Summary Of The Westing Game By Ellen Raskin

In class, we read “The Westing Game” written by Ellen Raskin. The Westing Game is a mystery novel told in third person. It takes place in Westing town in Sunset Towers; “... The most luxurious building on Lake Michigan.” In the book, Sam Westing’s will says he was murdered by one of his 16 nieces or nephews. All 16 heirs play the westing game. “The object of the game: to win.” The westing game last for one year; it starts on July 4th and ends on July 4th. At the end of the book it flash forward five years. There were 16 heirs who played the westing game. They were all split into pairs of two. One main pair were Turtle Wexler and Flora Baumbach. Turtle is a smart girl always with a bird in her hair and Flora Baumbach, also called Baba by

Uncle Sam, a clever man, left the 16 heirs a way to win his vast fortune. To win the money, they must find out the murderer of Sam Westing. His will stated that “ It is not what you have, it’s what you don’t have that counts.” With that being said all the heirs put together their clues when they were called to come back to the Westinghouse to tell their answers. By putting there clues together they figured out that it was the lyrics to America America with some words not there. The missing words spelled out Berthe Erica Crow. Everyone thinks that Crow was the murder. Turtle realizes something's not right, so she calls for a trial and interrogates the witnesses. Otis says he's a private investigator, Dr. Deere says Westing might not have been dead, and Turtle claims that Crow's not guilty of murdering. They read the will and realize one word is missing from it. It reads, "The heir who wins the windfall will be the one who finds the… FOURTH" Turtle figures out that Sam Westing was four people(three of them were Westing, Barney Northrup, and Sandy.) The fourth person was the answer to the game. That person was Julian