Nine stars
In a novel that he has been composing for the last decade, David Baldacci brings readers a story where race ensures that justice is not blind. In the heart of Virginia in 1968, the Civil Rights movement appears to be paused when a black man is accused of killing an elderly white couple. A young lawyer seeks to turn the tables on the pre-conceived notions in the South by defending the accused. Working with another keen attorney, the pair will try convincing a jury of the truth and leave racial sentiments on the shelf. Baldacci offers up a stunning story that checks all the boxes in this courtroom thriller.
Jack Lee has long wanted to be a lawyer, though the law is quite one-sided in Freeman County, Virginia. Growing up in a middle-class white family, Lee had aspirations, though the racial divide in the county and country as a whole never really got to him until now. Wanting to shed his past indifference, Lee decides to represent a black man for a brutal killing of an elderly white couple. It’s 1968 and the assassinations of Kennedy and King are still fresh in the news, but the Civil Rights movement is not yet penetrating the thick skulls of those around the county, where calls for a quick trial and lynching become daily utterances. With Jerome Washington as his client, Jack Lee not only has a great deal on his plate, but he must try to make sense of the vitriol that is spewed from everyone around him. It is as though justice is not colour blind as Lee seeks to make a difference and prove his client’s innocence.
There is a glimmer of hope when Desiree DuBose appears in town. A black lawyer from Chicago, DuBose has some experience with race and the law, having recently argued before the US Supreme Court. She comes with hopes of furthering justice and equality, helping Washington get the trial he deserves and to school Jack Lee on how to handle the racial pressure cooker that he has before him. When they agree to try the case together, new levels of hatred are hurled their way, in a county where mixed race anything is troublesome and accusations occur before any proof can be issued.
While Lee and DuBose are diametrically opposed in how they handle cases, their passion for justice and Washington’s innocence push them onwards Working against a prosecution that will do whatever it takes to send an innocent man to his death in the electric chair, Lee and DuBose work tirelessly to show how race should not be a determining factor in guilt, at the zenith of racial divides in America’s South. A brilliant piece that pulls on the heartstrings for many readers, proving that Baldacci has what it takes in any time period.
While I have long enjoyed the series work that David Baldacci is able to present, some of his standalone novels pull on the heartstrings a little more. Centred around the law and the racial divides of America’s 1968 Civil Rights movement, Baldacci uses his narrative not only to tell a story, but point out the injustice as he saw it growing up. Baldaccci paces the story well and keeps the narrative flowing with great depictions, as well as some strong sentiments. Peppering in the abhorrent language of the time, as well and those thought processes that made the South so backwards in its thinking, Baldacci proves a point, one that could have some relevance today, with new political figures spouting vitriol and numbing sentiments about race relations. A handful of strong characters help flavour the story and prove a point, which is only further helped along by a setting that depicts the struggled of the time. Baldacci knows what he is doing with this piece and does so very well.
Baldacci has long been a superior storyteller, using his various plots to keep the stories fresh and on point. his was no exception, though writing in the past about such an issue that was sure to cause grief, he outdid himself. Race relations in the 1960s was enough to handle, but when Baldacci created this stellar courtroom drama, he did not hold back. The reader is put in the middle of all the action and does not stand down at any point. The storytelling is like nothing else and the raw admissions in the story help shape the America from the recent past, as well as for the reader to ponder how the country has come so far and yet returned to its backwards thinking on race and the place of each group within the larger community. This was something else and I could not have asked for more.
Kudos, Mr. Baldacci, for a story like no other.
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