By Ellen Raskin
A dead millionaire's will splits sixteen strangers into pairs, hands each pair a set of cryptic clues, and promises his fortune to whoever solves who killed him.
Sixteen people are lured into renting apartments in a building beside the old Westing mansion. When the reclusive millionaire Sam Westing turns up dead, his will announces a game: the heirs are paired off, each pair gets a fistful of baffling word clues, and whoever figures out the answer inherits two hundred million dollars. But everyone's clues are only pieces, everyone is hiding something, and the real puzzle is far trickier than it looks. It's a mystery your child can try to solve, if they can out-think Turtle Wexler, the sharpest child in the building.
This is the summit for a puzzle-loving reader: the Newbery-winning gold standard of the fair-play mystery, where every clue your child needs is on the page. It's cleverer and more demanding than the other books here, with a big cast to keep straight and a solution that makes readers flip back to the start and gasp. Hand it to the child who has out-solved everything else and wants a mystery that finally makes them work.