Literature / The Westing Game

It's not what you have, it's what you don't have that counts.

A murder-mystery epic Newbery Award winning novel by Ellen Raskin about sixteen heirs who compete to win a $200 million inheritance from the late Samuel W. Westing. Westing, for his own reasons, has set up a game of his own, set in a very large, cushy apartment building where the heirs and their families are basically trapped into staying; the only clues he gives the players are seemingly nonsensical words printed on paper towel squares. Figure out the clues and the answer should be obvious... but maybe not.

The book inspired a 1997 TV movie starring Ray Walston and Ashley Peldon. HBO Max also greenlit a Westing Game TV show in September 2020.

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This book contains examples of:

• Arranged Marriage:
  • The subtext behind Angela Wexler and Dr. Denton Deere's engagement is that Grace hand-picked a brilliant doctor for her perfect daughter, who went along with it because she's The Good Daughter.
  • It's outright stated that Westing's wife did the same thing with her daughter and a politician, which led to the daughter's suicide.
• The Atoner: It's heavily implied that Crow realized her role in her daughter's suicide and now wants to avoid Angela meeting a similar fate.
• Attending Your Own Funeral: Westing attends the will reading and sessions of the Game in the guise of one of the heirs.
• Bad Boss: Sam Westing's employees and colleagues do not have positive things to say about him. Sandy especially holds a grudge, as Westing personally fired him from the paper mill after he tried to form a union. Sandy, however, is Sam Westing himself; it's ambiguous whether this is Westing showing remorse, him trying to better play the part, or a complete invention.
• Batman Gambit: The "trial" to prove Crow's innocence in both Westing and Sandy's deaths is actually an attempt by Turtle to gather all the information she needs to win the game. Ford eventually realizes this, but as she isn't privy to all the clues or Turtle's thoughts she isn't able to figure out what Turtle does.
• Berserk Button: Don't pull Turtle's braid unless you want a good hard kick in the shin. And never talk down to Chris in front of his brother Theo.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Angela, the beautiful Wexler daughter who is kind and sympathetic with almost everyone (witness especially how she's one of the few who treats Chris as more than his disability and the only one who sees past Sydelle's fake illnesses and attention-getting behavior to genuinely befriend her), is the bomber.
  • Madame Hoo, the quiet, dutiful wife of James Hoo who never acts nastily or dismissively toward anyone (which cannot be said for her husband), is the thief.
  • Jake Wexler, who is one of the more amiable, likable characters in the book and specifically seems to have great love and understanding for both of his daughters despite Turtle being treated as just a brat by almost everyone else and Angela being dismissed as only a "pretty young thing", is the bookie.
  • Sandy, the jolly doorman who befriends both Turtle and Judge Ford, is kind to even the most unlikable characters, and doesn't have a harsh word for anyone (outside of one brief scene where he lambastes Westing, which in retrospect is both Self-Deprecation and My God, What Have I Done?), is The Chessmaster behind the entire situation.
• The Big Race: Doug's track meet, which occupies more of his attention than the Game does.
• Big Sister Instinct: Inverted with Turtle, who is extremely protective of her shy older sister Angela. She freaks out when she thinks Theo knows Angela's the bomber, so Turtle takes the blame for all the bombings to protect Angela. On the other hand, Angela cares a great deal for Turtle too, and gets herself hurt when she yanks the third bomb away from Turtle's face.
• A Bloody Mess: When the first bomb goes off, Mrs Theodorakis appears to be covered in blood, but it's just tomato sauce.
• Brick Joke:
  • Flora Baumbach's car's hood comes open in traffic, a few pages after another heir follows a (false) lead to check under the hoods of the vehicles in Sunset Towers' parking lot. Guess they didn't secure Flora's properly afterwards.
  • Otis shouting "Boom!" to scare people teaches Madame Hoo this word, which eventually becomes Team One's totally-random answer.
  • Jake Wexler, the podiatrist, is also a bookie, though this is only mentioned in passing once or twice. At the end of the book, Ford pulls strings to have him appointed to a government panel determining whether to set up a state lottery. The epilogues reveal that he later becomes State Gambling Commissioner, and finally the state crime commissioner.
  • On a related note, Jake is working on a corn on Crow's foot when she sees smoke from the Westing house chimney; apparently she moves her foot enough in her surprise that he accidentally wounds her, since she later states that she still hasn't healed. This revelation prompts Mr. Hoo to offer her one of his paper innersoles, which finally relieves her pain and lets her walk normally. Near the end of the book, it's revealed that she and Otis Amber have passed out more innersoles to the homeless people who come to their soup kitchen.
