English language

Published Oct. 24, 2023 by Pixel+Ink.

ISBN:
978-1-64595-196-4
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Hope Smith can’t stand rich people—the dictionary magnate family the Wintertons most of all. Not since she and her twin brother, Gordon, learned that their dad was one. So when Gordon enters the family into the Winterton’s charity spelling bee, Hope wants nothing to do with it. But with their mom losing her job and the family facing eviction from the motel where they live, they desperately need the money, and it looks like Hope doesn’t have much of a choice.

After winning the preliminary round, the Smiths are whisked to Winterton Chalet to compete in the official Winterton Bee against their long-lost relatives. Hope wants to get in and out, beat the snobbish family at their own game, and never see them again. But deceased matriarch Jane Winterton had other plans for this final family showdown. Before her death, she set up a clue hunt throughout the manor—an alternate …

1 edition

reviewed Final Word by Janet Sumner Johnson (The Winterton Deception, #1)

Another entry in the grand tradition of stories about squabbling rich families and the fallout over a will.

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Anyone looking for the cocktail of mysterious benefactors, strange mansions, treasure hunts with cryptic clues, and a high-stakes competition will find all that and more. Final Word is not shy about its inspiration - even referencing The Westing Game within its own text. And while there are certainly a lot of similar beats, this one opts to pick a more serious tone. The competition for the money is interspersed with themes of grief, family trauma, hurt, and forgiveness. The main character is surprisingly cynical (maybe TOO cynical?) for a pre-teen, but at least her level of savvy saves the reader from having to yell at her naiveté. The puzzles were all very clever and fun to try to figure out, and I appreciated all the literary references as well. Of note, this appears to be the first in a series, despite the main competition wrapping up in this volume. I …