“Gripping from the first client meeting to the final pound of the gavel.“ — Ryan Steck, The Real Book Spy and Author of Gone Dark
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John Grisham, the undisputed master of the legal thriller, ventures into new territory with The Widow, stepping away from high-stakes courtroom drama to pen his first true whodunit.
Right from the start, it’s clear that The Widow is unlike Grisham’s other books. Sure, the overall premise bears his signature mix of small-town legal drama and moral ambiguity, but this time, he trades his familiar David-vs-Goliath courtroom heroics for a more claustrophobic, character-driven mystery that’s very different than his deep backlist of books.
Simon Latch is a small-town lawyer in Braxton, Virginia, barely scraping by as his marriage slowly disintegrates and his secret gambling debts mount. When Eleanor “Netty” Barnett, an 85-year-old widow, walks into his office to draft a new will, Simon thinks he’s found a lifeline. Netty claims to possess a hidden fortune—millions in Coca-Cola and Walmart stock—which, unbeknownst to her estranged stepsons, who she wants desperately to disinherit, was left to her by her late husband. She also insists that her current will, prepared by rival attorney Wally Thackerman, is a scheme to defraud and rob her of her money. Simon agrees to “rescue” her from Wally’s clutches, skimming a small chunk of change off for himself, before quietly drafting her will in private in order to keep her wealth a secret from even his loyal secretary.
But Netty is not the simple, helpless widow she appears to be. She’s prickly, cagey, and oddly evasive about her assets, and just as Simon starts imagining how her financial situation could solve all his problems, the story takes its first turn when she dies unexpectedly in the hospital following a car accident. The crash, believed initially to be a string of bad luck, resulted in her death being listed under “natural causes.” Not everyone is so sure the wreck was an accident, though, and before long, Netty’s death is turned into a full-fledged murder investigation, where all of the circumstantial evidence points straight at Simon.
As the story unravels, Simon lands in the courtroom, staring down a case that’s stacked entirely against him, and the only way to prove he’s innocent is to find the real killer, something he has no training whatsoever to do. With no powers of deduction or “little gray cells” to call upon, Simon will have to learn rapidly how to think like a detective—unraveling a mysterious puzzle steeped in murder, conspiracy, and a whole lot of misdirection—or spend the rest of his life locked behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit.
As always, Grisham’s handling of the legal maneuvering and trial scenes is pitch-perfect. That’s to be expected, though, for an attorney-turned-author who’s sold more than 300 million books throughout his iconic career writing legal thrillers. Where The Widow shines brightest, though, is where it’s most unlike what you might expect from Grisham, the king of high-concept, high-drama courtroom showdowns. And if I’m being honest, it’s all the stuff that takes place outside of the courtroom that I enjoyed most here. It’s a bit of a slow burn, to be sure, as Grisham sets up his plot and learns to navigate through his new genre. But once he does find his footing, the pacing picks up quite a bit, and so do the twists and turns, which—though they do lack shock value (it’s clear Grisham isn’t interested in merely subverting expectations for the sake of being edgy or daring)—ultimately lead to a satisfying ending few will predict in advance.
Gripping from the first client meeting to the final pound of the gavel, The Widow delivers a sharp, twist-packed whodunit where every clue points to the wrong man as John Grisham proves there’s no genre he can’t master.
Author: John Grisham
Pages: 416 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 978-0385548984
Publisher: Doubleday
Release Date: October 21, 2025
Praised as “One of the hardest working, most thoughtful, and fairest reviewers out there” by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline, Ryan Steck has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). Steck also works full-time as a freelance editor in addition to running TRBS. He is the author of FIELDS OF FIRE, which #1 New York Times bestselling author Jack Carr says “will leave you speechless and begging for more,” LETHAL RANGE, OUT FOR BLOOD, GONE DARK, and TED BELL’S MONARCH. For more information, follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and BookBub. For even more content and book news, subscribe to The Real Book Spy Substack!