Title:	A Calamity of Souls
	Author:	David Baldacci
	Published:	April 16, 2024, Grand Central Publishing
	No. of Pages:	487
	Cover Price:	$20.98 Hardcover, $15.95 Paperback, $14.99 Kindle

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Bestselling and award winning author, David Baldacci has outdone himself in his novel, A Calamity of Souls. The novel takes place in 1968, in the south where the prejudice against Blacks is rampant. Even though there are new laws in place, many lawmakers and citizens won’t follow them, and there are problems. Jack Lee, a white, small town attorney in Freemont County, Virginia, chooses to represent Jerome Washington, a black man who is charged with the brutal murders of a wealthy man and wife who he worked for. The evidence is circumstantial, and the prosecution manipulates it unfairly. Many residents harass Lee, and his life is endangered while trying to solve the case.

Baldacci is a master at developing his characters, and readers will feel like they are actually living through the period and feeling the pain that the Blacks felt during the time actually felt. The unfairness is frustrating, and definitely a travesty, and those who do their research will find that Baldacci has hit it right on.

His genius storytelling style will keep readers on the edge, and the story is fascinating and unputdownable. Although it is expected that Baldacci will write a good novel, this one is over the top and should even be read by younger readers who didn’t live during the period. Everyone needs to be aware of what took place in the south during those years.

All told, this novel makes most of us who were not in the south during that time ashamed of the attitude of the whites versus the blacks. So much prejudice and unfair practices were experienced during this time, and even though this novel is fiction, Baldacci has woven the characters into a historically correct setting that will make readers feel the pain of those who were mistreated. This novel deserves more than five stars and is highly recommended. Baldacci does it again.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.