Sameer Gudhate Presents the Book Review of The Widow by John Grisham

There’s something about opening a John Grisham novel that feels like walking into a familiar courtroom — the scent of old wood, the hum of ceiling fans, the quiet rustle before the verdict. You know it’ll be good, but you don’t know how it’ll surprise you this time. And with The Widow, Grisham doesn’t just surprise — he reinvents himself. After three decades of giving us legal thrillers that crackle with moral complexity, he ventures into a whodunit, and it’s as if the master of the law has learned a new language — and speaks it fluently.

The story begins in Braxton, Virginia — a place where everyone knows everyone, and secrets have the decency to whisper, not shout. Simon Latch is a small-town attorney, a man who’s been orbiting the edges of success for far too long. His cases are routine, his days predictable, his ambitions quietly gathering dust. Until Eleanor Barnett walks into his office — 85 years old, widowed twice, and rich enough to make anyone curious. She needs a new will, and Simon, sensing a lifeline in her fortune, takes the case. But wills are funny things — they bring out not just greed, but ghosts. When Eleanor dies under mysterious circumstances, Simon finds himself not behind a desk, but in the defendant’s chair — accused of a murder he may or may not have seen coming.