99 pages 3 hours read

Ellen Raskin

The Westing Game

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1978

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Chapters 26-30

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 26 Summary: “Turtle’s Trial”

Judge Ford gets Turtle a gavel and forms a court, and Turtle assumes the position of lawyer, looking every bit the part with her chic new haircut. She recounts the events from the first break-in to the Westing house to the present and then puts each heir on the stand to get details of what they may have seen but not made public.

Some of the details are as follows: Chris saw the limper, Dr. Sikes. Otis Amber is, in fact, a private investigator, not a delivery boy with an intellectual disability. His clients were Westing, Northrup, and, of course, Judge Ford, who hired him for the Westing game. Westing had hired Otis to watch over Crow after she ran off, and he’s been following her for decades. Of the six people Westing asked him to investigate, the only mistake he made was to give a Sunset Towers letter to Sydelle Pulaski rather than Sybil Pulaski. Sandy (whose identity still remains up for debate) created the stories about the corpse on the Oriental rug to scare children on Halloween, and Otis simply joined in on the fun.

Turtle explains the events of Halloween evening and calls Denton to the stand.