  • Sydelle injures her leg (again) just in time to attend the heirs' reunion on crutches.
• Call to Adventure: The whole plot gets kicked off, after everyone has moved into Sunset Towers, by Otis Amber, prompted by Sandy/Westing, telling Turtle, Theo, and Doug the "ghost story" about the Westing House, thus encouraging them to go explore it and find Westing.
• Captain Obvious: Sydelle, when trying to get someone to admit to being a twin.
• Cassandra Truth: "It's not what you have, it's what you don't have that counts." No one even thinks about that until the final meeting, and they still misinterpret it, and yet it was completely accurate. The goal of the Westing Game was to deduce the fourth alias used by Sam Westing, three of which were known acquaintances of all the players, although the players didn't know those people were alter egos of Sam's. Once the winner of the game figured out what the real goal was, it was very easy.
• Catchphrase:
  • Otis Amber exclaims "Boom!" at random times to scare people after the first two bombings.
  • "Purple waves."
• Character-Driven Strategy: Sam Westing is a successful entrepreneur and notably good at chess. Most notably is his sacrifice of a queen, allowing him to get a Surprise Checkmate, an analogy for his ability to manipulate the title game's contestants even when they believed themselves onto something.
• Chekhov's Gun: While there are far too many to list thanks to the intricate nature of the plot, one of the longest-reaching (and most subtle) would be Westing's obituary, where it not only makes note of his penchant for disguises but also his love of fireworks displays (at which point Turtle helpfully makes note of the boxes marked "Danger—Explosives!" in the Westing mansion's basement storeroom; this only becomes more meaningful when her candles are introduced, the last of them having been sold to Sandy for "his wife's birthday").
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • Otis Amber. A fellow who at first seems to just be a rather ditzy delivery man (or "boy", as he's first introduced even as he's also noted oxymoronically to be an old man), turns out to have Hidden Depths in his love for Crow and participation in her soup kitchen, then is revealed by Judge Ford to be a private detective, when she looks one up in the phonebook to investigate the heirs, who also was hired by Barney Northrup to locate all the tenants for Sunset Towers, and also was hired years ago by Westing himself.
  • Sandy/Barney Northrup. A fellow who at first seems to be either a kind and helpful doorman who once worked in Westing's factory or the smarmy real estate agent who sells everyone their apartments in Sunset Towers turns out to be the same person, and also Sam Westing.
  • Sandy's dentist. When Sandy sends Turtle to him to deal with her cavity, she notices false teeth that look faulty. The dentist explains that these imperfections are deliberate, to make the dentures look more realistic. Turtle later deduces that it was using these deliberately imperfect false teeth that allowed Sam Westing to become Sandy, as well as Barney Northrup.
• The Chessmaster: Sam Westing. Never mind the fact that he ends up creating three other very different identities, none of which are picked up on by any of the heirs except Turtle—the game itself requires an extreme amount of manipulation, guile, and intelligence in every one of its layers, from planning out the clues and what the missing ones spell out, to the writing of the will (including sections which he slipped into a locked desk drawer only after listening to the heirs debate, seconds before they would be read), to employing bribes of money to get certain people to even be willing to play (and in pairs where both must agree and sign the checks to receive it), to Faking the Dead twice, to whom he sets up as the various pairs, and more. He also possesses and makes use of great insight into each of the characters' personalities and motivations, particularly Ford's, Grace's, Crow's, and Turtle's.
• Chess Motifs:
  • Sixteen heirs, or eight pairs, which Theo notices is the same as the number of pawns in a game of chess.
  • Sam Westing, as well as being The Chessmaster, is reputed to be extremely skilled at the actual game of chess.
  • Judge Ford recalls that during her final chess game with Sam Westing, he tricked her into letting him checkmate by giving her the opportunity to take his queen. She later draws a parallel between the "Queen's Sacrifice" and the Westing Game, since exposing Crow as a murderer would distract most of the heirs from the real objective.
• Cloud Cuckoolander:
  • Otis Amber appears to be one of these, but it's actually Obfuscating Insanity.
  • Sydelle Pulaski.
  • Crow, even having qualities of The Ophelia.
• Collector of the Strange: Flora Baumbach's late daughter collected fabric swatches from her mother's dress shop.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Invoked in-story by Sydelle, who always paints her crutches to match her clothing as a form of attention. Played for particular relevance when she dressed in the colors of the U.S. flag to sing "America the Beautiful".
