He thinks that Sam Westing stole his idea of a reusable diaper. He lives in apartment 4C. His partner is Grace Wexler He is the young lawyer who reads the will of Sam Westing. He is not a heir.
Westing, with the help of his three other aliases— Barney Northrup, Sandy McSouthers, and Julian R. Eastman —engineers many of the titular Westing game’s twists and turns as he searches for the individual worthy of inheriting control of his company and the opportunity to shape and steer it toward a brighter future.
Sam Westing, the son of immigrants who was born as Samuel “Windy” Windkloppel, is the eccentric and reclusive owner and operator of the Westing Paper Products Corporation, a conglomerate based in the eponymous Westingtown just off the shores of Lake Michigan.
His partner is Grace Wexler He is the young lawyer who reads the will of Sam Westing. He is not a heir. Denton is getting married to Angela. His Westing connection is that he is engaged to Angela who is a heir. He is a doctor. He is partners with Chris Theodorkas. Denton does not live in Sunset Towers. His position is intern.
Josie-Jo FordJosie-Jo Ford was the first African-American and the first woman elected to a judicial position in Wisconsin. A judge on the state court of appeals, she's one of the many possible heirs to the estate of Samuel Westing, whose death spurs the mystery at the heart of the novel The Westing Game.
Samuel W. WestingFlora Miller BaumbachGeorge TheodorakisCatherine TheodorakisBerthe Erica CrowThe Westing Game/Characters
The Hoo FamilyMr. ... Madame Hoo - Mr. ... Doug Hoo - The son of Mr. ... Flora Baumbach - Still grieving the loss of her daughter, Flora grows to be a loving mother figure to her partner, Turtle. ... Sydelle Pulaski - Mistakingly invited to play the Westing Game, Sydelle turns out to be a great asset to the game.
As the story opens, Barney Northrup is selling apartments to a carefully selected group of tenants. After Sam Westing dies, at the beginning of the book, it emerges that most of the tenants are named as heirs in Westing's will. The will is structured like a puzzle, with the 16 heirs challenged to find the solution.
Dr. DeereDeere that they will have to postpone the wedding. Turtle kicks Dr. Deere in the shin. At Sunset Towers, Chris has three visitors: Otis, Flora, and the limping Dr.
Berthe Erica CrowCrow is severe and quiet, and the other heirs know little of her past. Eventually, it is revealed that Berthe Erica Crow is the mysterious Mrs. Westing—Sam Westing's wife who left him after the death of their beloved daughter, Violet.
She's one of Sam Westing's 16 potential heirs. Engaged at the start of the novel to the medical intern Denton Deere, Angela is conflicted about her upcoming nuptials—yet she's uncertain that there's any other path possible for her.
The sixteen heirs are: Grace Windsor Wexler, Turtle and Angela Wexler (Jake Wexler was named as an heir but refused to attend), Crow, D. Denton Deere, Flora Baumbach, Doug Hoo and his father (James Shin Hoo), Madame Hoo (who does not attend, as her husband did not tell her of the meeting), Judge J.J.
The Theodorakis family occupies 2D and runs the coffee shop on the first floor. The parents, who aren't participants in the game, are minor characters, but the two Theodorakis sons are among the heirs to the Westing fortune.
Angela Wexler is the bomber in The Westing Game. She sets off a series of bombs to vent her frustration over her upcoming marriage.
There's something about thinking a win's coming that makes players (in chess or in this game) overconfident. The players, and Theo, sacrificed their queens (Crow) just as Westing knew they would. Turtle Wexler. "That's a lie, that's a disgusting lie," Turtle shouted. "
At the end of the book, she and Dr. Deere are married, and have a daughter, Alice.
Sam Westing was a wealthy businessman who made his fortune in paper products. He was very patriotic and never smoked, drank, or gambled. As the story opens, Barney Northrup is selling apartments to a carefully selected group of tenants. He claims that chess is not allowed in the building.
It won the Newbery Medal recognizing the year's most distinguished contribution to American children's literature. The Westing Game was ranked number one among all-time children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal in 2012.
