The place is Sunset Towers, an apartment building on the shore of Lake Michigan. All the tenants of the Towers are mentioned in the will of Samuel Westing, who recently died and left his $200 million dollar fortune to the tenant who can solve the riddle he left behind—to the winner of The Westing Game. This suspenseful and fascinating book truly begs the question: how far would you go for wealth?

The eccentric cast of characters includes a brilliant disabled boy bird-watcher, a beautiful but deeply confused bride-to-be and her overbearing mother, a feisty girl named Turtle who kicks people in the shins, a high school track star, a timid dressmaker, and a woman who chronically fakes a broken leg to get attention with her elaborately painted crutches.

In The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin created a perfect mystery, in which every plot point leads to the startling conclusion, but more importantly, each character has a fascinating story. You will remember their humor, sadness, and zaniness long after the mystery is solved.