• Consummate Liar:
  • Westing.
  • Turtle.
• Conservation of Detail: To an extreme degree. Considering the book is at heart an intricate mystery (and also (falsely) played as a murder mystery), it must contain clues to help the reader solve it by its very nature, and thanks to their being multiple layers to the game (who "killed" Westing, what the clues received by the heirs in-game say and don't say, the identity and purpose of Westing's four roles, the real purpose of the will and game) this requires even more clues. On top of this there are two other mystery subplots to solve, the identities of the bomber and the thief. What's more, Raskin is masterful at imparting characterization as well as plot and character development with minor lines of dialogue or seemingly inconsequential details, to the point an astute reader will start to conclude every detail is relevant—and in the end, this is usually the case. (As one example, note Running Gag below.)
• The Coroner: Sikes, who is an important accomplice to Westing's scheme.
• Death by Newbery Medal:
  • Turtle has to face death: first by finding Westing's (fake) dead body, then by witnessing the (fake) fatal collapse of her doorman friend Sandy, and finally (as a grown woman) by staying at the bedside of the (really) dying Mr. Eastman.
  • The deaths of James Hoo, Berthe Crow, and Otis Amber are mentioned as well during the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue. They all died of old age, and not much emotional hay is made of their passing.
• December–December Romance: Otis Amber and Crow, who are both in their 60s-70s and who end up getting married near the end of the book.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Prior to the final meeting of the game, Jake and Grace Wexler fill out their forms under the influence of alcohol, causing Jake to list his position as "bookie" and Grace to include her Embarrassing Middle Name. Or so they assume. Paying careful attention (the narration explicitly says Doug writes down "miler" as his position on the form, but the form when read says something different) reveals the forms were altered.
• Did You Think I Can't Feel?: This is heavily implied to be the reason why Angela became the bomber— nobody, least of all her own mother, ever treats her like a person, making all of her decisions for her and limiting their conversations to compliments ("How pretty you look, Angela"). The only exceptions are Turtle, Sydelle, and Crow, and they're largely spared from her bombing campaign for it. The trope is lampshaded by Judge Ford, who unthinkingly refers to Angela as "a pretty young thing" and then realizes how dehumanizing she, and everyone else, has been to her.
• Disability Alibi: Sydelle teases Chris that maybe he's the one getting away with murder, since his neurological disability gives him the perfect alibi. Keep in mind that because of his condition, Chris is paraplegic, has extremely poor motor control, and a severe Speech Impediment. Needless to say, he loves the attention.
• Eat the Evidence: Turtle consumes their clues after she and Flora have memorized them.
• Eccentric Millionaire: Sam Westing.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: Grace Wexler has a tendency to list her maiden name as "Windsor" instead of "Windkloppel." Sam Westing also had "Windkloppel" as his last name before he changed it for commercial reasons.
• "Eureka!" Moment:
  • Sydelle realizing the clue words formed "America the Beautiful."
  • Ford realizing Westing had played them with the "Queen's Sacrifice".
  • Numerous Red Herring examples occur also as the various pairs have "breakthroughs" with their clues that they think are the answer. (Examples: "Ed Purple-fruit!", Turtle thinking the clues are the names of stock options they should invest in, Theo thinking the clues form Amber's name and the chemical formula for an explosive...)
  • Turtle has a very quiet one during the trial, when she realizes both that the will actually said "the one who finds the fourth" and what this actually means, thus solving the Westing Game.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Judge Ford has an internal one when she is quizzing Turtle about the planting of the fourth bomb. She correctly deduces that Turtle is protecting someone, and initially suggests that it's the least likely person the judge can think of: Turtle's older sister Angela. Turtle's extreme denial shocks Ford, who thinks to herself "Angela couldn't be the bomber, not that pretty young thing" ... and then realizes that she just referred to a grown woman as a "thing." Ford proceeds to reflect on her - and everyone's - interactions with Angela, and realizes that people treat her like a dressed-up doll, complimenting her on her looks or clothing but never talking to her like a person or peer.
• Exact Words: In Sam Westing's will addressed to the heirs, he says that he didn't die of natural causes but instead "my life was taken — by one of you!" The heirs all take this to mean that one of them killed Westing, but note that Westing never actually said that he was murdered or even that he's dead — what he really meant was that he gave up his life as Sam Westing to become Sandy McSouthers. Or, alternatively, that his "life" was his daughter Violet, whose suicide his ex-wife (Crow) had unintentionally provoked.
