The Westing Game

1978, 1984 Avon edition
Ellen Raskin
The Westing Game
Possibly bought new, for $2.75
Worn paperback
B-

This is the book that won Raskin the Newbery, but I've always preferred The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel) (1971), although that sadly was out of print for two or three decades, and I haven't yet picked up a copy.  (I did check it out from the library though.)  That book has twins, lots of purple, a more interesting puzzle to solve, playful illustrations, and much more heart.  This one isn't bad.  It's about on a level with the other Newberys I own (better than Julie of the Wolves, not as good as Island of the Blue Dolphins, equal to Wrinkle in Time and Terabithia).  Strangely enough, its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness.  The sixteen heirs/suspects/sleuths are fairly diverse in age, class, and ethnicity.  Unfortunately, there are just too many characters to keep track of for a medium-length preteen mystery.  Turtle Wexler is closest to a heroine, but we spend time with each character, without getting to know any of them particularly well.  In contrast, I cared and still care about Tony and Tina, and their adoptive mother Mrs. Carillon, and even mysterious Leon/Noel.

I can't really judge this book as a mystery.  I think, as with Mysterious Disappearance, I figured out part of the puzzle as a child, but missed the main solution.  Raskin's puzzles involve a lot of wordplay, and sometimes even syllable-play, which is still impressively clever.

Signs that this is set in the 1970s are not only the ways blacks, Asians, and handicapped people (or "cripples" as they were still known) are treated, but also Turtle's remark to her engaged sister Angela that no one gets married anymore.  The book has a self-conscious feminism to it, as when Angela's position on a form changes from "none" (which her fiancé mishears as "nun") to "person."  All of Raskin's characters in this book try to become their true selves, and I just wish those selves were more rounded.