A Calamity of Souls

A Calamity of Souls (2024) by David Baldacci is a work of historical fiction that takes place in the 1960s American South. A legal thriller, it is set largely in a courtroom and depicts the trial of a Black man wrongfully accused of murdering a wealthy white couple. Two lawyers—one white and one Black—work together to prove his innocence in the context of systemic racism controlling the legal system. As such, it touches on themes of Racial Injustice and the Legal System, The Importance of Family and Community Support, and Overcoming Personal Bias against the backdrop of the civil rights movement.

Baldacci is an American novelist who has written over 50 novels as well as dozens of short stories and novellas. He is best known for his suspense and legal thrillers. In the novel, he draws on his personal experience as a white man who grew up in Virginia during the civil rights era.

This guide is based on the Grand Central Publishing 2024 hardcover first edition of the novel.

Content Warning: This guide discusses racism, racist violence, ableist discrimination, domestic violence, and sexual assault as depicted in the novel. The work itself uses outdated racist slang while obscuring the use of racist slurs; this guide includes such language in direct quotes only.

Plot Summary

Jack Lee is a 33-year-old lawyer living in Freeman County, Virginia. He has practiced law for eight years but has yet to take on a murder trial or do anything that he believes has made a difference in the world. He is approached by Miss Jessup, a Black maid from the down the street, who tells him that her granddaughter Pearl’s husband, Jerome, has been arrested for murder and needs a lawyer.

Initially, Jack hesitates, fearing the personal and professional repercussions of defending a Black man in Virginia in 1968. However, after he receives a threatening phone call, he decides that Jerome is in desperate need of support and decides to represent him.

Jack’s mother, Hilly, and his father, Frank, are also initially against Jack taking on the case. His mother has complicated feelings about the Black community, as she helps and supports them at times, while at others is adamantly against Black and white people socializing together. His father largely goes along with his wife, while fearing the professional ramifications for Jack. After he visits Miss Jessup and is nearly killed by a Black man that lives near her, Frank realizes why the Black community is angry and why they need Jack’s help. He tells Jack to take the case.

Desiree DuBose, a Black lawyer with the NAACP from Chicago, has worked dozens of racially motivated cases. She comes to Jack’s office and offers her help. She initially wants to take control of the case but realizes that Jack feels passionately about it. Instead, the two agree to be co-counselors.

As the trial gets underway, it becomes clear that the judge, Ambrose, is going to covertly hinder their case, while they are forced to deal with a jury of unsympathetic white men. Additionally, Jack and DuBose face repeated attacks from angry white people, including DuBose nearly being shot through her hotel door peephole, Jack’s home and office being burned down with them inside, and Jack’s sister, Lucy, being killed. After these attacks and Lucy’s death, Hilly throws her full support behind Jack and even befriends DuBose, recognizing the true horror of racism for what it is.

The prosecution surprises Jack and DuBose on the first day of the trial, announcing that they have arrested Pearl as an accomplice for allegedly planning the murder with Jerome and bringing him clean clothes, and they plan to try them both together.

The prosecution argues that Jerome killed Mr. and Mrs. Randolph because they were planning to fire him for theft. They have witnesses who state that Jerome went into the Randolph home when he was not supposed to, that Randolph had put Jerome in his will then subsequently changed his mind after he believed Jerome stole from him, and that they allegedly found money on Jerome’s property that he had stolen from the Randolphs.

DuBose and Jack do their best to counter each of the witnesses. However, they face two major issues: They cannot prove where Pearl was during the murder—because she was having a secret abortion and does not want to reveal that fact—and they cannot figure out who actually committed the murder. They have Randolph’s lawyer, Gates, who reveals that the Randolphs only wanted to leave their money to their daughter, Christine, and not their son, Sam. They also know that Mrs. Randolph was seeking a divorce from her husband, and that a blue convertible was at the Randolph home on the day of the murder but do not know who it belongs to.

DuBose and Jack lay out their case, showing that Sam needed money and had a motive and that several of the prosecution’s witnesses were lying. The prosecution comes forward with two new pieces of evidence: the murder weapon and a witness saying they saw Pearl on the bus with a duffel bag on the day of the murder. Despite DuBose’s best efforts to have the murder weapon thrown out, Ambrose admits it into evidence, a move that DuBose believes is entirely wrong.

In response, DuBose and Jack are able to show that the eyewitness from the bus is lying. They also place doubt on the murder weapon, showing that it is a knife from the Civil War that belonged to Mr. Randolph. Additionally, they provide a witness who saw Pearl on the day that she got her abortion and prove that Jerome physically could not have committed the murder due to a severe limp. Despite their best efforts, Jack and DuBose are still unsure of how the jury will feel, and support Jerome’s decision when he accepts a plea deal to free his wife.

That night, however, Jack learns that Christine was not actually out of town on the day of her parents’ death. They also finally learn who the blue convertible belonged to: Gates’s son. With this new information, they forestall taking the plea deal and call Christine to the stand.

While on the stand, Christine breaks down. She reveals that her mother called her and that, when she went to her parents’ house, she found her mother already dead and her father standing over her with a knife. Christine struggled with him and got the knife away, ultimately killing her father. She also reveals that she called Gates, who sent his son over to help, and that Gates has been manipulating the witnesses and evidence throughout the entire trial. Reluctantly, Ambrose is forced to drop the charges against Jerome and Pearl.

After the trial, Jack speaks with the press and gives a speech about the importance of coming together and overcoming hate. However, on this walk back to the car, Jerome is stopped by a young man and is shot and killed, with one bullet passing through into Jack’s shoulder.

Three months after recovery, Jack learns that Christine was never charged. She has bought a house for Pearl and her family and supports them financially. Both Gates, however, were charged and convicted.

Jack decides to go to Chicago and finds DuBose. He tells her that he is romantically interested in her, but also that he wants to work professionally on more cases with her. Although DuBose initially turns him away, she ultimately decides that—despite the danger and the difficulties it will pose—she wants to be with him, too.