Originally posted on: The Beginning, The Middle, and The Twist
So John Grisham wrote another legal thriller. Shocking. What’s next, James Patterson writing about a detective? Enjoy my The Widow review.
This one’s called The Widow, and it’s about a small-time lawyer named Simon Latch whose life is falling apart. Failed marriage, struggling practice, bills piling up—the usual midlife crisis stuff. Then an elderly widow walks into his office with a will to update, and suddenly Simon’s got the richest client of his career.
Finally, something’s going right. What could possibly go wrong?
The Setup: When Good Fortune Feels Suspicious
Eleanor Barnett is an elderly widow who has a small fortune that nobody knows about. She needs Simon to help her with a new will. Simple enough, right? Simon works quietly to keep her wealth under the radar, because that’s definitely not a red flag or anything.
Then Eleanor ends up in the hospital after a car accident, and her story starts falling apart. Next thing you know, Simon’s on trial for murder. A crime he swears he didn’t commit.
So basically, the one time things were looking up, he gets accused of killing his client. That’s the most lawyer thing I’ve ever heard.
The Pace: A Legal Document Come to Life
Look, I’m not going to sugarcoat this: the book is slow. Grisham’s writing style is slightly dry with gratuitous details and unneeded scenes. It reads like a legal thriller written by someone who really wants you to understand every single procedural detail.
So it’s a legal thriller that reads like…a legal document. Makes sense.
The book could’ve used some editing. There’s a dynamite premise here just waiting to breathe, but it’s buried under layers of setup. I read it in a week. Small sips. Not big gulps.
Here’s the thing though: once it ramps up, it really ramps up. The second half moves. The courtroom scenes work. The tension builds. You just have to earn it by getting through the first half.
The Characters: Morally Gray and Surprisingly Likeable
Simon Latch is on the wrong side of morally gray. He’s a flawed guy making questionable decisions while his life crumbles around him. And yet somehow, I found myself rooting for him. Maybe because watching someone’s life fall apart is relatable content.
The book is filled with lawyers behaving badly, convincing lies, dirty schemes, and shocking levels of deceit. There are scores of suspicious characters, and nobody’s quite who they seem to be. It’s set in small-town Virginia with that taut atmosphere where everyone knows everyone’s business.
Small towns: where everyone knows everything except the important stuff.
The Twists: Worth Wading Through the Setup
Here’s what saves this book: the twists work. There’s a revelation in the middle that genuinely shocked me. An absolute barn-burner that I barely saw coming, and it promises plenty of ramifications for everyone involved.
The story is multilayered and fully fleshed out with turns throughout all 400 pages. It’s part legal thriller, part whodunnit, with smile-inducing courtroom scenes and drama that’s easy to follow even when it gets complicated.
So it’s complicated but also easy to follow? That’s…actually impressive.
The ending wraps up neatly. Maybe a little too neatly, depending on your tolerance for conclusions that actually conclude things.
The Bottom Line
The Widow is classic Grisham with all that entails: courtroom scenes, morally questionable characters, small-town secrets, and a plot that eventually pays off if you’re patient enough to stick with it.
The first half tests your patience. The second half rewards it. Simon Latch is flawed but likeable. Everyone’s lying about something. The twists land.
If you like legal thrillers and don’t mind some extra procedural details, this works. If you’re new to the genre, maybe start with something faster-paced. If you’re a Grisham fan, you know exactly what you’re getting and you’ll enjoy it.
It’s a book about a lawyer who tries to help an elderly widow and ends up accused of murder. That’s what he gets for taking on a client who actually pays…or does she?
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Suspicious Wills
Recommended for: Grisham fans, people who enjoy courtroom drama, anyone who’s ever wondered if their lawyer is secretly plotting something