The Widow by John Grisham (2025)
Once again John Grisham proves that nobody knows lawyers, the legal system and the ins and outs of lawyering like he does. And he also knows how to take readers into the deepest weeds of jurisprudence and still somehow hold their attention without leaving them cross-eyed with confusion.
But in "The Widow" the author's first attempt at a conventional whodunit, I myself would have preferred a little less time plodding through those weeds. The book maintains a measured pace throughout and that's even after the halfway point, when Grisham plunges his lead character into the most serious trouble a lawyer can fall into - a first degree murder charge for killing his client. At that point, I struggled to resist skimming through the pages and pages of unnecessary information to pick up the pace the book should've maintained al along.
Small town Virginia lawyer Simon Latch isn't much of protagonist to root for, but I suppose it's a tribute to Grisham's storytelling skill that he throws enough woes in Simon's path that you end up in his corner anyway. Simon is barely eking out a living by writing wills and his soured marriage has flatlined. But into his office and life walks lonely 80-ish widow Eleanor Barnett who wants a new will to supersede the one written for her by unscrupulous lawyer Willy Thackerman. And Simon, with his dwindling bank account and massive gambling debts. can scarcely believe his luck......the widow's late unlamented husband left her a stock portfolio worth millions.
Simon's eyes light up with greed, as he sees himself, swimming in cash as the eventual executor of Eleanor's estate, especially since she's bitterly estranged from her creepy, potentially violent stepsons. But is the widow's backstory about her vast hidden fortune for real or just a symptom of dementia? Just when Simon thinks he's verified the cash is in fact the genuine article, things go seriously south for him......a murder indictment with potentially the rest of his life spent in prison.
And even with a top notch criminal defense attorney and a prosecutor's case built on flimsy circumstantial evidence, Simon faces a jury and a public fed up and disgusted with lawyers in general. So he'd better find the actual killer in a hurry before the cell doors clang shut on him permanently.
All the byzantine legal eagle maneuvering, Grisham's forte, is fascinating up to a point until you realize it's slowing down the pace of the story, sometimes to a crawl. And to be blunt, the eventual whodunit reveal doesn't make for much of a stunner either. That didn't bother me all that much though, since Grisham' s great talent comes from his characters working their way out of the messes they've landed in, rather than any "Aha!" surprises.
What did irk me and left me with a "What? That's it??" Where's the rest of it?!" dissatisfied expression was the book's abrupt final page....which I'm thinking will leave readers to wonder if they got a defective copy of the book that's missing a chapter. For a seasoned, veteran crowd pleasing best selling author, it struck me as a severe misstep and helped knock a star off this review's rating.
But in "The Widow" the author's first attempt at a conventional whodunit, I myself would have preferred a little less time plodding through those weeds. The book maintains a measured pace throughout and that's even after the halfway point, when Grisham plunges his lead character into the most serious trouble a lawyer can fall into - a first degree murder charge for killing his client. At that point, I struggled to resist skimming through the pages and pages of unnecessary information to pick up the pace the book should've maintained al along.
Small town Virginia lawyer Simon Latch isn't much of protagonist to root for, but I suppose it's a tribute to Grisham's storytelling skill that he throws enough woes in Simon's path that you end up in his corner anyway. Simon is barely eking out a living by writing wills and his soured marriage has flatlined. But into his office and life walks lonely 80-ish widow Eleanor Barnett who wants a new will to supersede the one written for her by unscrupulous lawyer Willy Thackerman. And Simon, with his dwindling bank account and massive gambling debts. can scarcely believe his luck......the widow's late unlamented husband left her a stock portfolio worth millions.
Simon's eyes light up with greed, as he sees himself, swimming in cash as the eventual executor of Eleanor's estate, especially since she's bitterly estranged from her creepy, potentially violent stepsons. But is the widow's backstory about her vast hidden fortune for real or just a symptom of dementia? Just when Simon thinks he's verified the cash is in fact the genuine article, things go seriously south for him......a murder indictment with potentially the rest of his life spent in prison.
And even with a top notch criminal defense attorney and a prosecutor's case built on flimsy circumstantial evidence, Simon faces a jury and a public fed up and disgusted with lawyers in general. So he'd better find the actual killer in a hurry before the cell doors clang shut on him permanently.
All the byzantine legal eagle maneuvering, Grisham's forte, is fascinating up to a point until you realize it's slowing down the pace of the story, sometimes to a crawl. And to be blunt, the eventual whodunit reveal doesn't make for much of a stunner either. That didn't bother me all that much though, since Grisham' s great talent comes from his characters working their way out of the messes they've landed in, rather than any "Aha!" surprises.
What did irk me and left me with a "What? That's it??" Where's the rest of it?!" dissatisfied expression was the book's abrupt final page....which I'm thinking will leave readers to wonder if they got a defective copy of the book that's missing a chapter. For a seasoned, veteran crowd pleasing best selling author, it struck me as a severe misstep and helped knock a star off this review's rating.
3 stars (***).
No comments:
Post a Comment