Set in the tumultuous year of 1968 in southern Virginia, a racially-charged murder case sets a duo of white and Black lawyers against a deeply unfair system as they work to defend their wrongfully-accused Black defendants in this courtroom drama from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci. 

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.

Review:

Impactful, atmospheric, and hauntingly realistic!

A Calamity of Souls is a fast-paced, sinister tale that takes you into the life of small-town white attorney Jack Lee as he suddenly finds himself partnering with the well-known, indomitable Black lawyer Desiree DuBose on the case of his life when he agrees to defend Jerome Washington, a local Black man who, after being found near the bodies of an influential white couple, is automatically presumed guilty.

The prose is gritty and descriptive. The characters are vulnerable, raw, and impulsive. And the plot is an immersive, absorbing tale of life, loss, poverty, familial drama, friendship, courage, morality, loyalty, community, self-preservation, bigotry, racial injustice, violence, and murder.

Overall, A Calamity of Souls is a sincere, ominous, pensive tale by Baldacci that not only highlights the ugliness and weakness of group mentality and the ease with which it allows one to behave with ignorance, intolerance, and even participate in the most unforgivable of crimes, but also reminds us that kindness and compassion is the base of humanity that should ultimately always transcend skin colour and socioeconomic status.

This book is available now.

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