Professor from Norwalk publishes new mystery novel

NORWALK — For his day job as an education professor at Arizona State University, Norwalk native Craig Mertler writes academic books with titles such as "Interpreting Standardized Test Scores: Strategies for Data-Driven Instructional Decision Making." But Mertler also loves fiction. His new mystery novel, "Jetport TNT," features illegal dog fighting, sex trafficking, money laundering, and other unsavory subjects far removed from Mertler's academic interests. "Jetport TNT" is available as a paperback and ebook at Amazon.com, and like Mertler's two previous novels, is set in Florida, where the professor used to live. And like the other two books, it features a retired police detective, Luis Tanner, who apparently has trouble staying away from crime fighting. Mertler, a 1980 graduate of Norwalk High School, began his career as a high school biology teacher and eventually became an education professor, working at Bowling Green State University and in Georgia and Florida before taking his Arizona State job in 2015. Although he's apparently had little trouble staying busy, Mertler has written or co-authored about 30 academic books on education subjects, penned chapters for other books and published papers and journal articles — he also wanted to write fiction for general readers. All of his novels are self-published. Mertler has published his academic tomes using prominent publishers but discovered that breaking into fiction is difficult, despite contacting about 250 literary agents. His first novel, "Tequesta University," featured Luis Tanner and a college professor, Cameron McClellan, who had Mertler's initials and some of Mertler's biographical details. "I sort of felt I had to write about something I knew about," said Mertler. His second book featured a more fictionalized McClellan and the third book focuses on Tanner and other completely fictional characters. Florida is a rich setting for crime novels, Mertler said. The new novel is set in a real coastal village where smugglers used to dump bales of marijuana in the ocean that were picked up by local fishermen. Mertler still has relatives in Ohio and returns here periodically to see them. His mother lives in Mansfield and his sister and brother-in-law live in Vermilion.