John Grisham’s Answer to ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Officially Sets 2027 Return
Ryan O'Rourke is a Senior News Writer at Collider with a specific interest in all things adult animation, video game adaptations, and the work of Mike Flanagan. He is also an experienced baseball writer with over six years of articles between multiple outlets, most notably FanSided's CubbiesCrib. Whether it's taking in a baseball game, a new season of Futurama or Castlevania: Nocturne, or playing the latest From Software title, he is always finding ways to show his fandom. When it comes to gaming and anything that takes inspiration from it, he is deeply opinionated on what's going on. Outside of entertainment, he's a graduate of Eureka College with a Bachelor's in Communication where he honed his craft as a writer. Between The IV Leader at Illinois Valley Community College and The Pegasus at Eureka, he spent the majority of his college career publishing articles on everything from politics to campus happenings and, of course, entertainment for the student body. Those principles he learned covering the 2020 election, Palestine, and so much more are brought here to Collider, where he has gleefully written on everything from the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes to Nathan Lane baby-birding sewer boys.
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As long as audiences continue to devour legal thrillers, John Grisham will be there to provide new stories in the courtroom. The master of the genre has been getting plenty of attention again lately with the return of USA Network's The Rainmaker for its second season, based on his novel of the same name. Despite mixed reviews from critics, audiences turned Season 1 into one of USA's biggest premieres ever last year, with Milo Callaghan leading the charge as the up-and-coming Rudy Baylor. After notching a decisive first win over his former employer, he's returned with Bruiser (Lana Parilla) and Deck Shifflet (P.J. Byrne) to face old and new adversaries alike and take on a scheme that, win or lose, will forever affect the children caught in the center of it.
Beyond the latest take on one of his classics, Grisham hasn't slowed down as a writer, either. 2025 saw the release of The Widow, following rural Virginian lawyer Simon Latch in what's been described as the bestselling author's first whodunit. Barely scraping by and with a marriage on the rocks, he seemingly gets a break when a wealthy widow comes to him in need of a new will after her husband died and supposedly left her a fortune that nobody else knows about. However, her story is more than meets the eye, and after a car accident sends her to the hospital, Simon suddenly finds himself on the other side of the court, being accused of a murder he didn't commit. The book wasted no time shooting to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, and now, he's looking to revisit Latch for another tale of intrigue.
Last week, it was announced that Grisham would be back next year with a new legal thriller titled The Verdicts. The author's publisher, Suzanne Herz, acquired the U.S. rights to the novel, which will get a first printing of 1.5 million copies and hit store shelves on October 19, 2027. Details are scarce, but Grisham teases it as a return to his home turf, following Simon as he returns to practicing law once more. This time, however, he has multiple cases to juggle in hopes of finding redemption after nearly being thrown behind bars for life. Expect "courtroom drama, legal intrigue, and suspense" aplenty.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Classic Mystery Movie Are You? Clue · Rear Window · Se7en · Memento
Answer eight quick questions and we will tell you which one you are. Four films that solve a mystery in four completely different ways, from a comedy with three separate endings to a thriller told backwards.
🕯Clue(1985)
🪟Rear Window(1954)
📦Se7en(1995)
📸Memento(2000)
01
What kind of film night are you after? Pick the one that sounds most like you.
02
How would your friends describe you? Be honest.
03
What do you do when you are stuck at home? One answer only.
04
How do you react to a plot twist? Pick the closest answer.
05
Pick a room. No wrong answers here.
06
What is your memory like? Pick the closest answer.
07
How do you feel about endings? Think about the last film that got you.
08
What should a mystery film do to you? Last one. This is the one that decides it.
Roll Credits Your Film Is…
Clue went back into cinemas for its fortieth birthday with the three endings handed out at random, which is a good reminder that the mystery film will try anything. Here is yours, what it says about you, and the case for it being the best of the four.
Clue
You are the most fun thing in the room and you are not remotely in control of it. Clue is a murder mystery built from a board game, played at farce speed by one of the best comic ensembles ever assembled, and it refuses to commit to a single answer.
- You keep the energy up and the plan loose, and people have a much better evening because of it.
- Three different endings were sent to different cinemas in 1985, so the answer depended on which screen you walked into.
- It flopped completely, found its audience on video, and went back into cinemas for its fortieth anniversary with the endings randomised again.
- Your flaw is that chaos is excellent company and a terrible plan.
Rear Window
You watch, and you notice the thing everybody else walks past. Hitchcock trapped James Stewart in one room with a broken leg and a view of his neighbours, and built an entire thriller out of a man looking out of a window and being right.
- You are quietly the most observant person in your circle and you clock changes before anybody announces them.
- The courtyard was one of the largest sets ever built at Paramount, with thirty-one apartments and working plumbing.
- It was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Director and is still taught as the cleanest thriller ever constructed.
- Your risk is that watching and doing something about it are not the same, and you know it.
Se7en
You take things on and you do not put them down. Fincher made a serial killer film where the detectives are losing the entire time, shot it so dark the studio complained, and refused to change an ending that everybody told him would sink the film.
- You are the one who keeps going after everybody else has accepted it cannot be solved.
- New Line wanted a different ending and Brad Pitt reportedly refused to make the film without the one they shot.
- It turned Fincher from the director who had a bad time on Alien 3 into the defining thriller director of his generation.
- Your weakness is that carrying something this long does real damage, and you are usually the last to notice.
Memento
Nobody can quite follow your thinking and you get there anyway. Nolan told the story backwards, so the audience knows as little as the man at the centre of it does, and the whole film becomes an argument about how much of what you believe you simply decided to believe.
- You work things out sideways, and explaining the route takes longer than the answer did.
- It was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing in 2002 and won neither, which still annoys people.
- It cost around nine million dollars, made over five times that, and built the career that led to everything after.
- Your flaw is trusting your own version of events slightly more than the evidence supports.
Another Buzzy John Grisham Adaptation Is Already in the Works
Grisham has a lot more legal thriller competition nowadays, but his name still carries plenty of weight, and his The Verdicts is expected to be another winner when it releases. A new book isn't all that's in store for the author, though. Last year, it was announced that Grisham would be returning to theaters with a new adaptation of his 1997 novel The Partner, led by the MCU's Spider-Man and The Odyssey star Tom Holland. Last October, Jason Bateman was also tapped to direct and executive produce. No updates have since been given on the project, including who will pen the film, but it's expected to stick close to the original story of a New Orleans lawyer who fakes his own death after stealing millions from his own firm, only to wind up in a web of much greater problems.
The Verdicts releases on October 19, 2027. Stay tuned here at Collider for more details on Grisham's latest novel as more details come out. Sign up for a free trial of Audible to explore more books and comics.
- Release Date
- August 15, 2025
- Network
- USA Network
-
Milo Callaghan
Rudy Baylor
-
Lana Parrilla
Jocelyn 'Bruiser' Stone
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.