Whitcoulls Recommends: The Widow and Gone Before Goodbye

The Widow by John Grisham. Simon Latch is a small time, small town lawyer in Virginia, whose marriage is falling apart, his gambling is out of control, and his legal practice is on the verge of going under. Then an elderly widow arrives on his doorstep, to say that her husband left her millions of dollars in shares, which she wants to keep out of the hands of her estranged stepsons and as she no longer trusts the lawyer who drafted her current will, she wants Simon to help her. He thinks this is the golden ticket that could turn his life around….until she dies in a car crash and he finds himself accused of murder. It’s terrific Grisham - less courtroom drama than some of his earlier novels but plenty of intrigue nonetheless.

Gone Before Goodbye by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben. These two have collaborated on a novel about a highly skilled surgeon who has been disgraced and can no longer practice, and whose husband has been murdered in the war zone where they used to work together. She’s approached by a former colleague to take a job with an oligarch who requires complete anonymity and confidentiality and in return will re-establish her credentials, and pay handsomely for her service. The story moves from war zones and refugee camps, and America to Russia and Dubai where there are wheels within wheels, no one can be trusted, and the tension ratchets up as hidden truths are exposed and the secrets of this underworld are brought to light. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News TALKSB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Joe McKenzie, Good morning, Hello, John Grisham is back.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
I love John Grisham. Can't go wrong with a John
Grisham book, nothing, especially over a long weekend.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Yeah, I think that's true. This one is called The
Widow and you obviously know that Grisham's books are usually
legal thrillers which are set in courtrooms, but this one
has more of a mystery element to it as well,
although of course there are some courtroom scenes. And it's
the story of Simon Latch who's a lawyer in smalltown
Virginia and nothing's going right for him. His legal practice

(00:42):
is going under, his marriage is doomed, he's got a
nasty gambling habit which he's struggling to deal with. And
then one day, an elderly woman arrives on his doorstep
and says that her husband left her millions of dollars
worth of shares and big companies like Coca Cola, and
she wants to make sure that her estranged step sons
can't get their hands anywhere near this money. And she

(01:03):
also says that she no longer trusts her current and
she'd like Simon to take her on as a client. Well,
of course he's thrilled. He immediately sees flashing dollar signs
and starts to manage her affairs. And he just skims
a little bit off the top on the way through,
which starts to help him out of the down with
spiral what he's been in. But things don't go smoothly

(01:23):
because she's quite feisty and quite difficult, and he lavishes
everything on her. He takes her out for frequently nice
lavish lunches, and he gives her laser focused client attention
because she's essentially only one. But she's hard to manage.
And then the darts kick in. Is she really worth
all that money? And when she dies in an apparent

(01:45):
car crash and I'm not giving anything away here, things
really turn ugly and he finds himself facing murder charges.
And that's where the John Grisham court room things e in.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
This is where we kick off. That's really interesting because
when you were sort of first talking, I was going,
I don't know if I like Simon as a character
who doesn't like sounds sort of sound like the character
I really want to kind of read about. But now
it's sounding interesting.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Well yeah, And what I would say that I think
Grisham's box all have a very human element to he
and Simon fits right into that, if it's.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Right, okay. Reese Witherspoon, of course, is a huge book fan.
She's had her book club for many, many years. She
has collaborated with Harlan Coben on a new book. Yes,
it's called Gone Before Goodbye, And of course listeners may
know that Harlan Coben is a terrific thriller writer, and
I think teaming up with Reese witherspoon's really smart because

(02:32):
he can provide all of the twisty, thrilling action and
she can add in the world of the super welfare,
which I suspect she knows a fair bit about. And
it's the story of Maggie mckab who's been a distinguished
army surgeon, but she lost her way and she's lost
her license to practice, and she's really down on her luck.
And she's approached one day by a cosmetic surgeon who

(02:53):
tells her there's a job going with one of the
world's most secretive people, which requires of course complete confidentiality,
you know, etc. In return for millions of dollars if
she'll just turn up and perform what for her is
a couple of pretty easy, basic procedures. But it turns
out this secretive guy is an oligarch, which is where
all the money kicks in. So the action goes from

(03:16):
war zones and refugee camps to la and Dubai and Russia,
and there's some serious money swilling around, and ap project
which Maggie had been working on with her husband and
her friend gets caught up in all of this action,
and she has to go deeper and deeper to find
out exactly what happened to those two people and try
to untangle a seriously weird and dangerous situation. And I

(03:39):
will just say, there are parts of this that are
just ridiculous. But it's fantastic escapism. It's warp speed, it's
high action, and it's great fun. There we go, perfect
for a long weekend, So if you're looking for a
good thriller this weekend. The Widow by John Grisham was
the first book we spoke about, and Gone before Goodbye
by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Copen thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
Joan, see you soon.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
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