• Exposition Party: The dinner party Ford throws for all the heirs reveals a lot about each of them to the reader, even as they're trying and largely failing to learn much of any use about each other.
• Faking the Dead: Sam Westing. TWICE.
• Flat Character:
  • Mr. and Mrs. Theodorakis, who barely appear and, outside one Backstory conversation, have hardly any lines. Lampshaded when Judge Ford wonders why they aren't heirs (especially Mr Theodorakis, who was Violet Westing's sweetheart).
  • Doug Hoo doesn't have much character either, aside from resenting his dad's constant nagging to "go study".
• Game Between Heirs: The main premise. Samuel W. Westing chose sixteen people apparently at random as his heirs; the book opens with them summoned to hear the reading of the will. He leaves everything to the winner of the puzzle he calls The Westing Game. Who will win?
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Subverted; Turtle and Angela seem to be the textbook Smart One and Popular One, respectively, but they're closer to each other and probably understand each other better than anyone else, and Turtle probably has more friends than Angela, while Angela is very smart herself, enough to get into medical school. Turtle is one of the few characters (along with Pulaski, Ford and Westing) who works out that Angela was the bomber after Angela pulls an about-to-explode bomb away from Turtle and towards her own face. Turtle then claims to be the bomber to protect Angela (it helped that everyone else suspected her anyway), going as far as to plant the fourth bomb.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: The winner never tells anyone else that the game was won, nor what the answer was.
• Grief-Induced Split: Mr. Westing and his wife Crow divorced after their daughter Violet's death. Her mother had pushed her to marry a corrupt politician instead of her at-the-time boyfriend, causing a despairing Violet to commit suicide on the eve of the wedding. Crow also turned to alcohol then religion as a means of coping with the loss of her only child.
• Haunted House: The Westing mansion, supposedly.
• Hidden Depths: Applies to nearly every character. Turtle is not merely the Bratty Half-Pint she seems while Angela is far more than just the dutiful and pretty good daughter; their mother, meanwhile, has good reason for being so pretentious and grasping while their father is secretly a bookie. Seemingly insane and ridiculous Otis Amber is actually a private detective and also aids Crow (another apparently mentally-unbalanced character) in working at a soup kitchen for the homeless. The quiet Madame Hoo who cannot speak English is a thief because she is attempting to gain enough money to travel back to China. Her husband, struggling restauranteur James Hoo, invented the disposable paper diaper. Flora Baumbach, who otherwise appears to be a somewhat-vapid dressmaker, lost a daughter with Down syndrome and is clearly still dealing with her pain. Sydelle Pulaski, who tries to draw attention with fake illnesses and flamboyant clothes, is much smarter (and more unhappy) than she seems. And of course Sandy McSouthers is actually Sam Westing, as well as Barney Northrup, and in the process of exploring Westing's past it's made clear how many layers there were to the man and how he has grown and changed due to his own tragedies. Even minor characters often have more to them than it first appears. Lampshaded by Westing himself in the will:
  It will be up to the other players to discover who you really are.
• Hidden Purpose Test: The entire will. On the surface it is about giving away the Westing fortune, and claims to be about solving Sam Westing's murder/bringing the killer to justice. In actuality it's testing the heirs to see who is smart enough to figure out not just the obvious clues but the real purpose, and helping all of the characters to change, grow, and achieve better lives.
• Informed Judaism: Aside from his last name and a brief parenthetical comment about Grace having married a Jew, you never would have guessed.
• Insufferable Genius: Dr. Deere starts off as one, insisting on diagnosing all the guests despite only being an intern. He gets better.
• Irony: For the entire book, Grace claims she is the only true heir of Sam Westing. With her maiden/middle name having been "Windkloppel", the same as Westing's real name, it seems she, and by extension Angela and Turtle, are the only actual blood relatives among the heirs. (In fact, Westing/Sandy/Eastman calls Grace "my niece" during the epilogue.)
• It Amused Me: The entire plot amused Sam Westing. As just one example among many, although he chose sixteen people as his "heirs" who (seemingly) had nothing to do with him or each other, he rather tongue-in-cheekly calls them his "sixteen nieces and nephews" in the will...even though most of them were the wrong age, or race! However, Westing does call Grace "my niece" in the epilogue.
• It Makes Sense in Context: The "trial" conducted to prove Crow's innocence consists of a judge dressing in native African garb (because Ford had decided to let her hair down and be Not So Stoic) and a prosecuting attorney who is both an annoying little girl and (it's believed) a confessed bomber, in a courtroom that's just an apartment. Lampshaded by Ford herself.
