The Widow

By John Grisham

Book Overview

#1 New York Times bestselling author John Grisham is the acclaimed master of the legal thriller. Now, he's back with his first-ever whodunit, even more suspenseful than his courtroom dramas, as a small-time lawyer accused of murder races to find the real killer to clear his name.

"A classic, compulsive, taut and thrilling novel from one of the great storytellers of our time. The Widow is John Grisham at his irresistible, unforgettable best."--Chris Whitaker, author of All the Colors of the Dark

Simon Latch is a lawyer in rural Virginia, making just enough to pay his bills while his marriage slowly falls apart. Then into his office walks Eleanor Barnett, an elderly widow in need of a new will. Apparently, her husband left her a small fortune, and no one knows about it.

Once he hooks the richest client of his career, Simon works quietly to keep her wealth under the radar. But soon her story begins to crack. When she is hospitalized after a car accident, Simon realizes that nothing is as it seems, and he finds himself on trial for a crime he swears he didn't commit: murder.

Simon knows he's innocent. But he also knows the circumstantial evidence is against him, and he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. To save himself, he must find the real killer....

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385548982
• ISBN13: 9780385548984
• Release Date: October 2025
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Murderer or Scapegoat?

John Grisham is a master of legal thrillers and I have read several of them, some multiple times because the twists and thrills never get old. This one is about a lawyer, Simon Latch, nicely human with good tendencies but also sometimes dips into less than good stuff, especially when the stress of a divorce and expenses piles on weary shoulders, or getting into not so legal sports betting. It was easy to feel for him and so when Eleanor Barnett walks into his office and life with promises of a will that contains riches galore in the form of hidden stocks, I really hoped he wasn't going to bury himself in trouble. Of course, there wouldn't be much of a story without the trouble in the form of awful stepsons looking for their cut, other lawyers wanting to cash in, the FBI doing their own snooping, and of course a suspicious death at the worst possible time. So many things piled against Simon and even though he operates in the grey sometimes, I was rooting for him to figure out the twisty mystery (that I definitely did not expect but works well) before he ended up in jail forever! A fun thriller that is fairly light on the legal and big on the mystery of death and money and who is willing to kill for it! It was quite entertaining and a good lesson on if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is (especially when large amounts of money is on the table).