Tabitha-Ruth "Turtle" Wexler, known as "Alice" to Flora Baumbach, is a highly intelligent 13-year-old girl. She is very protective of her long, dark braid of hair and anyone who touches it gets a kick to the shin. She excels at playing the stock market. She is very fond of Flora Baumbach, her partner in the game, and of Sandy McSouthers, the doorman. She has a sister named Angela Wexler, a mother named Grace Windkloppel Wexler and a father named Jake Wexler. Unknown to all else, she secretly wins the game by discovering the fourth identity of Windy Windkloppel/Sam Westing and is given control of his company. She visits him for chess every Sunday from then until his death at 85. It is discovered that she later marries Theo in the epilogue when Julian Eastman asks about her husband. After she turns 18, she requests that everyone call her "T.R. Wexler". She falsely admits to being the bomber after the fourth bomb explodes to protect her good-natured sister, Angela, who is the actual bomber.
Grace wants to be an interior designer . However, as the game goes on, she develops a growing interest in her partner's restaurant and the restaurant business in general. James Shin Hoo is a middle-aged man, owner of Shin Hoo's restaurant and former entrepreneur, as well as Madame Hoo's husband and Doug's father.
She has a sister named Angela Wexler, a mother named Grace Windkloppel Wexler and a father named Jake Wexler. Unknown to all else, she secretly wins the game by discovering the fourth identity of Windy Windkloppel/Sam Westing and is given control of his company.
Mr. and Mrs. Theodorakis runs the Sunset Towers coffee shop. They have no role in the game, even though George Theodorakis was Violet Westing's first love. Their sons Chris and Theo do participate in the game. Victims of the first bomb.
He claims that chess is not allowed in the building. After Sam Westing dies, at the beginning of the book, it emerges that most of the tenants are named as heirs in Westing's will. The will is structured like a puzzle, with the 16 heirs challenged to find the solution.
He hates the coffee shop in the lobby because he thinks its stealing his business He doesn't like his son Doug, and he only married his wife for her sauce. He thinks that Sam Westing stole his idea of a reusable diaper. He lives in apartment 4C. His partner is Grace Wexler
He wrote a will that made a game called the westing game to find out who murdered him. He is the owner of WWP and lives in the mansion on the cliff.
Chris is the brother of Theo, has speaking problems. He is in a wheelchair. He is very smart, but babied by other people. He gets along well with Sydelle, probably because she knows how it feels to be left out and forgotten. He knows a lot about birds and likes to birHe has a scholarship to Madison. He lives in apartment 2D. His new position is ornithologist. His old was birdwatcher.
He doesn't like Barney Northrup, works in Sunset Towers; he isn't really part of the family and doesn't really like or hate anyone in the family. Jack secretly likes Madame Hoo. He lives in apartment 3D. His position is bookie .His old position was standing or sitting when not lying down. He forfeits his chance to play in the westing game.
In the Wexler apartment, Angela, the pretty older Wexler daughter, is getting fitted for her wedding gown by Flora Baumbach, the elderly dressmaker who lives and works in the building, while Angela’s mother, Grace Windsor Wexler, supervises. Angela sees smoke coming from the Westing house chimney, and then Turtle comes into the room and makes the same announcement. Grace speaks sharply to Turtle, and when Turtle snaps back, Grace must stop herself from slapping Turtle’s face. Instead, Grace speaks of Angela’s fiancé, Dr. Deere, an intern, and beams at the perfect Angela.
They are Sandy McSouthers, the doorman who was fired from the Westing paper mill; high school seniors Theo Theodorakis and Doug Hoo, sons of the restaurant owners; Otis Amber, the delivery boy; and junior-high-school student Turtle Wexler.
Theo implies to Turtle that he knows the bomber’s identity, and Turtle tries to warn Angela against confessing. Theo follows Otis to the soup kitchen to spy. Judge Ford and Sandy review their own information. Sandy lost his pension when Westing fired him. Judge Ford grew up in the Westing household, where her parents worked. Westing paid for her education, which remains an unpaid debt. After another bomb goes off in the elevator, the police find a note from the bomber written on the back of Turtle’s schoolwork. The police take Turtle to Judge Ford’s apartment, and Judge Ford deduces that Turtle is protecting Angela but says nothing. Turtle confesses that she was in the house the night Westing died and that he didn’t look like a real person. Sydelle and Angela review their clues and notes, and Sydelle makes an important realization about the game: the song “America, the Beautiful” could hold answers to their questions.
