Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (Trade Paperback – 21 October 2025)
Series: Standalone
Length: 404 pages
My Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars
Iconic author John Grisham continues to shine as one of the leading authors of the legal thriller genre with his outstanding new novel, The Widow, a clever, character-driven book that relentlessly drags you in.
Most people will be very familiar with author John Grisham, considering he has been presenting awesome novels filled with complex legal cases since 1989, many of which have been turned into films or television series. I started reading Grisham in the last few years, having been lucky enough to receive copies of some of his latest novels, including The Judge’s List, The Boys from Biloxi, Sparring Partners, The Exchange and Camino Ghosts. All these novels proved to be a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the interesting collection of stories and sub-genres that Grisham would explore in these books. As such, I was very keen to read Grisham’s new novel, The Widow, especially as it had an exciting and compelling plot behind it.
Plot Synopsis:
She needs a lawyer. He needs a payday.
Simon Latch is a small-town lawyer struggling with debt, gambling issues and an impending divorce. But when Eleanor Barnett, an 85-year-old widow, visits his office to secure a new will, it seems his luck has finally changed: she claims she’s sitting on a $20 million fortune and no one else knows about it.
She could be the ticket to his fortune.
Once he’s hooked the richest client of his career, Simon works quietly to keep her wealth under the radar, even from his own assistant. But there are complications: other lawyers are circling his client like vultures.
But when she is hospitalised after a car accident, Eleanor’s story begins to crack. Simon realises that nothing is as it seems. And as events spiral out of control, he finds himself on trial for a crime he swears he didn’t commit: murder.
The Widow was a very interesting and captivating novel from Grisham that combined a distinctive story of a down on his luck protagonist, with a complex mixture of murder and thrilling legal elements. A very clever read that I had an excellent time getting through, The Widow is Grisham at his best and proved to be a particularly engaging read.
Grisham relies on a well-crafted character-driven narrative for The Widow, which gradually draws the reader in until they are unable to put the book down. Starting off with a deliberate, slower pace, the early parts of The Widow are primarily focused on introducing and showcasing the life of protagonist Simon Latch, as well as the various people in his orbit. A lawyer with a stalled career, gambling issues, and a failing marriage, Simon is eager for fresh opportunities, which seems to walk in the door in the form of elderly widow Eleanor Barnett, who requires a new will. Unable to resist the allure of Eleanor’s reputed fortune, Simon secretly takes her on as a client, hoping to manipulate her into signing a favourable will that he can later abuse for his own financial gain. Forced to remain in Eleanor’s orbit for his scheme, Simon begins to learn more about his unusual client, who seems to bring trouble down on all around her. At the same time, Simon keeps making all the wrong decisions in the other areas of his life, which results in him becoming increasingly desperate for a payday. Grisham does an outstanding job of building up the extensive background of the characters and their motivations in the first half of The Widow, and the elaborate picture of greed, secrets and self-destructive behaviour allows for a very impressive second half of the book.
Deftly amping up the pace in the second half of The Widow, things change quite dramatically when Eleanor passes suddenly, and Simon is free to enact his plan. However, before he can go through with it, Simon is charged with Eleanor’s murder and soon finds himself a pariah in his own town. With the evidence stacked against him, the protagonist finds himself embroiled in an elaborate court battle as he tries to prove his innocence. Expertly building on all the events and interactions in the first half of The Widow, Grisham sets up an impressive and very realistic series of court sequences, all while the Simon’s life falls even further apart around him. There is a brilliant sense of desperation and despair in this second half of the book, and you really get drawn into the thrilling legal battles, which are laced with beautiful uncertainty, as you are unsure if the protagonist is truly innocent and where the story is going to go next. I personally was enthralled with this second half of The Widow and powered through it extremely quickly, as I was keen to see how the court case ended and the reveals about who was responsible for Eleanor’s death.
While I loved all the key legal battles, and the extensive court case that takes up a good chunk of the second half of the book, I must admit that I was a little disappointed with how The Widow ended. This was because the final 50 pages contained a rushed, and slightly unlikely, investigation arc that looks to uncover the truth of how the titular widow died. While there are some excellent elements to these final pages, the revealed truth about Eleanor’s death comes a little out of nowhere and derailed the careful nature of the rest of the plot. While there are some hints about who or what was responsible earlier in the book, I think that Grisham erred with this ending, and a different reveal more connected to the main plot would have been better. Still, it was a mostly satisfying conclusion to book’s overall narrative, and readers will be happy where some of the main cast, especially the protagonist, finish up.
I really enjoyed how Grisham wrote The Widow, as the author effortlessly pulled together a complex story of the legal system told primarily through the eyes of an ethically dubious lawyer. Featuring elements reminiscent of the author’s other small-town legal thrillers, particularly those set in Clanton, this was an amazing character-focused book. Grisham does an excellent job of effectively introducing the protagonist, Simon Latch, and viewing his descent from respected lawyer to suspected killer thanks to his own greedy actions. Thanks to Grisham’s clever examination of all the events of the protagonist’s life, you feel very sympathetic towards Simon, even if he continuously makes things worse for himself. The somewhat simplistic dishonestly of Simon is well matched by some of the more devious or naturally deceitful characters in The Widow, including the elderly Eleanor Barnett, who suddenly becomes the most important person in Simon’s life. Old, crotchety and stubborn, Grisham paints a great layer of uncertainty around Eleanor, which ensures the reader is never quite sure whether she is genuinely rich, or pulling some sort of elaborate con on Simon and the other lawyers in his town. The eventual reveal of this truth is extremely fun, and thanks to the way the two characters are entangled at the end of Eleanor’s life, it helps produce a fantastic murder trial that you can really sink your teeth into.
The resulting criminal defence case was the true highlight of The Widow, and Grisham was in his wheelhouse writing not only the trial but the more mundane legal elements of the protagonist’s practice, which proves to be a key part of the plot. I deeply appreciated how well the court case played out in the second half of The Widow, which cleverly revisits the events of the first half of the book to examine the protagonist’s guilt. It soon becomes clear that Grisham did an amazing job hiding a lot of hints and relevant details in the early parts of the plot, and the way these elements come to be used later in was extremely clever. While I still have my doubts about the novel final reveal, the rest of the book has an excellent flow to it, and I really appreciate how Grisham upped the pace in the second half of the book with a truly gripping court battle. Throw in an excellent depiction of small-town life and the Virginia legal system, thanks to the portray of fictional town of Braxton and this ended up being a very compelling novel I honestly couldn’t put down.
John Grisham continues to highlight why he is one of the very best writers of legal thriller fiction with The Widow. A complex and powerful novel, with a compelling protagonist focus, The Widow was a brilliant read, and I loved how wrapped up I got in the book’s outstanding mystery and the various secrets and legal battles surrounding it. While there are some stumbles towards the conclusion, The Widow was an overall incredible read that is going to appeal to all Grisham fans and those who love a good legal thriller. I look forward to diving into whatever Grisham writes next.
The Unseen Library 