A Calamity of Souls
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 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. He quickly finds himself out of his depth when he realizes that what's at stake is far greater than the outcome of a murder trial.
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 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. He quickly finds himself out of his depth when he realizes that what's 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 all. She 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 making, 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.
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Community Reviews
Really outstanding book. Hilly and DuBose are brilliantly crafted characters. Some very compelling dialogue in here, like that between Father Kelly and DuBose, which I enjoyed so much I read it three times over. This book paints a haunting portrait of the Jim Crow south and just how dangerous and difficult the struggle for civil rights was, and also gives hope to those who are continuing the fight for equality today. In a time where To Kill A Mockingbird and other similar books are being banned and pulled from store shelves, stories like this are more important than ever. Though at times very heavy-handed, this book has some great commentary on racism, misogyny, a little bit on war, and the prevailing power of love that deserves much appreciation.
I liked the somewhat fast pacing and short chapters, which complimented the quick pace of the court proceedings. I’m already a huge fan of legal dramas and this definitely scratched my itch for them. I found the trial really captivating to read through. The characters were wonderful, except for a few which felt a tiny bit flat, but not enough for me to complain about it too much.
A common criticism of this book seems to be that the bad guys are bad just because they’re bad, that the deeper reasons behind these racists being racist isn’t explored thoroughly enough. I wholeheartedly disagree. There are plenty of racists in the south who are only racist because “it’s just the way things are”, it’s just how they’ve been raised to behave in their communities (if you live in the south yourself, you’ll probably have encountered these types before), and the characters in this book who reflect that attitude are not unrealistic for following this very real line of thinking. There are those whose individual paths to racist behavior *are* more deeply explored, like Hilly’s, and her explanation of her backstory to DuBose is one of my favorite parts of this story for it. There is also quite a bit of explicit commentary about how class struggle contributes to and creates other bigotries such as racism, so I definitely do not think this book fails to discuss deeper aspects and roots of racist beliefs.
I’m glad I picked this one up from my library. I highly recommend it.
I liked the somewhat fast pacing and short chapters, which complimented the quick pace of the court proceedings. I’m already a huge fan of legal dramas and this definitely scratched my itch for them. I found the trial really captivating to read through. The characters were wonderful, except for a few which felt a tiny bit flat, but not enough for me to complain about it too much.
A common criticism of this book seems to be that the bad guys are bad just because they’re bad, that the deeper reasons behind these racists being racist isn’t explored thoroughly enough. I wholeheartedly disagree. There are plenty of racists in the south who are only racist because “it’s just the way things are”, it’s just how they’ve been raised to behave in their communities (if you live in the south yourself, you’ll probably have encountered these types before), and the characters in this book who reflect that attitude are not unrealistic for following this very real line of thinking. There are those whose individual paths to racist behavior *are* more deeply explored, like Hilly’s, and her explanation of her backstory to DuBose is one of my favorite parts of this story for it. There is also quite a bit of explicit commentary about how class struggle contributes to and creates other bigotries such as racism, so I definitely do not think this book fails to discuss deeper aspects and roots of racist beliefs.
I’m glad I picked this one up from my library. I highly recommend it.
I I got this book at an author talk, and while the author was very entertaining, this book was not. It is a historical fiction set in Virginia in 1968. The topic, a black man unjustly put on trial for killing two prominent white people and defended by a white lawyer, has been done many times. According to the author, some of this is autobiographical since he lived in the South in the 1960s and witnessed people’s racist attitudes. Overall, it felt like I was reading a history book. All kinds of examples of blacks being abused and even killed by whites, the ineffectiveness of the police and the legal system. There was also one scene that was not plausible, but I don’t want to add any spoilers to this review. I must admit I’d like to see another book with Jack and Desiree as a legal team.
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