95 pages 3 hours read

Ellen Raskin

The Westing Game

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1978

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Summary and Study Guide

Overview

The Westing Game, by American children’s author and illustrator Ellen Raskin, is a mystery novel first published in 1978. The novel, marketed as children’s literature, won the John Newbery Medal, although it is also considered a work of YA fiction. The narrative tells the story of a group of strangers bizarrely brought together to solve the mystery of Samuel Westing’s death and pursue a great fortune. At the opening of the book, a mysterious letter lands on the doorstep of a special group of individuals, inviting them to come see a new luxury apartment building called Sunset Towers on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Plot Summary

On Halloween night, a fearless girl named Turtle takes a bet to enter the old Westing mansion on the bluff above the building. She runs out screaming, believing she’s encountered the corpse of the man who once lived there, the local and wealthy industrialist Sam Westing. Days later, the residents read his obituary in the papers.

As the residents settle into their new homes, they receive a second letter, informing them that they are all heirs to Westing’s fortune. Upon first meeting later that night, they are surprised to learn that a lawyer has summoned all 16 of them to hear the reading of the will. They are paired into eight seemingly random teams. Each team proceeds with a set of clues and a check for $10,000. A snowstorm confines them to the building for several days, during which they begin getting to know each other. Some believe that sharing clues is the only way to find an answer, while others are more territorial, wanting to know what kinds of people they might be playing against.

Judge J.J. Ford is in the latter category and throws a party for all the heirs in her apartment. The next morning, they all convene in the coffee shop on the first floor of Sunset Towers to strategize, but a bomb goes off, cutting the meeting short. Although the explosion injures no one, paranoia sets in.

Another bomb explodes only days later, in the Chinese restaurant on the top floor of the building. This time, a resident goes to the hospital with minor injuries. As the snow finally clears, the heirs are free to resume their uninhibited investigations. Judge Ford and her partner, Sandy McSouthers, discover that Westing’s daughter committed suicide years ago, after being forced to pursue marriage with a man she did not love.

A third bomb explosion sends a young woman named Angela Wexler to the hospital with facial injuries, and a bomb squad begins investigating the scene, only to conclude that these mishaps were accidental. As the heirs play the Westing game, a crucial element of their findings relates to each heir’s relationship to Westing. They believe that the others will punish whoever has murdered Westing, so they feel the need to conceal their histories to protect themselves from being labeled guilty.

The heirs arrive at the Westing mansion with their answers, but everyone is wrong. Sandy abruptly dies, his body removed, but the game continues. Upon combining their clues, the heirs discover the words “Berthe Erica Crow,” the name of Westing’s ex-wife, who is an heir and the cleaning woman of Sunset Towers.

A makeshift court is set up following Crow’s removal to jail. A thorough cross-examination, performed by Turtle and overseen by Judge Ford, pieces together information crucial to discovering that Westing was not killed. He, in fact, had several personalities. He was Sandy, and he was also the man who signed the original tenant letters and welcomed the families to Sunset Towers—Barney Northrup.

Crow returns from jail, and the heirs understand that no one is to win the big fortune. Turtle, however, cracks the puzzle and discovers Westing’s fourth and final identity—Julian Eastman. Sam Westing, Sandy McSouthers, Barney Northrup, Julian Eastman are all the same man.