• It's the Journey That Counts: Although no one wins the game or inherits the fortune (except Turtle), everyone's lives become better for having been part of it and the Character Development they gained from it. As Chris said of the Odd Couple pairings, "He [Westing] gave everybody the perfect partner," exactly who they needed, though they didn't know it at the start.
• Jerk Jock: Downplayed, as Doug Hoo is nice to his mom and seems friendly with Theo, but he's often a smartass towards his dad and treats Turtle quite poorly, even going as far as to intentionally provoke her by yanking on her braid before running away.
• Karmic Jackpot: Westing set up the game to give this to all the players.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Grace Wexler provokes one when she decides to rename James Hoo's restaurant "Hoo's On First". James understandably complains that his restaurant is on the top floor of the tower, and that people who come looking for Hoo's On First might just assume that the Theodorakis coffee shop (which actually is in the lobby) is it.
• Little Girls Kick Shins: Kicking shins is a major emotional defense mechanism for Turtle, which becomes important to the plot because several clues involve people limping.
• Location Theme Naming: Windy Windkloppel and his various aliases scattering to the four winds... WESTing, NORTHrup, EASTman, and McSOUTHers.
• Madness Mantra: "Purple waves" supposedly was for the ghost story told at the start of the book.
• Missed the Call: It's revealed that Sydelle Pulaski was the "mistake". The intended heir was a person named Sybil Pulaski, but the PI screwed up and found Sydelle instead.
• Mistaken Identity: Angela's Arranged Marriage echoes Violet Westing's, which at one point causes The Ophelia Crow to think she is Violet, and to treat her like a daughter all the same. Considering Grace may actually be related to Westing after all, this may not be far from the truth.
• Named After Somebody Famous: The mansion of Samuel Westing is, of course, known as the Westing House, which is also the name of one of the first major electrical companies in the United States (rival to Thomas Edison's, later General Electric).^* Later purchases and mergers have resulted in it owning/becoming CBS Television and then Viacom, but the original still exists as a subsidiary maker of electric appliances.While Sam Westing ran a paper mill, the importance of his business (the nearby town where his workers lived being named after him), his rivalry with Mr. Hoo, and his characterization as a sometimes-benevolent (but arrogant) captain of industry are similar enough to be noteworthy. Also, the house's destruction in a pyrotechnic display at the book's climax seems quite tongue-in-cheek in this light.
• Never One Murder: Westing's suspicious death kicks the plot into action, followed by Sandy's death later. Subverted, as there was really only one "victim", and he didn't actually die either time: both deaths were staged as part of the Game.
• Nobody Touches the Hair: Mess with Turtle's braid and you'll get a good kick in the shin. The fact that she lets Flora braid her hair is a key indication of how much Turtle comes to trust and care about her Game partner.
• Nonindicative Name: The windows of Sunset Towers face east, the direction in which the sun rises. Lampshaded in the very first sentence. At the same time, the name is deliberately chosen to contrast with the street where Eastman, Westing's fourth alias, lives, Sunrise Lane. (Presumably the apartment building, which was built recently, was named second, since the person living at that address is established to have been present for some number of years before the plot begins.)
• Not So Stoic: J.J. Ford deliberately embraces this trope so people will take her seriously.
• Obfuscating Disability: Sydelle Pulaski tries this with her crutches in order to get attention, but anyone who pays close attention to her at all realizes that her limp is faked. She also asks Chris Theodorakis, who uses a wheelchair, if he has any ability to use his legs at all - ostensibly to see if he's a possible suspect in Westing's death, but actually to draw the normally isolated boy into a conversation he'll enjoy.
• Obfuscating Stupidity:
  • Otis Amber, who is actually a private detective working for more than one person.
  • Sandy McSouthers, who is actually one of Windy Windkloppel's multiple alternate identities.
• Odd Couple: The players are paired up, usually with someone they seemingly have nothing in common with.
• Odd Friendship: The result of several Odd Couple teams.
• One Degree of Separation: While at first it seems none of the heirs have anything in common, or even a reason to be heirs, it turns out every character or their family does have a connection to the Westings.
  • The Wexler family are actually related through Grace.
  • The Theodorakis family are connected through Theo and Chris's father, who dated Violet Westing.
  • Flora Baumbach made Violet's wedding dress.
  • Judge Ford's family worked for Westing and he put her through school.
