Puzzle fans: You won't find better than The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. Raskin was a children's book illustrator and this novel won the 1979 Newberry Award. It features my favourite trope of strangers gathered for unknown reasons at the reading of a will, where every sentence, forsooth, every word, is a clue.
The Sun sets in the west, but Sunset Towers faces east and has no towers. Six empty apartments are advertised to only six renters - at a price they can afford, a once in a lifetime offer. Each is told they are viewing the last available space, and they jump at the opportunity. Good thing, because their names are already on the mailboxes. They are mothers, fathers, children, a dressmaker, a secretary, a doctor, a judge, an inventor, a bookie, a burglar, a bomber, and a mistake - yes, one of the renters was the wrong person. Sunset Towers sits on the property of the Westing Estate and they discover they were all brought together for the reading of the owner's will. They are all related to the mysterious industrialist, and beneficiaries of 200 million dollars if they follow the rules of a simple game. Mr. Westing knew he was murdered by one of them! and the person who discovers who did it will prove worthy of the fortune. Split into pairs, they are given $10,000 and a set of clues unlike each others.
If you like puzzles and a bunch of great characters spending the next few days vying for a fortune, you will love this book. Filled with humour and diabolical twists, I was actually writing down the clues as found to solve the game while I read - without success! Whenever I had a breakthrough, there was a spanner in the works. Word play and in-jokes add to the fun, a mysterious chess player, a girl who manages to kick every character in the shins, clues within clues, and several characters who are not who they seem - they may be the same person! Throwing in a murder didn't help my detection. This is solved in such a clever, intricate way I was astonished, but wait, there is more: after the finale, there are chapters where the fates and futures of all the characters continue to play out, which is the icing on the cake.
This was entertaining the whole way. Carefully constructed, Raskin drops all the clues you need to solve it, but I was enjoying it so much, I didn't notice. Despite the light tone, there are subtleties that will go over heads and a challenge for adults like me who read mysteries like they are going out of style.
By all means mystery fans of all ages, I recommend The Westing Game. Becoming a classic over the past 41 years, I'm sure it's at your library.
I loved it.
1978 / Tradeback / 182 pages
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