The Westing Game: Chapters 15–22

by Ellen Raskin
Where there's a will, there's a motive to solve a murder. When eccentric millionaire Sam Westing dies, he leaves instructions for sixteen people to come to the reading of his will. With a fortune on the line, Westing's death becomes a puzzle they'll race to solve.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–7, Chapters 8–14, Chapters 15–22, Chapters 23–30
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. venom
    toxin secreted by animals
    "Maybe the murderer injected bee venom in his veins."
  2. soothsayer
    someone who makes predictions of the future
    Once, long ago in the olden days, there was this soothsayer who predicted the day of his own death. That day came, and the soothsayer waited to die and waited some more, but nothing happened.
  3. guffaw
    a burst of loud and hearty laughter
    He tried to cover a loud guffaw with louder coughing.
  4. interrogate
    pose a series of questions to
    Hoping to interrogate both George Theodorakis and James Shin Hoo, they alternated their dinner orders.
  5. cull
    look for and gather
    In it he painstakingly entered the information culled from reports the private detective delivered each day to Judge Ford's office: photostats of birth certificates, death notices, marriage licenses, drivers' licenses, vehicular accident reports, criminal records, hospital records, school records.
  6. malady
    impairment of normal physiological function
    A suspicious malady, no apparent Westing connection, somehow Sydelle Pulaski did not seem to fit in.
  7. righteous
    morally justified
    Maybe she is a customer, Hoo thought, recognizing the face clenched in righteous anger as that of a diner not being served fast enough.
  8. surge
    a sudden forceful flow
    Grace, casting a suspicious eye on her husband, was suddenly seized by a surge of gnawing jealousy (maybe it was just the fried dumpling).
  9. manipulate
    influence or control shrewdly or deviously
    Sam Westing manipulated people, cheated workers, bribed officials, stole ideas, but Sam Westing never smoked or drank or placed a bet.
  10. shard
    a broken piece of a brittle artifact
    "I was experimenting on chemical fertilizers," Theo replied, wincing as the doctor probed his shoulder for a glass shard.
  11. loathe
    dislike intensely; feel disgust toward
    Sam Westing plotted against the person...who forced Violet Westing to marry a man she loathed.
  12. meticulous
    marked by extreme care in treatment of details
    He had to be meticulous in order to prove he was better than his eighth-grade education.
  13. divert
    turn aside; turn away from
    She had set off the fireworks in the elevator to divert suspicion from the real bomber.
  14. contagious
    (of disease) capable of being spread by infection
    With their telephone switched off and Contagious Disease added to the No Visitors sign, the bomb victims had privacy at last.
  15. dejected
    affected or marked by low spirits
    The dejected doorman blew his nose loudly in a Westing Man-Sized Hankie.
Created on Mon Dec 29 17:01:24 EST 2014 (updated Wed Aug 06 12:41:22 EDT 2025)

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