  • The Hoo family connection is that Mr. Hoo was a competitor who blamed Westing for stealing his invention.
  • Crow was Westing's wife.
  • Otis Amber had worked for Westing as a detective.
  • Sandy McSouthers supposedly worked at the Westing factory.
  • Sydelle Pulaski is the lone exception, having been included after she was confused for a friend of Crow's named Sybil Pulaski.
• Only in It for the Money: Applies to most of the heirs at the start (once they find out why they have been summoned, that is). By the end, most of them have realized other things are more important, to the point that very few are that upset they lost the game. It doesn't hurt that each pair receives $10,000 at the beginning and end of the game just for playing.
• Only Sane Man: Ed Plum seems to think he's this when compared to the heirs, particularly when Ford and Turtle call their gathering a "court" to which he must submit the rest of the will before fleeing Sunset Towers. Among the heirs, Dr. Deere often acts like he's this; if anyone actually is, though, it's Judge Ford.
• Outliving One's Offspring:
  • Mr. and Mrs. Westing had a daughter who preferred suicide over marrying the man her mom ther wanted her to. This ultimately caused the separation of Mr. and Mrs. Westing.
  • Flora Baumbach also had a daughter who died before the beginning of the book.
• Parental Substitute:
  • Turtle starts clinging to Flora Baumbach as her mother figure, feeling ignored by Grace.
  • Crow grows to see Angela as a daughter substitute.
• Playing Sick: Sydelle Pulaski and her "wasting disease."
• Pretty in Mink: Grace Wexler during the reading of the will.
• Private Detective: Judge Ford hires one to investigate the other heirs, in hope of figuring out what Westing was up to. The detective is Otis Amber, who's secretly been working for Westing (under two names) as well as Judge Ford.
• Pun: Some of the answers which the teams submit or investigate were reached under the assumption that the clues contained such wordplay (e.g. "Ed Purple-Fruit"). Subverted in that these all turned out to be wrong. The real pun is in the compass point naming schemes.
• "Rear Window" Witness: Not a crime, but Chris is a witness to Sikes going into the Westing House just before Westing's body is discovered, thanks to his bird-watching.
• Red Herring: A number of them many planted by Sandy/Westing himself.
• Rule of Three: The Private Detective mentioned above ended up being put on the Westing case three times (once in the Backstory). The first time was because his name was the second listed in the phone book under private investigators and (he surmises) the first name's phone was busy. The second time was by Barney Northrup so as to locate all the prospective tenants (and heirs) of Sunset Towers, while the third was by Judge Ford, as described above. Since Northrup, as Westing, knew exactly who Otis Amber was and that he was already familiar with and close to his ex-wife, his retention was a direct invocation ensuring both he and Crow would play the Game. Ford is shown noticing something unexpected in the phone book's listings when she sets out to research the heirs; presumably Westing knew she'd recognize Otis's name, and anticipated she'd hire him for that very reason, making this third example both invoked and enforced.
• Running Gag: Many, such as Dr. Deere incorrectly and/or sententiously diagnosing people's illnesses, Sandy winking, Sydelle's crutches, "Boom!", Turtle kicking shins, "Windkloppel"...and every one ended up being relevant and important!
• Scare Dare: Turtle accepts one to stay overnight in the Westing mansion.
• Scars Are Forever: Angela keeps the scar she gets from shielding Turtle from the third bomb.
• Second Verse Curse: In-Universe, no one recognizes when the will quotes the line "May God thy gold refine" that it's from one of the lesser-known verses of "America the Beautiful", requiring a bit of spot research. This, like so much else, is plot-significant.
• Secret-Keeper: The coroner, Sikes, is actually an old friend of Westing's and in on the game with him, particularly in aiding in (and being aware of) both his Faking the Dead moments. (It isn't clear if he was aware of every aspect, but he at least knew Westing was Sandy, and a line during the epilogue when Westing is actually dying (asking Turtle to send for Sikes) implies he also knows Westing is Eastman.)
• Secret Message Wink: Sandy the doorman playfully winks at his game partner Turtle whenever he secretly references a past clue that might help them solve the game, and she loves it when he does. This turns out to be important when he winks as he appears to be dying, revealing that he isn't actually dead, his identity as Sandy is fake and he wanted to pull his character out of the game.
• Shaped Like Itself: When Turtle is questioning Otis Amber at the "trial".
  Turtle: Who exactly are you?
  Otis Amber: I am a licensed private investigator.
  Turtle: Then why were you disguised as an idiot delivery-boy?
