Bestselling author and Richmond native David Baldacci (Photo by Zaid Hamid)
Around 1910, at 312 N. Seventh St. in downtown Richmond, two men with operatic names managed a saloon: Agostino Gillio and Louis Baldacci. The building is long gone, replaced by a public parking deck. However, the Baldacci legacy continues through Louis’ great-grandnephew, David Baldacci, a successful writer of novels that often involve intrigue, espionage and other dark goings-on. His books have been translated into 45 languages in more than 80 countries.
Near the site of Louis’ saloon is the Library of Virginia, which announced Baldacci as a finalist in the People’s Choice Awards, part of its 29th annual Virginia Literary Awards, for his World War II novel set in London, “Strangers in Time.” He may be on the dais for recognition at the event gala on Sept. 19.
His relationship with the state’s library is an enduring one; he served on the board, and in 2000 he joined authors who traveled the commonwealth to promote reading as part of the “All Virginia Reads” project.
Baldacci’s grown from crafting short stories for small literary journals, with payment made in copies rather than coins. He’s not only a writer, but a brand, backed by 54 books and counting; he produces two titles a year. As he tells it, his impressive output didn’t spring from any grand plan.
Fact is, he just can’t help himself.
“It’s worked well with me. About the only time I’m uncomfortable is when I’m between books,” Baldacci explains. “I don’t feel relief, I feel uncertainty. Where’s the next story going to come from? It’s an addiction — a good addiction.”
He turned this creative compulsion into a job. And Baldacci loves his job.
Further, he’s parlayed his achievements into philanthropic endeavors. He and his wife, Michelle, have given millions to literacy programs and scholastic endowments. In 2025, along with the Library of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University’s College of Humanities and Sciences, they established the Baldacci Civil Discourse & Collaboration Initiative.
Besides his supercharged writing capabilities, perhaps his diligence comes in part from a blue-collar upbringing in Richmond’s East End, where his family lived on Austin Avenue, near Richmond Raceway.
He invented elaborate stories to keep himself out of trouble with his parents and school authorities. At age 8, his mother gifted him a blank notebook.
“It was this epiphany that went off,” Baldacci says, spreading his hands for a mind-blown gesture, “soon as my pen hit the paper. When I became a published author, I went and thanked her for that great gift. And she said, ‘Honey, you know, if you want to know the truth, I just wanted you to shut the hell up,’” Baldacci recalls with a laugh. “No literary ambitions there on her behalf.”
Photo by Zaid Hamid
After graduating from Henrico High School, Baldacci earned a bachelor’s degree from VCU, then a law degree from the University of Virginia, after which he practiced in Washington, D.C. The setting served as a fertile background for what became his first published novel, “Absolute Power,” in 1996.
The book was adapted into the 1997 film of the same name. Directed by Clint Eastwood, it featured Gene Hackman as a philandering U.S. president, witnessed in misdeeds by a jewel thief (played by Eastwood) and framed, leaving a detective (portrayed by Ed Harris) to sort it all out.
These days, Baldacci is involved with multiple film and TV adaptations of his works. These include a Netflix series based on the four-book adventures of the fictional former soldier turned financial analyst Travis Devine, “The 6:20 Man.” The character’s moniker stems from the daily commuter train he rides from Westchester, New York, to his office in Manhattan. “I originally titled it the ‘5:20 Man,’ and my editor who lives in New York talked to some Wall Street buddies of his and he told me, ‘They say, yes, they start early, but 6:20 is early enough,’” Baldacci explains with a grin. The latest in the series, “All In,” arrives Nov. 10.
In early August, Baldacci was fresh off a two-week tour of England, Wales and Ireland, promoting his recent titles, including “Strangers in Time.” He wondered how the British would take to the wartime story that brings together a penniless East End London orphan, a West End woman of means and a Covent Garden bookseller. It’s a character-driven story that he believes resonates with readers.
“I’m obviously not British, but I’m an Anglophile, and I’ve been to England many times,” Baldacci says. “I found the reception overwhelmingly positive.”
Of his great-uncle Louis, Baldacci relates, “He was a generation older than my grandfather. He helped him get to Richmond. My father’s middle name, Louis, is for him. My grandfather had a confectionery business in the John Marshall Hotel; he was an entrepreneur just like his older brother.”
You don’t get much more of a true Richmond story than that.
Read more of our conversation with David Baldacci.
Head out on the Highway
“Whiteboy: A Road Story” is Richmond author Clay Blancett’s second novel. In the book, a drunk and disordered Kit Maynard collides with Sadie Mae Robinson, a young Black woman driving a vintage Oldsmobile Toronado. He accidentally rolls over the car’s hood, and she takes him along for her escape from New York in the bicentennial year of 1976.
Not exactly a meet-cute, and Blancett wryly observes, “When you drink a lot in New York, as I can attest, strange things can happen.” Those days are past him, but he’s got plenty to draw from.
The duo is on the run to California; Sadie to her family home in Watts, Kit to an uncle’s motorcycle garage in Oakland. They share a mutual drive to jump-start their lives.
