Book Review: The Westing Game

I read this book over the summer, so some of the details may have escaped me. I remember enjoying The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin as a young girl, so I re-read the book this year. I am happy to report that I still enjoyed the book. It is a very simple book, but I think children and adults (who are young at heart) can both enjoy it.

The Westing Game is a mystery surrounding the tenants of Sunset Towers. Our heroine is young Turtle Wexler. The other tenants are somewhat humorous caricatures. Turtle's father is a doctor and her mother is odd. Her sister is quiet and pretty, to be married to a young doctor. There is the Chinese high school track star and his parents, who run the restaurant on the top floor of Sunset Towers. On the first floor is a coffee shop, run by a couple who have two young boys. One of the boys is friends with the track star; their other son has a disability and is confined to a wheelchair. There is a wise lawyer, an attention-starved secretary, a doorman, a mailman, and a mysterious woman named Crow. I forgot all the names now, but each character is not always who they seem to be.

Samuel Westing is found dead in his house, and certain tenants are invited as "heirs" to the reading of his will. At this reading, Westing's lawyer reads an interesting will. Westing claims that he has been murdered by one of the heirs in the room, and it is up to the tenants to solve the case in order to win the inheritance. Westing pairs off the heirs and generously gives each pair $10,000 to spend as they choose.

This book is much about the mystery as well as an inside look at each character. Although Turtle is our main character, we get to see into the thoughts and hidden actions of each character, helping us understand each individual's internal struggle.

I really don't want to give away any of the twists and turns and secrets of this mystery, as that is part of the fun while reading The Westing Game!

**spoiler alert**
I will say that I liked how the book told what happened in the more distant future of each character. Two parts I thought were very, "You go girl!" included Turtle's sister (Grace) putting off her wedding in order to go to college herself and then get married; and that Turtle knows she isn't the typically attractive girl, but she has so many talents (being smart and able to educate herself, for one) to show that looks are nothing. The author drove this point home further with Grace getting a scar on her face, which she sometimes touches fondly. It's good to embrace our seemingly "faults," for those may also be a part of us.