This book sounded like it would be lots of fun, and I read it hoping for a great mystery. In the end I think there were too many characters, and not enough information to make any of them seem real to me. I never really got why they were who they were, except on the most basic level. Each character was just glossed over, and even though they were described in a basic way, there was nothing to really draw me in or make me care about them.

My favorite children’s mystery of all. All the characters of the book are given clues and are told to work together as the terms of the will of a rich dead man. The characters’ lives are all intertwined and the clues often come to nothing. Yet the story twists and turns and all comes together into a perfect and satisfactory ending.

“Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore” and “Ajax Penumbra 1969” are two of my favourite books of all time. Non-crime mysteries for adults are extremely rate and these contain ancient ones, in a thrilling clue-solving ambiance. Bookstore settings are not enough. Stories with puzzles will not do. If you compare a novel to the “Penumbra” ones; their mysteriousness had damned well better measure up! I did not hear of “The Westing Game” as a child and of course, was excited by the comparison. As a classic, I was able to order a new paperback. I deliberated and gave 4 stars because it has its own uniqueness and strengths. However, disappointment plummeted far.

I disliked nearly every character for most of the duration. Those I liked took ages earning it; notably the protagonist who kicked people, even if that supplied one lead. Who does that at age 10? A lot of time went on describing the successful coercion of 16 people into a complex of condominiums. They comprised Samuel Westing’s game but a written summons would suffice to pair them into teams and invite them to his house.

There is uncertainty about his death and the outcome of his ex-wife. His will and one paper handout per team, give the clues to solving one riddle for a money prize. Blandly assigned riddle sections generate none of the excitement of discovering an unknown mystery. Besides working on lines from time to time, most of the story was taken up by pranks and decoys among the condominium residents. I read that award-winning authoress, Ellen Raskin, did not dumb down books for children and like that. However, this was kid-centered. It was too much a family drama, with most of the adults weak-minded or unlikeable, to be atmospherically suspenseful. I will give this to my niece.

It's hard to judge this by today's standards. I loved the character ARC of Turtle and how she handled the game. And the fact that the others grew during the game (and afterward as well.) Having so many POV's made it hard to follow the story, but the last half, moved quickly once I had the flow of the writing.

Did I enjoy this? Yes. Was I able to figure out the mystery? Well, some of it, but not all. Did the constant character POV jumping drive me bonkers? YESSSSSS.

I'm guessing child-me would have liked this a whole lot more. Regardless, this was a fun read (that even though was on my TBR, I would never have gotten to otherwise) with my friends who don't like pantaloons. I was only a little behind (*tsk *tsk).

Plus I heard that the POV jumping was easier to follow in print vs the ebook...just FYI

This was one of my favorite children's books, and I decided to reread it by listening to it on audio. What a delight! The mystery held up really well, and Diane the Adult had fun following the clues being dropped. I had forgotten some of the twists in the story, which made it even more fun, and I was happy with the ending, which I had conveniently forgotten.

I can't remember how old I was when I first read this book, but I do remember loving it so much that I wrote a letter to the author on an electric typewriter. However, when I looked at Ellen Raskin's bio page on Wikipedia, it says she died in 1984 when she was just 56, so she was likely already gone while I was typing out my admiration for her work. Ellen, wherever you are, thanks for writing such a clever book for children. When I was young, reading that book made me feel like a grownup, and as an adult, reading the book made me feel like a kid again. Cheers to you.

Sixteen individuals have been invited to the reading of Samuel W. Westing's will. The reading of the will consists of clues to a game the wealthy Mr. Westing has created for these individuals. What's at stake? The winner of the Westing Game will receive $200 million dollars.

This was such an interesting read. It's a quirky and clever mystery. I loved keeping track of the clues and details about all the characters throughout the story. This book was engaging from beginning to end. If you're looking for a quick and entertaining mystery, I'd recommend this one.

Pure genius! This book has been described by The Horn Book as "A fascinating medley of word games, disguises, multiple aliases, and subterfuges." Nailed it. What a treasure this book is for the middle grade reader who loves word puzzles and mysteries. A book you can read over and over and make new discoveries with each visit. Highly recommended!

Не стану даже ничего писать о том, насколько это скучный и бестолковый детектив – возможно, все дело в том, что это не детектив скучный, а мой возраст, но все-таки как же хорошо, что с 1978 года все-таки что-то изменилось, и больше никто не пишет романов, в которых китайцы и одинокие некрасивые женщины становятся объектом для комического выхлопа, а на вредную и умненькую девочку обращают внимание только тогда, когда она сделает, наконец, хорошую стрижку.

this is one of the best mystery books i have ever read. the plot twists are crazy and you'll never expect any of this. i love the way that it confuses you making you try to understand this book on a deeper level.

I read this with some friends who eschew pantalones. I'd never heard of this book before, despite it being a book for children that was available when I was a child. I think, had I read this way back when, I likely would have enjoyed it a lot more than I did reading it now as a woman who once rode a dinosaur around town, probably.

The premise is such: A very rich man leaves a will naming 16 people as his heirs, but only the one who solves The Mystery(tm) will inherit all of the money that exists. Nominally $200 million.

There's a lot going on in this book. There's a diverse cast. There's a mystery. There's... a plot. Of sorts.

But what there isn't, at least in my opinion, is cohesion and sense. This book has an ever shifting 3rd person limited Point-of-view narrative structure, sort of stream of consciousness, if we (the reader) existed in the story as a telepathic fly. We flit around and pick up snippets of conversation and thoughts... but the fly has the advantage over us because at least the fly would know whose head it has landed on at the moment. As a reader, there are a lot of ownerless thoughts just hanging out in this book, and it bugged me. (See what I did there?)

On top of that, this book makes use of the dialogue as action style that I really loathe, AND it lacks narrative transitional structure. So one minute we'll have someone saying "Go upstairs and say hello." and then the next line is the hello - not even an "OK, sure".

At one point, one of the characters is in the hospital recovering from an injury. Throughout the time that this character is there, characters just show up, and then show up back at their apartment complex randomly, as though the hospital is IN the building - which it is not. Including a 13 year old child. Just "Oh, we're at this place now. Annnnnd now we're not again?"

It was just very difficult for me to track what was happening, where we were, how much time had passed in the story, who was speaking or thinking at the time. It was just a jumble of words surrounding a mystery that all of the characters were trying to solve... and not one bit of it made sense to me.

The mystery laid out in the will was not as it seemed, and the real solution was to a question that was never asked and a mystery that was never mentioned. It all seemed laid out and planned from the outset, and the level of prep-work required would have been astronomical. And I'm left feeling confused and dissatisfied with the end of the book because it seems like a huge amount of work... for nothing. The end result could have been accomplished much, much, much easier without all the subterfuge and trickery, and it would have actually been much more kind as well.

I just... didn't get this one. It didn't work for me. For all that it's less than 200 pages, it took me AGES to read it because the style just killed my interest every time I picked it up. I was determined to finish, and so I did, but I don't feel like it was worth it. It's a shame, because this book has great reviews, and I had hoped to enjoy it, but it wasn't to be.

2 stars for the potential had I read it when I was an appropriate age and not ancient.

3 stars, that was disappointing…..