  Otis Amber: It was my disguise.
  Turtle was dealing with a practiced witness.

• Small Reference Pools: Used by the characters; except for one joke vote, everyone thinks the quote "May God thy gold refine" comes from either Shakespeare or the Bible. It's actually from a lesser-known verse of "America the Beautiful", and is a clue.
• Smart People Play Chess: Sam Westing, Judge Ford, Theo and T.R. Wexler, the only person ever to beat Westing at his own game.
• Snowed-In: The inhabitants of Sunset Towers are snowed in for several days early in the Game, leaving them with a lot of time on their hands to ponder the clues and get paranoid about each other.
• Solve the Soup Cans: The closest thing to a pure literature example.
• Speech Impediment: Because of Chris's neurological disorder, he frequently stutters or has difficulty forming words or complete sentences at all. This sometimes causes others to mistakenly believe that Chris is mentally disabled as well — which is a Berserk Button for his brother Theo.
  Theo: My brother is not an infant, and he's not retarded, so please, no more baby talk.
• Spotting the Thread:
  • Sandy's limp, when Turtle knew she had never kicked him gave away he was actually Barney Northrup.
  • When Theo has Doug spy on the chessboard for him to learn that his secret opponent is actually Sandy. Not only is this fact in and of itself strange since Sandy had claimed not to know how to play the game, but Theo's supposed winning move is actually Westing's classic "Queen's Sacrifice", thus letting Ford realize who Sandy was.
• Stepford Smiler: Angela Wexler and Flora Baumbach.
• Sticky Fingers: One of the inhabitants of Sunset Towers steals random objects throughout the novel. Madame Hoo is the thief, in hopes of raising money for a return to China. She confesses in the middle of Turtle's trial, having misinterpreted it as being connected to her activities, and returns the things she stole.
• Switched at Birth: Discussed, after Turtle makes herself look like the bomber to protect her sister, Grace tells her husband that she believes the hospital must have mixed up the children to have ended up with Turtle. Jake actually calls her out on this by suggesting this exact reasoning could've been why she supposedly made the bombs.
• Taking the Heat: The bomber was Angela, but Turtle willingly takes the blame to protect her sister.
• The Tape Knew You Would Say That: At several points during the will reading, the will responds to the reactions of the heirs. Apart from a couple of interruptions that were staged by Westing himself in the role of Sandy, no explanation is given beyond the implication that Westing had studied them all closely enough to predict their reactions.
  • "Sit down, Grace Windsor Wexler!"
  • "Sit down, your honor, and read the letter this brilliant young attorney will now hand over to you."
• Themed Aliases: The big reveal surrounds someone's aliases selected by this trope: Windy Windkloppel chose the aliases "Sam Westing", "Barney Northrup", "Sandy McSouthers" and "Julian R. Eastman".
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Turtle and Angela Wexler, respectively.
• Too Clever by Half:
  • Turtle. Including when she outsmarts herself, such as assuming the clues are stock options and the will's directive to "Buy Westing Paper Products!" is to be taken literally.
  • Sydelle makes similar mistakes at times.
• Trademark Favorite Food: James Hoo eats plenty of chocolate bars during the course of the novel, because of his ulcer. Jake Wexler becomes quite fond of the Hoo restaurant's spareribs.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The back cover proclaims that only two people have all the clues to the mystery: a Westing heir and you (the reader). This gives away the fact that one of the heirs is secretly Sam Westing himself.
• Two Aliases, One Character: Barney Northrup and Sandy McSouthers are the same man, who is also Sam Westing and Julian Eastman.
• The Unfavorite: Turtle is ignored and insulted by her mother because she's not an obedient girly girl like Angela.
• Unfortunate Name: Windkloppel, which neither Grace Wexler nor Sam Westing cared to admit to. Ed Plum's otherwise-inoffensive name gets him singled out as a suspect by one of the teams.
• The Unreveal:
  • During the reading of the will, Sandy McSouthers makes a joke, cutting off the lawyer before the last word in the third section is read. We never do find out what the last word is... because there is no last word; the will actually reads, "The one who wins the windfall will be the one who finds the... FOURTH;" referring to the fourth identity of Westing himself.
  • The cross necklace Turtle takes with her to ward away vampires when she explores the Westing House gets lost and left behind; as a result it's later assumed to be one of the items stolen by Madame Hoo. Turtle sees it, inexplicably, held in the hands of Westing's corpse at the reading of the will, but no one else notices it. It's never mentioned in the article about the discovery of Westing's body, and after it being noted as not among the returned items, it's forgotten about completely.
