When Springfield federal Judge Michael Ponsor semi-retired after three decades on the bench, he started to enjoy two privileges of part time work: He could choose the type of cases he wanted, and he had a lot more time for his other professional passion, fiction writing.
A few years ago, his first legal thriller — "The Hanging Judge" — reached the New York Times bestseller list. His second — "The One-Eyed Judge" — features the same main character, Judge David Norcross, who Ponsor insists is only loosely based on himself.
"Judge Norcross is far less experienced than I am," Ponsor said in our recent interview. "In some ways, he's a nicer, sort of more ingenuous person."
In the latest installment of our summer fiction series, Ponsor told us he wanted to do more than just tell a gripping story.