In the Wexler apartment, Angela and Sydelle look at their own clues: GOOD GRACE FROM HOOD SPACIOUS. Then they add the words they have deduced from other pairs: KING QUEEN PURPLE WAVES ON (NO), GRAINS, MOUNTAIN (EMPTY). Sydelle wonders if the object of the game is actually “twin” (from “to win”), and they go to her apartment to transcribe her notes. But when Sydelle and Angela get to her apartment, they find the door open and her notebook stolen.
Crow is declared innocent after the coroner determined that Sandy died of a heart attack. Plum quits but turns over one last document to Judge Ford, and she reads the final page of Westing’s will. Westing admits to being Sandy and awards joint ownership of Sunset Towers to his heirs and $30,000 to Crow. The will closes wishing the heirs a happy Fourth of July. Outside, numerous fireworks go off and soon burn the Westing mansion to the ground. The next morning, Turtle visits Julian Eastman, the CEO of the Westing Paper Plant. Turtle calls him Sandy and exclaims that she won.
Judge Ford thinks about the clues—SKIES AM SHINING BROTHER—while examining the letter that Plum gave her, which certifies that Westing was sane. The letter is signed by Dr. Sikes, who was also in the car accident. Judge Ford mulls over the will: Westing implied that he was murdered, the murderer was an heir, he knew the murderer, and the murderer’s name was the correct answer. As she doesn’t believe Westing was the type of person to get murdered, she deduces that one of the heirs is guilty of some other action against him. Judge Ford determines to find the heir before anyone else to ensure justice, not vengeance, wins out. She calls a newspaper to find out everything she can about the heirs.
The tenants move into Sunset Towers, and James Shin Hoo opens his Chinese restaurant and George Theodorakis opens his coffee shop. A month later, five people gather in the driveway, gawking at the nearby Westing mansion.
At noon, Otis Amber sets out to deliver sixteen letters from E.J. Plum, West ing ’s attorney. The letters address the named beneficiaries of Westing ’s estate and urge them to come... (full context)
Westing, with the help of his three other aliases— Barney Northrup, Sandy McSouthers, and Julian R. Eastman —engineers many of the titular Westing game’s twists and turns as he searches for the individual worthy of inheriting control of his company and the opportunity to shape and steer it toward a brighter future.
Otis and Crow make their way to the Westing house. Crow, however, is being sluggish—she tells Otis she has a bad feeling about entering... (full context)
When Turtle Wexler sneaks into the Westing house on a dare one Halloween night, she finds Westing’s dead body in his bed—in the days that follow, Westing’s lawyer summons 16 “heirs,” Turtle among them, to his manor to compete for a $200 million inheritance.
Westing’s past is marked by discord, violence, and heartbreak—the death of his daughter Violet and the resulting dissolution of his marriage to Berthe Erica Crow left Westing a lonely man.
When he arrives, they ask him about Violet Westing. George explains that his father was a foreman who lived and worked in Westing town. George... (full context) As Ford and Sandy puzzle over why Westing involved Chris and Theo but not George or Catherine in the game, they begin to... (full context) Chapter 21.
In the next section of the will, the fourth section, Westing praises America, the “land of opportunity” that has made him a rich man. He urges... (full context)
The Westing Game. A sixty-two-year-old delivery boy, Otis Amber, delivers six letters to people handpicked to live in a luxurious new apartment building called Sunset Towers. The man who signed the letters, Barney Northrup, doesn’t actually exist. Despite that fact, a man calling himself Barney Northrup shows all the prospective tenants ...