• Wedding Bells... for Someone Else: Angela spends the book unsure about her upcoming marriage to Dr. Deere. At the end, all of the characters attend a wedding implied to be theirs until it's revealed to actually be for Otis and Crow, as Angela had called off the engagement. (It is stated that she does marry Deere later, but on her own terms.)
• Wham Line: "Please place your gun in the custody of the court."
• What the Hell, Hero?: When the heirs all deduce that the clues point to Crow, Judge Ford, now knowing that Crow is Westing's ex-wife, and having just deduced that Sandy is Sam Westing himself, intervenes on Crow's behalf, pointing out that Crow is innocent until proven guilty, that the only evidence against her is Westing's clues, which are unsubstantiated, and that by turning her in for the inheritance, all they'd be doing is "selling [Crow] for profit." Judge Ford is about to give one of these to Sandy and expose him as Sam Westing when he apparently dies right then and there. Even after this, the Judge's words have made such an impact on the heirs that when Ed Plum asks that someone submit the answer, none of them has it in them to turn Crow in… except Crow herself.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The last three chapters detail significant events the heirs experienced during the twenty years after the solution.
• Why Waste a Wedding?: Grace Wexler spends a large part of the story making elaborate preparations for the wedding of her daughter Angela, unaware that Angela is having major second thoughts. In the end, the preparations are instead used for the wedding of Crow and Otis Amber.
• Xanatos Speed Chess:
  • Bordering on Gambit Roulette. Westing pretty much manipulated everyone, but as Sandy points out he did make at least one mistake by including Sydelle Pulaski. Of course, Westing is Sandy...
  • Turtle's "trial" suggests she's developing a talent for this, too.

Tropes unique to the 1997 TV movie include:

• Adaptational Backstory Change:
  • Otis has a grudge against Sam Westing for taking credit for one of his inventions, similar to James Hoo's reason in the book for mistrusting Westing.
  • Sydelle Pulaski used to work as a secretary for Sam Westing, giving them a stronger connection than their book counterparts.
• Adaptational Dumbass: Downplayed; while Turtle is still the one to put together all the clues and figure out both that the clues were implicating Crow, but that the real mystery was who the "Fourth" was, she no longer is involved in trading on the stock market and it takes a discussion with Sydelle to realize that her sister is the bomber.
• Adaptation Name Change:
  • Mr. Hoo's first name changed from "James" to "George".
  • Grace's maiden name has changed from "Windkloppel" to "Klopplehoff". She also doesn't use a fake maiden name, and admits to Turtle that she felt disgusted when Sam Westing dropped that name.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Sandy McSouthers acts less innocent in this version—as one example, note how more certain he sounds that the will means one of the players murdered Westing.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Grace doesn't treat Turtle as The Unfavorite.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Otis doesn't act as naïve as he did in the book.
• Adaptational Villainy: Sam Westing was the one who forced his and Crow's daughter into the Arranged Marriage, and made Crow the prime suspect of the game because he felt bitter at her, for not trying to cancel the marriage before their child became Driven to Suicide.
• Adapted Out: The movie lacks Madame Hoo, Theo Theodorakis, and Flora Baumbach (pairing Turtle with Chris as a result). It also changed some of the remaining heirs' personalities and motivations.
• Ascended Extra: Ed Plum replaces Dr. Deere as Angela's fiancée.
• Deathbed Confession: When Sandy "drops dead" after the reading of the second half of the will, he whispers to Turtle, "You've been playing the wrong game." This prompts Turtle to read the will herself, and discover the real goal: "The heir who wins the windfall will be the one who finds the fourth."
• Demoted to Extra: The increased focus on Turtle and Chris makes this affect all the other heirs to a degree, but Jake Wexler, Doug Hoo, and Dr. Deere in particular don't even get to play the game. Dr. Deere only appears once in the whole movie.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Turtle realizes that the clues could form a song by putting the words "fruited" and "plain" together.
• Flash Forward: As Turtle and Mr. Eastman discuss how positively the game seems to have impacted the heirs' lives and relationships, he lets Turtle know what bright futures he hopes they will all have (eg, Angela graduating medical school, Chris becoming a champion chess player, Otis and Crow getting married), and asks Turtle to tell him when they come true.
• The Summation: Turtle gives one to Julian Eastman, explaining how she figured out his alter egos, with clips of the movie illustrating for the viewers.

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