Benjamin Appel (September 13, 1907 – April 3, 1977), was an American novelist specializing in detective and crime fiction, sometimes from a radical perspective.

Appel was born in New York City to Louis Appel and Bessie (née Mikofsky) and grew up in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. It was this experience that he drew upon when writing his novels.^[1] He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and New York University, from 1925 to 1927, taking a B.S. from Lafayette College in 1929.^[2] Before he began earning a living from his writing, he was a bank clerk, farmer, lumberjack, factory-hand and a housing inspector for New York City. Appel married Sophie Marshak in 1936; they had three daughters.^[3]

He lived most of his life in Roosevelt, New Jersey, and died there in 1977.^[4][5]

Maxim Lieber was Appel's literary agent in 1933 and 1935.