Sometimes you go back to a childhood favorite and you no longer like it.

It happens to all of us. A friend of mine reread Little Women and just didn’t like Jo March anymore. Another friend was very disappointed that he no longer loved A Wrinkle in Time. I had a lot less patience for Holden Caulfield as an adult, and when I went back to visit Piers Anthony's Xanth, I was surprised at how utterly creepy the place had become. But I just took another look at The Westing Game, and I’m quite confident that it's as delightful as it ever was.

It’s an intricately plotted tale of sixteen disparate people gathered first as tenants in an apartment building, and then for the reading of a will, and learning that one of them may inherit Samuel W. Westing’s enormous fortune, if they play the Westing Game, puzzle out some cryptic clues, and solve the mystery of their benefactor’s death.

Besides the accusation of murder, there are bombings, theft, several love affairs, disguises, mistaken identity, lifelong friendships, complicated family drama, and fireworks. It’s great fun for intelligent children of all ages.

NOVEL: The Westing Game

AUTHOR: Ellen Raskin

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 1978

IMAGE: book cover, Puffin Books