Jack Lee is a white lawyer from Freeman County, Virginia, who has never done anything to push back against racism, until he decides to represent Jerome Washington, a Black man charged with brutally killing an elderly and wealthy white couple. Doubting his decision, Lee fears that his legal skills may not be enough to prevail in a case where the odds are already stacked against both him and his client. And he quickly finds himself out of his depth when he realizes that what is at stake is far greater than the outcome of a murder trial.
Desiree DuBose is a Black lawyer from Chicago who has devoted her life to furthering the causes of justice and equality for everyone. She comes to Freeman County and enters a fractious and unwieldy partnership with Lee in a legal battle against the best prosecutor in the Commonwealth. Yet DuBose is also aware that powerful outside forces are at work to blunt the victories achieved by the Civil Rights era.
Lee and DuBose could not be more dissimilar. On their own, neither one can stop the prosecution's deliberate march towards a guilty verdict and the electric chair. But together, the pair fight for what once seemed impossible: a chance for a fair trial and true justice.
Over a decade in the writing, A Calamity of Souls breathes richly imagined and detailed life into a bygone era, taking the reader through a world that will seem both foreign and familiar.
Jack Lee is a white lawyer from Freeman County, Virginia, who has never done anything to push back against racism, until he decides to represent Jerome Washington, a Black man charged with brutally killing an elderly and wealthy white couple. Doubting his decision, Lee fears that his legal skills may not be enough to prevail in a case where the odds are already stacked against both him and his client. And he quickly finds himself out of his depth when he realizes that what is at stake is far greater than the outcome of a murder trial.
Desiree DuBose is a Black lawyer from Chicago who has devoted her life to furthering the causes of justice and equality for everyone. She comes to Freeman County and enters a fractious and unwieldy partnership with Lee in a legal battle against the best prosecutor in the Commonwealth. Yet DuBose is also aware that powerful outside forces are at work to blunt the victories achieved by the Civil Rights era.
Lee and DuBose could not be more dissimilar. On their own, neither one can stop the prosecution's deliberate march towards a guilty verdict and the electric chair. But together, the pair fight for what once seemed impossible: a chance for a fair trial and true justice.
Over a decade in the writing, A Calamity of Souls breathes richly imagined and detailed life into a bygone era, taking the reader through a world that will seem both foreign and familiar.
Reviews-
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November 1, 2023
Best seller Baldacci (Simply Lies) tries something new here, a thriller set in the 1960s in his hometown of Richmond, VA, during desegregation. The plot is being kept under wraps, but the publisher suggests that the story will attract a new readership while still offering fans a fast-paced ride. With a 1 million-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.
Copyright 2023 Library Journal
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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February 19, 2024
Bestseller Baldacci’s stirring latest (after Simply Lies) finds Black Vietnam veteran Jerome Washington on trial in 1968 Virginia for murdering Leslie and Anne Randolph, his married white employers and two of the most prominent citizens in fiercely segregated Freeman County. After washing the Randolphs’ Buick, Jerome entered their house to get his weekly pay, only to find their bloody corpses on the floor. He tried to “help them out,” he says, by moving them off the ground, but just as he was propping Anne up into a chair, the police arrived and placed him under arrest. Certain of his innocence, Jerome’s grandmother-in-law reaches out to Jack Lee, a local white criminal defense lawyer, who agrees to take the racially charged case despite his lack of experience with murder trials. Feeling immediately out of his depth, Jack teams up with Desiree DuBose, a Black attorney at the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund; together, they work to save Jerome from the electric chair. Baldacci generates satisfying tension from Jack and Desiree’s clashing personalities, and his real-life experiences both as an attorney and as a child in 1960s Virginia lend the proceedings an air of uncommon authenticity. This ranks among the author’s best. Agent: Aaron Priest, Aaron M. Priest Literary. -
March 15, 2024
It's easy to forget that best-selling Baldacci was a practicing attorney before he turned to writing fiction. His experience as a trial lawyer comes in handy here; his presentation of the wrangling between lawyers and judges feels entirely realistic. So does the setting, Virginia in the late 1960s, a time and place the author knows intimately, having grown up in Richmond then, witnessing the racism that permeates the novel. This is a gripping story about a Black man accused of murdering two white people, whose attorney, a white man, teams up with a Black lawyer to fight for his client's life. Readers will care about some characters and despise others. The language, attitudes, and beliefs may offend some readers, but Baldacci is striving for historical accuracy, and he certainly seems to have achieved it. Yes, there's a message here, but it's nothing so simple as "racism is bad." Instead, this is a nuanced portrait of a time and place, brought to vivid life by a writer at the top of his game.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Ever-popular Baldacci at his best will have his legions of readers flocking.COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Powerful, enlightening, and entertaining are some of the superlatives that might come to mind as listeners are transported to the world of trial attorney Jack Lee in Virginia in 1968--brought to life by a uniformly outstanding cast. Narrator MacLeod Andrews uses accent, tone, and pace to masterfully portray Lee and the other white male characters. Lee partners with attorney Desiree DuBose, skillfully voiced by Sisi Aisha Johnson, who also performs the other female African American characters. Cary Hite does an outstanding job portraying the male African American characters, while Kiiri Sandy expertly voices the white female characters. In his author's note, Baldacci shares the autobiographical elements of this story and its current relevance. E.Q. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
