Point of Order - Paperback

by Michael Ponsor (Author)

The trial for a fifty-year-old murder comes with plenty of danger for one judge, in this explosive legal thriller by the author of The Hanging Judge.

Dominic O'Connell is one of Boston's most prominent businessmen. His rise from poverty to power as a successful contractor is the stuff of local legend. But it may all come to an end after he goes to court--a dying hitman has fingered O'Connell for the long-unsolved murder of a police officer.

The Hon. David S. Norcross reluctantly agrees to preside at the trial as a favor to a colleague. His generosity, unfortunately, draws him into a nightmare. His wife miraculously survives a deadly bombing at Harvard Yard. Then someone sends the judge photos of his infant son, along with an anonymous warning to get off the case . . . or else.

As the trial date approaches, the tension only continues to mount. The FBI believes terrorists are behind the bombing, and one of the suspects is tied to Norcross's past. But what is their motive? Who is after Norcross's family? Is O'Connell guilty? And just how many more people will die before all questions are answered?

Drawing on decades of experience as a trial judge, New York Times-bestselling author Michael Ponsor crafts a gripping third Judge Norcross novel. The result is another page-turning mystery brimming with intrigue, fear, and courage, set in the real-life world of a federal court.

"The courtroom seen from the judge's bench--a legal thriller both entertaining and morally nuanced, filled with telling insider details." --Joseph Kanon

Praise for the Judge Norcross Novels

"A story that grips the reader even as it teaches some fine points of criminal procedure." --The Washington Post on The Hanging Judge

"There are plenty of surprises to keep readers turning pages. Ponsor gives readers a unique look into the workings of a courtroom. . . . Ponsor's debut would make a great movie." --Kirkus Reviews(starred review) on The Hanging Judge

"Ponsor brings his rare combination of experience on the bench and flair for storytelling to a timely topic." --Joseph J. Ellis, National Book Award-winning author of The Quartet on The One-Eyed Judge

Author Biography

Michael Ponsor graduated from Harvard, received a Rhodes Scholarship, and studied for two years at Pembroke College, Oxford. After taking his law degree from Yale and clerking in federal court in Boston, he began his legal career, specializing in criminal defense. He moved to Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1978, where he practiced as a trial attorney in his own firm until his appointment in 1984 as a US magistrate judge in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed him a life-tenured US district judge. From 2000 to 2001, he presided over a five-month death penalty trial, the first in Massachusetts in over fifty years. Judge Ponsor continues to serve as a senior US district judge in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Western Division, with responsibility for federal criminal and civil cases in the four counties of western Massachusetts. The Hanging Judge is his first novel.