The Westing Game
TLDR: “Fun mystery”
This is technically a young adult book, I believe. It’s from the late 70s, and is fairly well-known.
An eccentric millionaire dies, and leaves a game to be played by a group of people who have all moved into a new condominium building next to his mansion. The team that puts the clues together and comes to the correct answer will win his fortune.
It sounds cliched – and it is – but it’s well-done, and a little darker that the setting would suggest. There are 15-20 people involved, and there are lots of relationships and history between them all. It gets a little hard to keep track of, but some of the intricacies are important.
In addition to solving the mystery itself, there’s character development and conflict resolution for characters beyond the immediate plot.
The resolution is quite good and unexpected. I’m not sure if I could get it myself, but it was nicely done.
(Interestingly, I read about the book from someone who said it was the first book that didn’t “lie” to him when he was a kid, meaning the solution to the mystery didn’t have to do with hidden information that the reader was unaware of. I would have to go back to audit all the clues to make sure there’s enough to solve it, but that could be true.)
Book Data
- Author
- Ellen Raskin
- Year
- Pages
- 192
- Acquired
- Open Library
- OL4103857W
- Wikipedia
- The_Westing_Game
- I have read this book. According to my records, I completed it on .
- A hardcover copy of this book is currently in my home library.