Mystery and Heroes

Mystery lovers have long enjoyed Oline H. Cogdill’s stylish meanderings at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. But since last July, fans of mysteries and Cogdill can catch her even more frequently at Off the Page, the Sun-Sentinel’s books blog. (“Off the Page”? Get it?)

Is it just me, or are Cogdill’s blog entries even more entertaining than her column? Maybe it’s because of the freedom offered by the blogging form: no word counts to worry about, no column inches to fill up or cut down to; just thoughts about things in which she is genuinely interested--and since at least one of those things is mystery fiction, the gain is all ours.

Her latest entry, for instance, focuses on E.L. Merkel, whose Virgins and Martyrs (Five Star) will be out in April. But what Cogdill most wants to share with us about Merkel concerns the entire genre: “Mystery authors write about heroes,” the headline tells us, then follows up this thought in the piece itself:

If you thought that crime fiction was just about crime, you would be wrong.

Mysteries are about crime AND punishment and the heroes and heroines who in their own way try to find justice and deal with criminals.

It’s a segue to talking about Merkel’s new novel as well as “Merkel’s real-life hero: his son, Jeff.” Cogdill informs us that in “the midst of the recent tragedy at Northern Illinois University, Jeff Merkel emerged as one of the heroes of the day.”

It’s a great story, and Cogdill can tell it in her own way here.