The Widow

Simon Latch is a bored small town attorney. He’s been handling the same types of mundane legal matters for years—bankruptcies, simple Wills, etc. That is until elderly widow, Eleanor Barnett, walks into his office seeking his help for a Will she’d like drawn up. Simon assumes it will be a simple Will, but that winds up not being the case. This widow is loaded, and she needs an attorney that she can trust. Simon considers this a chance to change his circumstances. He has gambling debt and is likely headed for divorce court. In an attempt to procure Eleanor’s (“Netty’s”) trust, Simon wines and dines her, even though it’s costly to do so. But that’s okay, he reasons, since he’ll recoup it all in the end. Or will he?
I show more loved this story!! John Grisham sucked me right into this legal mystery. I loved the colorful characters in this novel and chuckled many times throughout my listening experience. I felt thoroughly familiarized with each one, especially Simon Latch. Simon allowed greed to get him into trouble, but I couldn’t help but feel some sympathy for him. If you read this book I think you’ll relate to my sentiment about him. The audiobook narrator(s) was fabulous, and I recommend a read/listen or exclusive listen 🎧 with this one.
Overall, I truly enjoyed The Widow and highly recommend it. show less

John Grisham wastes no time — The Widow shifts from idle to high‑octane in seconds. Simon Latch, a down‑on‑his‑luck lawyer with heart and conscience, meets Eleanor Barnett, a wealthy widow seeking to redraft her will. What begins as routine legal work quickly spirals into suspense: an accident, an arrest, and a race to clear his name. Grisham masterfully builds tension, banking embers until the narrative ignites into a roller coaster of twists. This novel delivers everything fans expect — clear prose, moral complexity, and relentless pacing. The Widow is a gripping read that proves once again why Grisham remains the master of legal thrillers.

I stayed up way past my bedtime reading John Grisham’s new novel, The Widow. That’s something I haven’t done in a very long time. This one checks all the boxes that made John Grisham such a successful author.

A small town attorney, Simon Latch, unwittingly finds himself facing a murder charge and must desperately find the real killer before he’s sent to jail for life. Full of twists and turns to keep readers guessing, and characters that are sometimes unpredictable, I found I could not read this book fast enough.

Not everything takes place in the courtroom, which keeps the story from getting stale. Latch is out and about investigating on his own and even relies on some shady characters to help him identify the murderer.

This was a show more very engaging and exciting whodunit that I would recommend to all readers. Thanks go to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for allowing me to read an advance copy. I am happy to give my honest review and let others know about this book. show less

After all these years, Grisham still knows how to write an addictive legal thriller. The Widow features the same tropes that have made his other novels so successful: greedy attorneys, flawed legal and health care systems, FBI involvement, and dysfunctional family relations. Simon Latch is a small-town lawyer eking out a living with cookie-cutter wills and bankruptcy matters. Then along comes octogenarian Eleanor, who claims to be worth 20 million and needs an attorney to redraft her will. Facing gambling debts and an unraveling marriage, greed gets the better of Simon, and he prepares a new will that will give him control of Eleanor's estate and allow him to line his pockets with hefty legal fees for years after her death. But when show more Eleanor dies suspiciously, and all the circumstantial evidence points in Simon's direction, his only hope to clear his name is to track down the real killer. Simon is a complex, flawed protagonist who feels real to me, and Grisham builds and maintains good suspense by keeping you guessing which of the many unsavory characters in Eleanor's orbit is capable of murder. Although the pace simmers for the first third of the book, the story begins to sizzle when the trial begins, and the last third of the book is boiling hot. As is often the case in his books, some of the characters feel underdeveloped, and several plot turns are barely plausible, but if you're a fan of entertaining legal thrillers laced with social commentary, Grisham remains the gold standard. show less

