westing game

The Main Plot & The Game

The story begins when eccentric millionaire Samuel W. Westing dies and his will summons 16 hand-picked heirs to Sunset Towers. The will states that he was murdered by one of the heirs and that they must play "the Westing game" to find the killer and claim his 200 million fortune. The heirs are paired up and given cryptic clues. The "murder" is a lie. Westing faked his own death to find a worthy heir. The game is a complex, chess-like puzzle with multiple layers of deception.

The Central Mystery: Westing's Four Identities

The most important part of the book is that Sam Westing is not dead. He is alive and living in disguise. To pass, you must know his four identities:

• Sam Westing: The millionaire who supposedly died.
• Barney Northrup: The real estate agent who sold the apartments.
• Sandy McSouthers: The doorman at Sunset Towers.
• Julian R. Eastman: The head of Westing Paper Products and Westing's final disguise.
  The "death" of Sandy was a staged event to make the heirs believe Westing was truly gone.

The Key Characters

• Turtle Wexler: The protagonist and true heir. She is a smart, tough girl who loves the stock market. She is the only one who sees through all the disguises and solves the puzzle.
• Angela Wexler: Turtle's beautiful older sister. She is the "bomber" who set off explosions as a cry for help to escape her family's expectations.