Book review: The Widow by John Grisham

I very much enjoyed most of The Widow by John Grisham. We’re introduced to likeable lawyer, Simon who gambles more than he should, sleeps in his office pending separation and divorce from his wife, and seemingly just scrapes by. He first assumes that drafting the will of 85 year old widow Eleanor will net him his usual $250 fee – and something that his assistant will (in fact) do on his behalf. However, Eleanor happens to mention her husband holding shares in Coca Cola and Wal-Mart and he realises he could be sitting on a big pay day.

The Widow
by John Grisham
Published by Hodder & Stoughton
on 21/10/2025
Source: NetGalley
Genres: Crime Fiction, Legal Procedural
ISBN: 1399703390
Pages: 416

Goodreads

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 she claims she’s sitting on a $20 million fortune and no one else knows about it.

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 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 murder.

Thankfully Simon isn’t as mercenary or heartless as Eleanor’s previous lawyer who included a half a million dollar bequest for himself, instead (Simon) helps her to divvy her estate to a number of charities through trusts (which he would—of course—manage, paying himself $500/hr) and also encourages her to leave a little money to her two selfish and estranged stepsons who have recently reappeared in her life. Initially he digs into her finances to ensure she’s telling the truth but Eleanor is very secretive and offended that Simon doesn’t believe her. In the end Simon accepts her word and befriends her, taking her for regular lunches and becoming someone she can rely on.

And when she has a car accident and is hospitalised Simon seeks seeks power of attorney and an advance health directive to make decisions on her behalf. When she takes a turn for the worse in hospital Simon is reluctant to turn off her life support – deferring to medical team to make those decisions.

Unfortunately for Simon, the police get a tip-off that her death is suspicious and it’s discovered she was poisoned by cookies he’d gifted to her. In no time at all Simon is arrested and charged with her murder.

Simon is our narrator so we know fully well he’s not responsible for her death. We do know her money drew him to her case, but—in many ways—it seems like he came to care about her a little and he’s kinda got a good heart.

Grisham does a good job at pacing the novel so the wait for Simon’s day(s) in court isn’t laborious and we soon move into the trial where it seems the prosecution is making a lot of assumptions with no real evidence.

I liked the background colour here, Simon’s marriage ending, his relationship with his children complicated by the allegations and arrest, being confronted with his gambling problem and realising he’s hit rock-bottom and of course Grisham does legal thrillers very well. I confess didn’t however appreciate the direction this ultimately took which seemed very left-field/random. Perhaps more suspects to muddy the waters might have allowed more false leads but it felt a little directionless and lacked some closure for me, meaning I enjoyed all but the very end. Although perhaps the message here from Grisham is one of the randomness of the universe, or fate or something.

The Widow by John Grisham will be published by Hodder & Stoughton in late October 2025.

I received an electronic copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.

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