About:
The Widow by John Grisham is a legal thriller, in which a small-time lawyer finds himself as a defendant in a murder trial of one of his clients. Mr. Grisham is an award-winning, best-selling author specializing in legal thrillers.
- 416 pages
- Publisher : Doubleday
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 0385548982
My rating for The Widow– 5
Buy The Widow from Amazon.com*
More books by John Grisham*
Thoughts:
Like many other novels by the author, this one also starts with a slow burn, letting us get to know the characters, the set-up, and the issues before the meat of the story starts. I read a synopsis before I started the book, but I wish I hadn’t, I think going in cold would have made the book much more enjoyable.
Alas, time is short and books are many.
One of the most memorable recent books by Mr. Grishham is Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions (with Jim McCloskey), a non-fiction book telling of innocent people sitting in jail, fighting the system and often failing. When reading The Widow by John Grisham I really thought and I outsmarted the author (I didn’t) and that his protagonist, Simon Latch, will not walk out happily out of the courtroom. Maybe because Framed was such an unbelievable book that it is still with me to this day.
Simon Latch could easily have gone to the same real-life law school that Saul Goodman graduated from. In fact, the characters in this book are all some form of shysters, money-grabbing lawyers, gamblers and mobsters. The most boring character is a plot mule in the form of an FBI agent. I think the book would have been much better without her, letting poor Simon Latch use his wits, luck, or even mob ties to get out of the jam he’s in.
FBI deus ex-machinas aside, I enjoyed this book tremendously. It was entertaining, informative, and well-written. The legal drama, complex ethical issues, and characters, shady one and all, made this an engrossing read.
Synopsis:
Eleanor Barnett worked into Simon Latch’s life claiming her dead husband left her millions, and she wants a new will. Mr. Latch has a small practice in rural Virginia. He basically owns a job and is lucky to break even, his wife is divorcing him, and he has a gambling problem.
Mrs. Barnett seems to be Simon’s way to make a bit of money, but there’s something strange when she refuses to show him her finances for the will. After she is hospitalized for being in a car accident, Simon finds himself on trial for murder where everyone involved are sure it was him.
Buy The Widow from Amazon.com*
More books by John Grisham*
Zohar — Man of la Book
Disclaimer:I got this book for free
*Amazon links point to an affiliate account, the money is usually spent on books
