John Grisham’s legal mystery ‘The Widow’ asks if a sleazy lawyer can ever be seen as a ‘good’ victim

Is there such a thing as the “perfect victim”? Is it an old lady who is suddenly mugged on the street? And where does a greedy lawyer, eager to profit from an elderly widow’s demise, fit in? Would we have sympathy if he was manipulated and wrongly accused of her murder?

Such questions of victimhood lie at the heart of John Grisham’s new novel, The Widow. The book is marketed as a classic Grisham courtroom drama with the addition of a whodunnit-style mystery – the writer’s first foray into this genre.

Our protagonist is Simon F Latch, a working-class lawyer who covers routine legal matters such as bankruptcy and wills. Simon struggles with illegal gambling and a fondness for alcohol, which worsens his already struggling marriage and barely profitable legal practice.

Potential for change arrives when Eleanor Barnett, an 85-year-old widow with no family, comes to his office in rural Virginia to secure a new will and claims she is sitting on a US$20 million fortune. Eleanor entrusts oversight of her estate to Simon, whose new drafting of her will ensures he will earn legal fees of US$500 per hour when the will is eventually brought to probate.

Simon sneaks deeper into Eleanor’s life by secretly taking her out to...

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