The westing game

Summary of The Westing Game:

The Westing Game is based in the 1900's, and is about Six very different families, families whose members include a doctor, a judge, a secretary, a dressmaker, an inventor, a bookie, and a bomber. These families were all mentioned in the Will of a Mr. Samuel Westing, where they are asked to play a rather eccentric game, and only keep playing because Mr. Westing (who is now dead, or so they thought) is dangling a $2,000,000 reward in their faces. Various problems interrupt the game, such as being snowed in, having a bomber plant bombs in the building, and the fear that they are living with a murderer, as the will states that Mr. Westing was murdered by one of the heirs. The mystery is complicated, hard to keep up with, and the answers don't come until the very end. Eventually, Turtle Wexler, the youngest character, wins it all. She finds the answer to the problem by paying attention to the tiniest of clues, such as the sentence "The estate is at the crossroads. The heir who wins the windfall will be the one who finds the..." Later, she completes the sentence, and finds the last word is the fourth. Samuel Westing had three other names in addition to his own. One was Barney Northrup. One, Sandy McSouthers. A third, Julian R. Eastman. His fourth, was his real name. The heirs knew three of them. Only Turtle found the fourth, Julian R. Eastman. She went to him, and won the entire estate, his money, all of the reward. Only at the end does she find it out, keeping the intrigue going. The Mystery novel is very clever, with good characterization, a nice plot, and good setting.