The Widow by John Grisham

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I was excited to get into The Widow. I’ve been in the mode for mysteries and thrillers, and I figured John Grisham was a no-brainer. I’ve read a few of his earlier books and enjoyed them quite a bit. Here’s the blurb:

Simon Latch is a lawyer in rural Virginia, making just enough to pay his bills while his marriage slowly falls apart. Then into his office walks Eleanor Barnett, an elderly widow in need of a new will. Apparently, her husband left her a small fortune, and no one knows about it.

Once he hooks the richest client of his career, Simon works quietly to keep her wealth under the radar. But soon her story begins to crack. When she is hospitalized after a car accident, Simon realizes that nothing is as it seems, and he finds himself on trial for a crime he swears he didn’t murder.

Simon knows he’s innocent. But he also knows the circumstantial evidence is against him, and he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. To save himself, he must find the real killer….

I did end up liking The Widow, but it took a long time to get there. The first 40% or so, I kept waiting for something exciting to happen. And waiting. And then I waited some more. It finally started picking up around the halfway mark. I struggled to get to that point. I understand the need to lay the foundation of the story, to introduce the characters and how they fit together, but it didn’t need to go on that long. Nine months of book time went by before anything of note really happened. If I didn’t have my NetGalley ratio to think about, I would have dropped the book like a hot potato well before 50%.

All that said, the second half was very enjoyable. I thought I knew who did it more than once and was wrong every time. I enjoyed seeing some character growth from Simon and the people he worked with to solve the crime were interesting.

So was it worth the initial slog? I don’t know. Maybe? If you don’t mind a slow journey, then yes. If you’re looking for a face-paced who-dun-it, then probably not.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ebook!



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