The Widow, John Grisham, author; Michael Beck, narrator
Well, this novel started out a bit slow, but as the pages turned, Grisham hit it out of the park. It went in so many different directions, that the ending was pretty much a complete surprise. The court case, as usual, was riveting. The only shortcoming was the occasional extraneous dialogue, but once it got down to brass tacks, it nailed it.
Diving deeply into the legal system, this book exposes the greed that infects it, the tragic flaw that is its Achilles Heel. It exposes the warts and foibles of the lawyers, the tragic flaws that cause their downfall. It illustrates the cracks in the very justice system that is supposed to punish the guilty, but often is guilty itself, guilty of show more sending the innocent to prison while leaving the guilty free to commit crimes for another day. It exposes the arrogance and rush to judgment of the investigating detectives and police who seem to be simply searching for a reasonable suspect to arrest so they can close a case. It opens a window into the minds of the lawyers when they are presented with the opportunity to represent a wealthy client. It illustrates the power of the courtroom as the agenda of both the prosecutor and defense attorney is revealed. Justice is not always the goal, winning is, at all costs. The guilt or innocence of the accused takes a backseat sometimes.
Simon Latch is a forty something, not very successful lawyer in Braxton, VA. His life is in somewhat of a turmoil. He has gambling debts, his marriage is ending, and he has never really become the successful lawyer he thought he would be. He spends his days filing bankruptcies. When Eleanor Barnett, a wealthy eighty-five-year-old widow enters his office and asks him to represent her with a will and a retainer, he is floored. It seems, though, that she has already hired the lawyer across the street to draw up a will, but she no longer trusts him. Simon decides to steal the client from the other lawyer, Walter Thackerman, and will not let him know until after she has passed. This is his first rich client. He will draw up a new will for her. She seems to be his “get out of jail” card, his ticket to freedom from a career going nowhere and a marriage he could not afford to terminate, though both he and his wife Paula have agreed their relationship was over. He courts Eleanor. He takes her from restaurant to restaurant, wines and dines her in an effort to pin her down as to the assets she has. She resists providing information, seeming to wonder why he needs it, because everyone involved seems to want a piece of her fortune, including her stepsons whom she refuses to leave a nickel. The problem is that no one can discover if there really is a fortune in Eleanor’s world.
Then she is involved in a serious automobile accident, driving drunk as well, she begs Simon to come and help her and to promise her she won’t go to jail. Detective Barr wants to arrest her, the hospital wants to know if she has appropriate documents prepared, and Eleanor wants him to represent her because she has no one else and trusts him. To satisfy the hospital, he prepares a living will, a DNR, and also her final wishes to be cremated. She asks for his advice on all of the documents and he gives it freely, but does not coerce her. He absolutely refuses, however, to make the final decision on her life or death when it becomes necessary. When suddenly she does take a turn for the worse, although her injuries were not life threatening, he is forced to be present when the doctors decide to pull the plug. He notifies the funeral home, and then his life explodes. Someone notifies the police that she may have been murdered and did not die of pneumonia. The cremation is stopped. An investigation ensues, and it is discovered that the cookies he sent to her were poisoned.
His secretary had delivered them to the hospital. She was not a suspect. Her stepsons, Clyde and Jerry, one of whom had attacked the other lawyer, Walter Thackerman, were not suspects. Simon was the chief suspect. Soon, he is indicted and is arrested for Eleanor’s murder. His wife and children are forced to leave town to avoid humiliation and bullying. He discovers he has few friends supporting him. They all eventually abandon him, except for Yolanda, an old flame from college who now works for the FBI and is involved in an investigation of Chub, the guy with whom he placed his bets. He warns Chub. and Chub is now indebted to him.
Suddenly, his gambling worries are the least of it, however. He decides to hire the best criminal lawyer, Raymond Lassiter, who agrees to take his case pro bono because it is a case with so much notoriety and Simon is broke. Simon promises to pay him later, anyway. Then he leans on his former bookie, Chub, for help. Once he was indicted, he really needed money. He wants to help his wife leave Braxton to protect the kids, to finalize the divorce and to pay something to Raymond. Chub buys his office building. Paula sells their house and moves. His life, as he knew it, is over. The possibility of being locked up for life is facing him.
After months, to get a fair trial, the venue is changed to Virginia Beach, VA. However, after the trial in which Lassiter defended him well, in an unexpected upset that even surprised the judge, the jury finds him guilty. The verdict was probably based on his greed, because there was no evidence. At this point, throwing caution to the wind because what else could happen to him, he engages a friend of Chub’s to find someone to help him illegally hack into hospital records so he can do his own investigation and prove his innocence. The story gets more and more powerful as betrayal and secrets are revealed. There is no end to the ability of people of all stripes to be devious. He is innocent, so who committed the murder? Who could have poisoned the cookies he sent to Eleanor? Who tipped off the police about the murder? Would one of Eleanor’s sons have done it so they could contest the will? Because of a loophole, there was no inheritance tax that year. Eleanor died December 30th, so her heirs would be the benefactors of a will without estate taxes. Matilda Clark was Lawyer Latch’s secretary. She delivered the cookies. Could she have done it? Thallium was an odorless, tasteless, undetectable poison. How would someone get it? Was Cora Cook the prosecutor typical of prosecutors just looking for a conviction regardless of whether or not the accused was guilty? Did Detective Barr do an adequate investigation or just rush to judgment in an attempt to wrap up the case? There seemed to be no end to sleazy lawyers. Do you think all lawyers are like vultures waiting for prey? Does a jury often get a verdict wrong? There are so many questions and all will be answered. show less