The tenants assemble at Westing’s mansion. Grace Wexler, mother to Angela and Turtle, arrives first. James Hoo, owner of a fancy restaurant, comes with his son Doug, a high school track star. Theo and Chris Theodorakis also arrive; Theo is in high school, and Chris is his younger brother who suffers an unknown neurological condition. Also among Westing’s heirs are Dr. Denton Deere, Angela’s fiancé; Flora Baumbach, an older seamstress; Judge J. J. Ford, the first Black and female judge in the state who has past ties to Westing; and Sydelle, who has no apparent connection to Westing. Westing’s other heirs are Berthe Crow, the cleaning woman; Otis; and Sandy.
News of Sam Westing’s death hits the newspaper. Westing was an industrialist who had built his own business and died a multimillionaire, alone—his adult daughter had drowned, and his wife had left him. Years ago, Westing had been in a serious car accident, and he had not been seen again until he showed up dead in his house. The following day, Otis delivers letters to sixteen of the tenants in Sunset Towers, which state that they are Westing’s heirs and invite them to the reading of his will.
In the midst of the heirs working out the puzzle, a bomber strikes. The first bomb goes off in the coffee shop owned by Chris and Theo’s family when the heirs are meeting to discuss sharing clues. Later that evening, a second bomb explodes in Mr. Hoo’s restaurant, injuring Sydelle, who is taken to the hospital. Sandy and Judge Ford continue organizing facts about the heirs. They learn that Westing’s daughter Violet was childhood sweethearts with Mr. Theodorakis but committed suicide when her mother wanted her to marry a politician. Later, a third bomb goes off at Angela’s wedding shower, making a deep cut in her cheek and sending her to the hospital. Turtle figures out that Angela set the bombs herself.
Everyone is friendly with Sydelle because she took shorthand notes at the reading of the will. Judge Ford, partnering with Sandy, even hires a private investigator to find out information about the other heirs and their possible connections to Westing. In the midst of the heirs working out the puzzle, a bomber strikes.
The reading of Westing’s will reveals that one of the heirs has taken Westing’s life. The heir who solves the mystery will inherit Westing’s millions. Heirs are grouped into two-person teams and receive clue words. However, the will instructs the heirs that it’s what they don’t have that matters.
Later, a third bomb goes off at Angela ’s wedding shower, making a deep cut in her cheek and sending her to the hospital. Turtle figures out that Angela set the bombs herself. As Judge Ford and Sandy keep studying their notes, they see a possible connection between Grace, who claims to be Westing’s niece, and Crow.
• Jake Wexler is a podiatrist, and a bookie on the side. He is 45 years old and he is married to Grace Wexler, whom he loves, but he also knows that she might never be happy with their life or financial situation. Jake is the father of Angela Wexler and Tabitha-Ruth Wexler.
• Madame Sun Lin Hoo is the second and much-younger Chinese immigrant wife of James Shin Hoo. She is 28 years old. She barely knows how to speak English. She can usually be found cooking in her husband's …
Sunset Towers is a new apartment building on Lake Michigan, north of Milwaukee and just down the shore from the mansion owned by reclusive self-made millionaire Samuel W. Westing. (Despite its name, Sunset Towers faces east – into the sunrise.) Sam Westing was a wealthy businessman who made his fortune in paper products. He was very patriotic and never smoked, drank, or gambled.
The epilogue of the story is told in the book's last three chapters, which depict what happened to the heirs after the game ended, and how it affected them.
• Otis Amber and Crow fall in love and marry, leaving their jobs at Sunset Towers to work at Crow's soup kitchen, to which many of the heirs leave donations. Both died within a week of each other.
• Flora Baumbach leaves the dressmaking business a few years after the game's conclusion, mo…
The Westing Game, adapted to a stage play by Darian Lindle and directed by Terry Brino-Dean, was first produced at Prime Stage Theatre in Pittsburgh in 2009. The script is published by Dramatic Publishing.
Get a Clue, adapted by Dylan Kelsey Hadley and directed by Terence H. Winkless, was produced for television in 1997.
At the time of the book's publication, Kirkus Reviews called it "A super sharp mystery, more a puzzle than a novel, but endowed with a vivid and extensive cast... If Raskin's crazy ingenuity has threatened to run away with her on previous occasions, here the complicated game is always perfectly meshed with character and story. Confoundingly clever, and very funny." In a retrospective essay about the Newbery Medal-winning books from 1976 to 1985, literary critic Ze…