Publication Date April 16, 2024
I’ve never been a huge David Baldacci fan, although I have enjoyed all of his books I’ve read, particularly the King and Maxwell series. Legal thrillers are among my favorite genres, so I was particularly interested in Baldacci’s Calamity of Souls, provided to me by Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
This one is set in Virginia in the mid to late 1960’s, and features a legal hero named Jack Lee, who is representing an African-American man named Jerome Washington, charged with the brutal murder of a wealthy white couple. Set in the early days following several legal decisions that are designed to provide at least a semblance of fairness to all citizens, regardless of color, the book lays out the situation in Virginia early on, as the deputy reading Jerome his Miranda rights at the jail “…knew that the legalese upon the paper was designed to help those people, who had committed crimes, usually against white folks.”
Jack is a product of his environment: his father has taught him that while his family “…may not break bread with colored folks, but we don’t break bread with rich folks, either.” Jack knows he is up against an entrenched system that is anything but fair: “…I have a better chance of becoming president of the United States than Jerome Washington has of ever walking out a free man from this.”
Jack teams up with an African-American attorney from Chicago, who has spent many of her years of extensive legal experience fighting for justice. Together, they fight for a fair trial for Jerome, and work to save him from what seems like a foregone conclusion to his trial: a trip to the electric chair.
Fans who have spent many years reading and watching similar stories (To Kill A Mockingbird, anyone?) will likely blaze through this one thinking they know exactly how it will turn out. But those of us who despair at the recent years of renewed overt racism in this country will appreciate the storytelling skill of Mr. Baldacci, whose own experience as an attorney has contributed to his success as someone who can entertain as well as inform the reader.
Recommended for fans of legal thrillers, as well as anyone who wants to have some hope for racial justice in and out of the courtroom. Four stars.