Linda Rocker was practically born into the legal system. Her father was a judge before she followed in his footsteps, and she proudly proclaims herself a “troublemaker,” just like him.
As such, she has some ideas why readers find the courtroom such a fascinating setting for drama — both in fiction and in real life.
“They understand the stakes,” Rocker said in an interview with Toledo Free Press. “For so many people, it is life or death. It is loss of career or opportunity. And too much of it, in my view, remains a sort of profound mystery that is highlighted only when we see incidents such as that that has occurred in Ferguson, and most recently on Staten Island.
“I think the fascination is, it is always drama. Every court case, particularly criminal cases, is like a small opera, playing out on a stage where the parts are kind of preordained, and emotions run deep and high at the same time. And the characters are usually true to form. But as we all — at least at my age — have learned from ‘Perry Mason,’ there are often surprises.”
Rocker experienced many such surprises firsthand during her years as a lawyer and trial judge for Ohio’s Common Pleas bench. But in a way, her passion for writing has brought her career full circle: Her undergraduate degree was in English, so her latest project, a series of legal thrillers focused on a bailiff named Casey Portman, serves as a union of two important parts of Rocker’s life. Three, if you count their setting: West Palm Beach, Florida, where Rocker currently resides.
“It would have been easier for me to set my books in Ohio, because of course I know Ohio law so well and I know our court system so well. But even setting my books here in West Palm, where I’ve had to do a great deal more research about law and the court system, has not dissuaded some of my former colleagues from accusing me of using them as the prototype for some of my characters,” she said with a laugh.
Rocker is also cheerfully upfront about what inspired her to begin pursuing her new career.
“Boredom,” she said. “After I discontinued running for election … I began to sit as what we call in Ohio a ‘visiting judge.’ But that allowed me to hear only a single civil case at a time. And they were usually cases that were sent over by the sitting judges at the court across the street, meaning cases they really had no interest in trying in their courtroom.
“It was just downright boring. There was just too much time sitting in chambers with just not much to do. So I started to use the very nice computer in my chambers as a new weapon in the pursuit of justice.”
That sense of right is woven into the fabric of each story in her trilogy, which began with “Punishment” in 2012. The second book, “Blame,” was published in November.
Each story is based on a case Rocker was involved with.
“I always take a real case as the centerpiece that all the other action kind of revolves and evolves around. So, in ‘Punishment,’ it was a pit bull case that actually transpired in my courtroom. And in ‘Blame,’ it is a case that is actually occurring here in West Palm Beach as we speak.
“The doctor who is the inspiration for the case [in ‘Blame’], lives near me and has become a good friend. I never imagined three and a half years later, his case would not have come to trial. But that is, in fact, true. So in some ways, I’ve cheated myself, because there are more twists and turns to come. But I’ve promised him he’ll at least get part of a chapter in [the forthcoming final book] ‘Innocence.’”
