The Widow by John Grisham

 The Widow by John Grisham

    I was busily reading The Hound of the Baskervilles and was about halfway through, when I happened upon an online interview with John Grisham, an author whose novels I had always enjoyed reading.  Among the other things, the interview touched on was the fact that Grisham had just written a mystery, his first.  Since “Mysteries” was this month’s book club theme, that felt like a cosmic message, so I bought the ebook to read, for after I had finished the Sherlock Holmes.

    Grisham’s novel is about Simon, a low level lawyer with a small practice in a small town, who dealt mostly in mundane things like disagreements and wills.  Simon is in a loveless marriage and has three kids, who both he and his wife love.  To avoid his wife, he sleeps in a small room above his office, and just visits home periodically.  

           His practice doesn’t generate a whole lot of income, and that income is reduced by Simon’s addiction to sport betting at a local bar.  His economic fortunes become further threatened when he and his wife finally decide to divorce, meaning John will not only have child support payments but also house payments after giving the house to his wife.

    One day Eleanor, an eighty-six year old widow, comes into his office wanting Simon, to make her a will.  She explains that she recently had a will drawn up by the lawyer across the street from Simon, but she just doesn’t trust him.  

           As Simon begins to question the kindly old woman about her financial situation for the will, she tells him her late husband once worked for Coca Cola, and for decades bought Coca-Cola stock.  For decades he had also bought Walmart stock.  She tells Simon that her worth is probably somewhere around 13 million dollars.  However, whenever Simon seeks documentation for her finances, Eleanor is always evasive.

    Despite the lack of actual documentation, Simon continues to work on a will for Eleanor, but the will begins to become very difficult for him to create, because Eleanor has no living relatives and doesn’t want any money to go to two of her late husband’s sons from a previous marriage, and neither does she want it to go any of her elderly friends.  There are no charities she wants to leave the money to, even through Simon really pushes her to come up with some beneficiaries. 

    Simon does begin to see that he could do quite well financially as a result of making Eleanor’s will and becomes somewhat ethically torn.  He doesn’t want to steal all her money, but he does decide to increase his fee for making the will substantially, and legally sets himself up to manage her affairs because of Eleanor’s age and frailty.

           As he continues to work with Eleanor to complete her will, he becomes caring and concerned for the old woman.  They often meet to have lunch together at local ethnic restaurants in an attempt to get more satisfactory information from her.  She is a very reckless driver, and Simon ends up helping her deal with some of her many traffic tickets.  

    At about this point in the novel, I begin to wonder, where is the big mystery,  but then suddenly WHAM, something happens that turns Simon’s whole life upside down.  It is an event that could even end Simon’s life, and he doesn’t know why he is suddenly put in that situation.

    I found The Widow to be a wonderfully engaging novel that I found hard to put down.  I hated the fact that I was reading it so quickly, because as I got closer to the end, I started dreading that the entertainment I was getting from the book would soon be over.  I, like Simon, just couldn’t figure out who was responsible for his sudden fall from grace.  

            I have high praise for this Grisham mystery.  I enjoyed it immensely.  It was well worth the $18 I paid for it.

View my paintings at davidmarchant2.ca