Good evening, I am Ted Ayres, and I want to welcome you to another edition of Inside the Cover right here on PBS Kansas, your home for seriously good TV in south central Kansas.

I look forward to yet anothe conversation with you tonight.

We all have various and assorted reasons why we love to read.

I read to be informed, enlightened, and educated.

I also read to be entertained.

We have reviewed many seriou books here on Inside the Cover, but I also like to work i our review of a favorite author who can capture my attention and keep me turning the pages to find out what happens next.

One such author is David Baldacci.

It is now time to go inside the cover.

David Baldacci is an American novelist born on August 5th, 1960.

After earning his la degree, Baldacci practiced law for nine years in Washington, D.C. Baldacci began writing stories as a child when his mother gave him a notebook and wished to record them.

While practicing law, he turned to novel writing, taking three years to write Absolute Power, which was published in 1996.

It was sold internationally.

Today, Baldacci has written over 45 novels for adults, as well as seven novels for children.

His novels have been published in over 45 languages and in more than 80 countries, with over 130 million worldwide sales, as of 2018.

As noted Baldacci is a prolific writer.

He has a number of continuing protagonists and storylines.

Frankly I'm amazed by his productivity and his creativity while maintaining the differentiation between characters and storylines.

Baldaccis latest book, is A Calamity of Souls.

It was copyrighted in 2024, and I finished my copy on April 25th, 2024.

Thanks for the loan, Randy.

The story is set in 1968 in Freeman County, Virginia, when Jerome Washington, a young black man, is charged with murdering an elderly and wealthy white couple for whom he worked.

John Robert Lee, a young white lawyer, finds himself in the midst of the greatest challenge and perhaps the most important, of his legal career.

Desiree DuBose is a black lawyer from Chicago who is devoting her life to furthering the cause of justice and equality for everyone.

She teams up with Lee to provide Mr. Washington with the bes legal representation possible.

The book has multiple twist and turns and a surprise ending.

The courtroom scenes are well-written, and the trial provides suspenseful reading.

As Lee and DuBose are challenged by a talented prosecutorial team and a judge who sends mixed message with his rulings from the bench.

Reading this book I was reminded of A Time to Kill by John Grisham and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Baldacci even offers a couple of tongue in cheek references to Atticus Finch and Harper Lee.

In the author's note, Baldacci says that he started this novel over a decade ago in a journal like the on his mother gave him as a child.

He notes, ‘Where I grew up, the black white divide was so ingrained that despite the efforts of the civil rights movement and the Warren Court, life was not so very different from many decades before.

After commentin on the autobiographical elements of the book, Baldacci writes, ‘I wanted to make this a story of two people from divergent life experiences who come together to tackle a problem as difficult as any America has ever confronted.

I wanted each to learn from the other and for them to eventually find mutual respect and empathy for one another.

I would suggest that Baldacci succeeded mightily.

Tonigh we have featured David Baldacci at his newest book, A Calamity of Souls.

I am very happy to recommend it to you.

Good night and see you next time.