East of Suez

by Howard Engel

The setting is a fictional country, Murinam, which has the feel and look of a former French colony. Benny Cooperman, still recovering from the head injury that impaired his short-term memory, is persuaded to investigate the death of an old schoolmate, Jake Grange. Grange, a family man, ran a scuba diving business before he was, it seems, murdered; his widow wants Benny to find out what happened and recover important documents. Benny’s cognitive difficulties have made his own world alien to him, but, ironically, he’s willing to broaden his horizons by travelling to countries where he can’t read the signs. Benny is now a true cosmopolitan—equally out of place everywhere. Intrigue and suspense amid the denizens of Murinam make this a memorable case for Benny Cooperman.

Book 12 in the Benny Cooperman Mystery series.

• ISBN10: 014317973X
• ISBN13: 9780143179733
• Publish Date: 1 May 2010 (first published 6 May 2008)
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Penguin Books Canada
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Lianne]

I won a paperback copy of this novel courtesy of the GoodReads First Reads programme. This review in its entirety was originally posted at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2014/06/24/review-east-of-suez/

I was pretty thrilled to learn that the author is Canadian and that Benny is based in Canada. However, the mystery of this novel is set in a tropical location out east, where Benny is in search for the truth behind Jake Grange’s disappearance and what caused him to disappear. The people he encounters are pretty eccentric, but underneath their facades the reader is left wondering what role they may have played on Jake Grange’s fortunes. One critic hailed the Benny Cooperman as a “soft-boiled detective” and it took me a while to realise what they meant; the story on a whole does feel “softer” and lighter than present series out there. Yes, there’s a few close calls/thrilling moments, mention of and presence of murder, but otherwise it’s not grim and hardcore.

What also adds to my interest in the novel is Benny himself. From events in the previous installment of the series, Benny had suffered a very bad accident that left him with impaired memory–not terribly impaired a la full amnesia or heading to Alzheimer’s–but impaired enough that he was planning on retiring from his sleuthing job. So following him as he unravels the mystery was interesting because sometimes the details are hazy for him and he finds himself questioning what he initially heard and what he wrote down; as the reader, you question the details as well.

East of Suez overall was an interesting read with an intriguing cast, a strange setting for a mystery, and an overall great protagonist. The pacing was perhaps a little odd–I found it to be a really slow burn for the first 2/3rds of the novel, picking up in the last third–but overall I enjoyed reading this book.