But it’s also a rich, paranoid allegory of American capitalism. What ensues is a technically perfect puzzle-box mystery, one that baffled me when I was 9 and probably would baffle me today if I picked up The Westing Game without already knowing the plot. No, they’re stock market symbols, says Turtle, who is 11 years old and determined to be a businesswoman. Perhaps the words are code for a chemical notation, suggests one heir.

The aim of the game, they are told, is simple: “to win.”īaffled, the heirs retire in their teams back to Sunset Towers and try their best to work out their clues, each working through the lens of their own expertise. (No two family members can be on the same team.) Each team gets a set of “clues,” a collection of apparently random words written on slips of paper. Barney Northrup had rented one of the apartments to the wrong person.”Īs the body of Sam Westing holds state in the hall of his mansion, dressed as Uncle Sam, his lawyer divides the 16 heirs into eight teams of two. And, oh yes, one was a bookie, one was a burglar, one was a bomber, and one was a mistake. A dressmaker, a secretary, an inventor, a doctor, a judge. “They were mothers and fathers and children. “Who were these people, these specially selected tenants?” Raskin writes.

They were all rented their new units by one Barney Northrup, who, the narrator interjects, does not actually exist. And 16 strangers have been named Westing’s joint beneficiaries, much to their bewilderment.Īdding to the mystery: All 16 of them have also recently moved into Sunset Towers, a glittery new apartment building on the shores of Lake Michigan that faces (the narrator points out helpfully) east rather than west, and has no towers. Paper products tycoon Sam Westing - who would certainly have cleaned up in this, the era of toilet paper scarcity - has been found dead in his mansion. Like Knives Out, The Westing Game revolves around the will of a mysterious billionaire. It is called The Westing Game, written by Ellen Raskin in 1978, and it is the perfect antidote to the quarantine anxiety blahs for readers of any age. Have you ever thought to yourself, “Wow, I wish I could experience Knives Out for the first time all over again, but this time I would like it to also be an extremely charming children’s book”? Then friend, you are in luck, for such a book does indeed exist.

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The westing game book by ellen raskin