The Widow by John Grisham is an excellent, very highly recommended legal drama and crime mystery. This is un-put-downable, held my complete attention, and kept me up reading late into the night.

Simon Latch has been a small town lawyer in Braxton, Virginia for 18 years who manages to make a living by writing wills and handling bankruptcies. His marriage is in shambles and he has a gambling problem. When Eleanor (Netty) Barnett, an 85-year-old widow, walks into his office wanting him to write a new will for her, he's prepared to churn out another standard boiler plate will until she intimates that her needs are different. She claims her deceased husband left her something like $20 million though cash and stock in Coca-Cola and Walmart. show more

Another Lawyer in town, Wally Thackerman, has previously written a will for her, but she wasn't happy with it. When Simon looked at the will previously written he saw that Thackerman had a clause rewarding himself a large payout from it. Netty also wants her stepsons, Clyde and Jerry Korsak, to get nothing and has no other relatives, so Simon writes her a will that will donate money to local causes but also allows him to charge double his normal rate managing the estate.

Simon has never seen proof that Netty's wealth exists, but he still forges a congenial relationship with her, taking her out for lunches. She quickly becomes more trouble as Simon handles other issues that she has, while still not receiving any payment from her. When she is hospitalized after a car accident and later dies, Simon is charged with a murder he didn't commit and must try to exonerate himself while looking for the real killer.

This exceptionally well-written novel is presented in three distinct parts. The first third introduces readers to Simon, a very flawed character, who struggles with every aspect of his life but hopes he will end up making bank through Eleanor/Netty. He may be far from a saint, but he is not malevolent. He's just an average guy who is gambling too much, ending his marriage, and maybe cutting a few corners trying to get by. The next third is the legal courtroom drama, which is excellent. The final third is solving the whodunit mystery, which is also excellent and compelling.

I was engrossed in The Widow from start to finish and thought it was superbly plotted and structured. Simon's flaws are on full display at the beginning but his character does experience growth and redemption in the final third. This is a perfect choice for those who like courtroom dramas mixed with a mystery. Thanks to Doubleday for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion. show less

Simon Latch, a struggling lawyer in a small town in Virginia, is on the brink of divorce and facing financial difficulties exacerbated by his gambling habit. An elderly widow claiming to be worth millions approaches him to draw up her will, and he sees an opportunity to finally make some money. When she dies in the hospital while recovering from an accident, Simon is accused of murdering her. The race is on to prove his innocence and find the real culprit.

John Grisham knows how to weave a captivating tale. This isn’t my favorite of his books, perhaps because I really didn’t like the characters, although they are certainly richly drawn. Yet, I stayed up late into the night because I could not put the book down.

Touted as his first show more mystery, there are lots of legal machinations as well. Mystery enthusiasts who like red herrings and twists will find them here. Grisham’s signature ability to capture the essence of small-town America is evident throughout the novel. This is a compelling read that is sure to become another bestseller.

Thanks to @netgalley and @DoubledayBooks for the DRC. show less