Grisham

The Widow by John Grisham (2025)

An eighty-five-year-old widow hires Simon, a small-town lawyer to prepare her will. She is alone in the world with no close family, no relationship with her stepsons, and few friends. Meanwhile, Simon’s practice is about to fail. He has debts, a gambling problem, and a broken family life. When the widow seeks his services, he takes the opportunity to profit from her lack of heirs. Then when she dies suddenly, he is accused of her murder.

John Grisham is a well-known author of courtroom and legal dramas. His novels include The Firm, The Pelican Brief, and The Rainmaker, all of which have been made into popular Hollywood movies. According to the book jacket, his stories look at the flawed underside of the American justice system. The Widow is similar. Prosecutors are more interested in fame than justice, the media is bloodthirsty, juries are prejudiced and jury pools are tainted, and lawyers are cynical, flawed people.

The plot of The Widow takes time to set itself up. The old woman doesn’t die until chapter twenty-eight but the story up to this point is not boring and is, in my opinion, evidence of Grisham’s talent. The book is essentially two stories. The first follows a shady lawyer as he takes advantage of a rich, lonely old woman. Because his field is estate law, he knows how to disguise his attempts to get his hands on her money in her will. It was interesting how Simon patiently cultivated his relationship with her. His full motivations are fully revealed to the reader and there are no surprises. He’s a broken, disillusioned man who lives out of his office to escape his wife. The widow’s wealth, to him, is a way to start over.

The second story is about the murder trial and aftermath. When the widow is hospitalized, Simon becomes her health advisor. Again, Grisham allows the reader access to Simon’s actions and thoughts in detail. It’s here that Simon’s feelings about the woman evolve. He begins to care for and pity her. This part is so carefully crafted that when she dies, we are as shocked as Simon is when he’s accused of murder.

According to the book jacket, The Widow is Grisham’s first whodunit. The reader already knows the lawyer is innocent so Grisham plants a few good suspects throughout the story. I thought I knew who it was and why and was disappointed that the solution was so predictable. Grisham dangles the reader on this hook for a while, too. It was shocking then when the plot suddenly veered off into left field. Who the killer turned out to be was so unexpected that I had to go back and read the section when he was first introduced just to remember who he was. I like that.

While the book is dominated by characters that are morally questionable, cynical, and flawed, Grisham provides two characters that are oases: the judges. In many novels, movies, or television shows about the modern American justice system, judges and police are portrayed as corrupt, incompetent, or unprofessional in some way, and the lawyers are crusaders for justice. It’s almost become a cliché. Grisham rejects this trope, however. While the lawyers in The Widow are shady, unlikable people, none are overly corrupt, but it’s the judges who are the noble warrioresses. They are intelligent, fair and sympathetic, in complete command of their courtrooms, and respected by both the defense and prosecution. The police detectives are also professionals. It was a nice reversal of expectations. I have not read Grisham’s other books, so I don’t know if his characters break this cliché often, but for me, it was refreshing.

The Widow is a decent story, although the book took a lot of time to set up. In my notes I wondered often where all this was going, but because of Grisham’s skill, it was never dull, and the back end moved fast. Interestingly, the novel also has two climaxes, one dominated by surprise and the second by drama. Overall, I think The Widow is like a sandwich: a good, quick food that satisfies your hunger until it’s time for a hardier meal.