They don’t know how it’ll all turn out, but who does?
Surviving the Worst-Case Scenario
Tony Gentry’s previous book, “The Night Doctor of Richmond,” resurrected Chris Baker, who during the late 19th century retrieved corpses for students at the Medical College of Virginia. Gentry’s latest, “Covenant City,” brings us back to town, but through the eyes of an orphaned 19-year-old who almost by happenstance finds himself raging against the machines.
Dystopian stories can be dismissed as fever dream hyperbolics. These days, however, robot attack dogs, systemic xenophobia, constant surveillance, the abrogation of human rights and eugenics designed to breed a super race don’t seem as far-fetched.
What may be most disturbing to readers of “Covenant City” is the inclination of people to go along to get along. They give themselves permission for cruelty through the supported denial of consequences. This tendency ultimately leads to a retrospective question amid the ruins: “How could they let this happen?”
Views of the World
In 2010, then 29-year-old Ebony Walden quit her job to embark, by herself, on what became an eight-month journey across 17 countries on five continents. A New York native who now resides in Richmond, she accomplished it through pluck, but also by volunteering with six different organizations, teaching English. Walden asked the people she met to create poems about their lives and experiences.
Her voyage of personal discovery is distilled into her debut book, “Where I’m From: A Poetic Journey Across Five Continents,” which launches Sept. 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the events venue CNTR, 318 W. Broad St. The publication will be part of a multimedia showcase combining photography, video, poetry and storytelling.
“The point wasn’t just to see places,” Walden says. “It was to be present with people, with the culture.”
Go Know Gauguin
Sue Prideaux’s groundbreaking work, “Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin,” will be recognized during a special reception at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts on Sept. 18 (tickets are $8) and during the 29th annual Virginia Literary Awards celebration at the Library of Virginia on Sept. 19 (tickets are $300).
New York Times reviewer Jennifer Szalai describes Prideaux as “a specialist in the lives of difficult men” whose past subjects have included the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch.
The French artist Gauguin is commonly viewed as a bad husband, a terrible roommate for Van Gogh and a corruptor of Tahitian women. But Prideaux, through access to a Gauguin memoir discovered only in 2020 and other previously unpublished materials, shows that the reality was more complicated.
‘Time and History Aren’t the Same’
Epics are having a moment. Former Richmonder Kevin Powers, whose “The Yellow Birds” drew on his Iraq War experience, delivers in “Children of the Wild.”
True epics transport the reader into other lives. Powers’ book features Ennis, a near-feral boy given a name; Roy, scion of a prominent family; and Samantha, the strong woman between them. Their story winds from Southwest Virginia’s misty valleys through a French countryside turned war hellscape, then to Montana’s wildlands. World War I provides the backdrop for journeys and bonds formed, broken and remade.
Powers drew inspiration from Edward G. Lengel’s “To Conquer Hell,” about the 80th “Blue Ridge” Division, and Stephen Mitchell’s translation of the Sumerian “Epic of Gilgamesh,” composed 1,500 years before “The Odyssey.” In “Children of the Wild,” nobody lives in the past and both man and monster occupy an uncertain now, facing an indiscernible future.
Booking Around Town
Get lit at local events
9/1
Henry Wise debuts his latest novel, “Promised Land,” in conversation with S.A. Cosby, the author of “All the Sinners Bleed.” The reading kicks off at 6 p.m. at Fountain Bookstore. General admission is free; copies of the book are $29. fountainbookstore.com
9/10
The eighth annual Educators’ Night features author Julian Randall discussing his new middle grade novel in verse, “Shook!” at Bbgb in Carytown. The event starts at 5 p.m., and tickets are $20. bbgbbooks.com
9/16
Jon Sealy launches his Detective Luke Steele series with “The Night Hawk” at 7 p.m. at Shelf Life Books in Carytown. Admission is free. shelflifebooksrva.com
9/17
As part of The Poe Museum’s Tell-Tale Talks, Fountain Bookstore presents a discussion with author Lyndsay Faye moderated by the prophetically named Cassandra Khaw, writer of “The Library at Hellebore.” Faye will offer a sneak peek of her latest work, “Raven,” which publishes Oct. 6. The event runs 5:30 to 7 p.m. In-person tickets are $15; a virtual livestream is $5. poemuseum.org
9/26 and 12/5
Prolific Chesterfield-based horror/science-fiction writer and ghost wrangler Pamela K. Kinney celebrates the release of two publications at Book People. She’ll read from “Haunted Surry to Suffolk” at 1 p.m. on Sept. 26 and from her children’s picture book, “Mothman’s Son,” at 1 p.m. on Dec. 5. Admission is free. bookpeoplerichmond.com
10/23
Fiona Fenn launches “The City That Shattered the World,” the second in her “The Cursed Mage” series, at Shelf Life Books. A free discussion at 7 p.m. will be moderated by Sarah Glenn Marsh, the author of “Rogue Devotions.” shelflifebooksrva.com
