From a Google Image Search – Penguin Random House

John Grisham has been a very prolific writer. I haven’t read all his books, but I remember reading The Firm, The Pelican Brief, and The Client, each in one gulp. You know the experience; you are so engrossed in reading that you forget to eat, and you stay up way too late. So, I check back in with John Grisham now and then and then wander off in other directions until I find myself picking up a new book he has written. He writes from the world of courts and lawyers for a legal adventure that reminds me of all the corruption humans are heir to, and all the ways good laws, good judges and good lawyers can set things right. The Widow, Grisham’s newest book tells just such a story.

Simon Latch is a small-town lawyer. He handles “bankruptcies, drunk driving charges, delinquent child support payments, foreclosures, nickel-and-dime car wrecks, suspicious slip-and-falls, dubious disability claims” and occasionally, estate work – updated last will and testaments. He is bored with it all and is finding excitement in sport’s gambling at Chub’s Pub, getting himself in a bit of debt, but still under control. He and his wife have three children but there is no love left between them. His blah life perks up when Eleanor Barnett (Nettie), an 85-year-old widow walks into his law office. 

Nettie wants Simon to write a new will. She doesn’t trust Wally Thackerman who wrote the last one. Wally did plan to steal a good chunk of Nettie’s net worth, even though no one could pin down whether she was rich at all. She mentioned Coca Cola stock and Walmart stock worth about 16 million. 

Greed is one of mankind’s seven deadly sins and it can afflict any of us. Wally was greedy and unethical. Simon silently vowed to keep his greed in check and keep his work on the right side of the law. He did keep the will secret from his secretary; he did meet his client for lunches so they could try ethnic foods. He was responsible for her love of a certain ginger cookie which led to Simon’s arrest for murder. Was he guilty? 

Enjoy the book to find out about Nettie’s bad driving and what happens to Simon. See if you like Raymond Lassiter as well as I did and add to your schema on poisons (thallium, in particular). Warning: you might stay up all night.