Catherine Raynes: The Widow and Last One Out

The Widow by John Grisham 

The new incredible legal thriller and first ever who-dunnit from John Grisham. She needs a lawyer. He needs a payday. Simon Latch is a small-town lawyer struggling with debt, gambling issues and an impending divorce. 

Last One Out by Jane Harper 

He had been here, that was clear from the marks in the dust. And he had been alone. In a dying town, Ro Crowley waits for her son on the evening of his 21st birthday. But Sam never comes home. 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks at be.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Catherine Rain's, our book reviewer, has two great reads for
us all this weekend. Good morning Catherine, Good morning Jack.
Let's begin with the latest from John Grisham. Tell us
about the widow.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
So this is find Yourselves in rural Virginia. And there's
this small law firm and it operates on the corner
of Maine and Maple, and it deals in everyday issues.
And it's been eighteen years of hard work for Simon
Latch who's the attorney and counselor at law. And to
be perfectly honest, he's kind of had enough of his life.
But actually he spends any money he has on sports gambling.

(00:46):
So he's in a lot of debt and struggling to
make ends meet. When all of a sudden, this elderly
widow named Eleanor comes into his office wanting to have
her will redone. She's no children, but her last husband
had a couple of young lads who she finds quite
awful doesn't want to have anything to do with. And

(01:08):
so it really transpires in as she starts talking that
her late husband had multiple shares in some very well
known companies, and of course she has no one to
leave her vast fortune too. And Simon sees this as
an opportunity to do what all awful lawyers do and
inflate his fees and make his life a little easier.
But things don't go to plan at all, and Alana's

(01:32):
story doesn't really make sense. Can she be trusted? She's
very cagy in details, and she's an incredibly elusive woman.
And then the story switches and Simon finds himself on
trial for a crime he says that he doesn't commit.
And that's where you head into the story that Grisham
is so good at. You get the trial and the

(01:52):
tension and the twists, and some really interesting characters and
the suspense and of course a town, small town full
of secrets and that court room tension which he is
an absolute master of. So without giving too much of
the story of about how Simon ends up there, it
is perfect John Grisham, really good story.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Oh so good? Okay, cool, that's The Widow by John Grisham.
You've also read Last One Out by Jane Harper.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
This also focuses on our small town and it's a
town that's losing its heart and slowly dying and last
one out set in this place in use in rural
South Wales, New South Wales called Caroline Ridge, and it's
houses and buildings, once a thriving place, have been brought
up by this mining company that operates on its outskirts

(02:40):
and it's been really left to rot and it's almost
derilict and you hear this constant noise of the coal
mine and its operation. That's twenty four hours and it
echoes through this narrative, the noise, the dust, the trucks
and the landscape disappearing. But actually where the story starts
is with this young man Sam Crowley on his twenty
first birthday and he's visiting these three very different empty

(03:02):
houses on the outskirts of the town and you discover
that this is the day and the last day that
anyone saw Sam, and he's disappeared. And then the story
moves ahead five years later when Sam's mum, Row returns
to the town for the anniversary of his disappearance, and
we also meet her husband Griff, and her daughter Delia
and Delilah Sorry, and they're all dealing with their grief

(03:23):
and Sam's disappearance and this pressure of this town and
tearing families apart, and Roe really suspects some foul play
and you really left guessing as to what happened to Sam,
and you get these kind of slow moments in the
story that gives you some clues about what might happen.
And then there's these mine owners and people and this
misplaced nostalgia about what this town is and this unraveling

(03:46):
of this community and impact on the people. And it
is quite slow paced, but you're really drawn into the
slow unraveling of the Sam of the story and Sam
and his disappearance and the investigation by his mum and
that dry, dusty middle of Australia feel about it.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, okay, very good. So that's last one out by
Jane Harpy. Sce book is The Widow, which is the
latest from John Grisham. Both of those are up on
the News talk'd.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
B webs For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame.
Listen live to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.