Ten years in the making, A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci may be his magnum opus as he has reached back into the years of his childhood in the 1960s in Richmond, Virginia, to craft this courtroom drama and historical fiction. Available in April, the novel tackles a murder case in which it is purported that an elderly white couple was murdered by their black handyman, Jerome Washington, in fictitious Freeman County, Virginia.
Two lawyers, one white, Jack Lee, and one black, Desiree DuBose, represent Washington in a case where the odds are stacked against the defendant. Lee has no experience representing a person of another race nor has he ever tried a murder case. Reaching out to him is DuBose from Chicago who has devoted her law career to achieving justice for all, fresh off the case of Loving v. Virginia.
Outside the courtroom, the two lawyers are hassled by police and private citizens. Rumors fly that Lee and Dubose are a romantic couple, and in the 1960s environment in the South, the very idea enrages many of the townsfolk. Before the court case reaches its end, someone will be shot at, another will lose a home and office to a disaster, and a harmless, brain-damaged young woman will be brutally attacked without provocation.
Up against Virginia’s Attorney General Edmund Battle for the prosecution, the two defense lawyers face challenge after challenge: an all white, all male jury, a biased judge, and trickery by the prosecution at every turn starting with a signed plea of guilt from Washington, a man who signs his name with an X. The challenges the lawyers face in court and the shocking ending, echo the injustice described in the Pulitzer award-winning To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee published in 1960.
David Baldacci has published 40+ novels for grownups since his
first book Absolute Power in 1996. A
Virginia native, Baldacci and his wife Michelle co-founded the Wish You Well
Foundation that works to increase literacy in the United States.
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