cooperman novel looking for a hard drinking, hard talking guy packing heat. The only heat Benny might carry would be pocket warmers for a stakeout in the middle of a cold Ontario winter. Of course in East Of Suez he won't need to worry about his hands getting cold from the chill of winter - in fact he might just start finding it a little too hot for comfort.

East Of Suez by Howard Engel goes on sale May 8th 2008 and can be purchased either directly from Penguin Canada or another online retailer like Indigo Books.