John Grisham Reveals Why His Wife Told Him to Change the Ending of His New Novel The Widow

Grisham’s latest novel is a departure from his well-known legal thrillers, and instead features a ‘whodunnit’ mystery

Bestselling author John Grisham is never afraid to take his wife’s suggestions when he’s writing one of his thrilling crime novels.

On Thursday, March 27, the author, 70, made an appearance on CBS Mornings to speak about his upcoming new book, The Widow. The story is a whodunnit — a departure from the dozens of legal thrillers that made him a bestseller.

According to Grisham, the story came together quickly — but his wife gave him one piece of advice for the book that resulted in him adding more than 25,000 more words to his final draft.

“I finished the book at the end of last year and I had a really clever ending,” Grisham told the CBS hosts. “I was done with it and then [my wife Renee Jones] read the ending and she said, ‘Hey buddy, this ain’t working.’ “

At first, Grisham recalled not wanting to take his wife’s criticism to heart, so he sent the book off to his publishers in New York City with the original ending in place

“I said, ‘Okay, I’ll show you,’ ” he recounted. “I sent it to the editors in New York and they all said, ‘Hey, this is not going to work.’ And so I kept writing.”

“I took their advice, as I always do, when they gang up against me,” Grisham joked. “I can’t argue with all of them, especially Renee. … I wrote 25,000 more words and a new ending. I did not know the ending when I started, and I’m very pleased with it now.”

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According to a synopsis from publisher Penguin Random House, The Widow tells the story of a lawyer in rural Virginia, who is “making just enough to pay his bills while his marriage slowly falls apart.”

“Then into his office walks Eleanor Barnett, an elderly widow in need of a new will. Apparently, her husband left her a small fortune, and no one knows about it,” the synopsis reads. “Once he hooks the richest client of his career, Simon works quietly to keep her wealth under the radar.”

The synopsis adds that after a car accident leaves Eleanor hospitalized, and “Simon realizes that nothing is as it seems.” He then “finds himself on trial for a crime he swears he didn’t commit: murder … To save himself, he must find the real killer.”

As Grisham discussed on CBS, the novel marks one of his first departures from writing legal thrillers, as his books like A Time to Kill, The Firm and The Pelican Brief have turned him into a household name over the past three decades.

“It’s a pure mystery,” he said of The Widow. “I’m not sure I’ve done that before. A real mystery — it’s not ‘whodunnit’ but did he do it?”

“… It’s a courtroom drama with a lot of good stuff,” Grisham adds. “A lot of colorful characters, and I had a ball writing this book.”

The Widow will be released on Oct. 21, and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.