The Widow, Grisham - C +

                Simon is an unhappily married, down-and-out lawyer in a rural Virginia town going nowhere when 85-year-old Netty walks into his office. She needs a new will and has about $20 million, with no family or friends. His ship has come in. He drafts a will naming himself executor and trustee of a charitable trust. As his gambling debts pile up, he dreams of the fees he'll soon be collecting. Netty is in a car accident, hospitalized, and in bad shape. The doctors suggest he draft a DNR, and a week later, they recommend he terminate life support. Within a day, Netty's estranged stepsons ask for an autopsy. The results show she was poisoned, and Simon is arrested. A change of venue moves the trial four hours away, where the case has not been newsworthy. After a relatively brief trial in which the state presents no real proof of poisoning, the jury finds Simon guilty. He recruits a hacker who leads him to a serial killer working in various hospitals, and soon the FBI steps in. His conviction is eventually vacated.

           By the standards of every John Grisham thriller I can remember, this is a flop. Netty, the lying widow, is not an appealing character, nor is Simon. The trial is a bore, and the resolution is so far out of left field that it feels disconnected from the rest of the story. Don’t bother.