The Widow: the unforgettable new courtroom drama from the master of the legal thriller!
John Grisham returns to familiar territory with this taut courtroom thriller, and it's fair to say he hasn't lost his touch. Simon Latch is not exactly a man on the rise. Drowning in debt, locked in a crumbling marriage, and nursing a gambling habit that shows no signs of fading, he's a small-town lawyer whose prospects look bleak. Then Eleanor Barnett walks through his door. At 85, she wants a new will drawn up, and she also happens to claim she's sitting on a hidden fortune of $20 million. For Simon, it feels like a lifeline. He takes her on as a client and quietly works to keep her wealth out of sight, even going as far as hiding details from his own assistant. Other solicitors, sensing something valuable, begin to hover around Eleanor with unconcealed interest. Simon holds his nerve. Then a car accident puts her in hospital, and her story starts to unravel in ways he never anticipated. As the situation spins beyond his control, Simon finds himself standing trial for murder, a crime he insists he had no part in. Grisham constructs the plot with his usual assurance, building tension through character rather than spectacle. The courtroom sequences are sharp, the moral ambiguity is well-judged, and Eleanor herself is a genuinely intriguing creation. Fans of his earlier work will find this a satisfying, shrewdly plotted read.
- Author: John Grisham
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
- Genre: Mystery
- ISBN: 978-1399703352
- Pages: 416 pages