Langley’s Mystery Weekend began in January1984, based on the game of “Clue,” with a handful of actors and co-writers. Josh Hauser, owner of Moonraker Books, was the first murderer. She “poisoned” popular local dentist Ric Prael. Hauser is still participating as an actor in 2025. Another actor was with Mystery Weekend since it began until his death in 2021. John Ball was the murderer five times, most recently in 2018, when he was “arrested” for the murder of Merlin Mariner.

Various writers contributed to the early Mystery Weekend stories from1984 to 1989. Chris Crotty was the main writer from 1990 to 1999, with several co-writers over those years. Loretta Martin has been the chief writer since 1999, with co-writers Saranell DeChambeau, Mike Hill and Rachel McDougald.

The first Mystery Weekend Loretta Martin was officially involved in was “Death Takes a Mulligan” by Chris Crotty in 1998. Martin was the newly hired Chamber Director and, even though it was a surprising amount of work to produce the event, she loved it. 

During those first years the Chamber produced the mystery with no other income besides asking the merchants to pay for the printing costs of their clues. The Chamber paid the other costs and the Mystery was free to the public.

When Loretta Martin tallied the final expenses from the 1998 Mystery Weekend, she was shocked to see how much it was costing the Chamber to produce and advertise the event. She spoke to several Board members, and they told her that the Island County Tourism Grants had given money to support the event for about five years but had told them in 1994 that the event should be able to support itself after ten years. Martin knew the Chamber budget could not support the event much longer at the over $3,500 it was costing at that time to produce.

Martin said, “The largest expense for the event was the cost of the writer, so, since I had a lot of television writing and producing experience under my belt, and was already an employee, I volunteered to write the event myself at no extra cost to the Chamber of Commerce.”

When Martin started writing the Langley Mystery in 1999, she remembered the mystery newspaper one of the first writers had made part of her story. Martin liked the idea and decided to add The Langley Gazette to her first mystery. Adding the newspaper would not only give players a fun new tool to solve the crime but the Chamber could sell a few ads or get a major sponsor for the newspaper to help with costs. Happily, The South Whidbey Record agreed to come on as a major sponsor by printing the newspaper.

From the beginning of the event until 2004 the mystery was free to the public, but by 2005 inflation of expenses had again begun to threaten the event’s future. The Chamber voted in 2005 to charge one dollar per person for the “Mystery Packet” which included the mystery newspaper, a map of clue locations, and an entry form into the prize drawing during the solution play. In 2007 the price was raised to two dollars per person.

Martin left her job as Chamber Director in 2007 but has continued to write the mystery every year. “It is the highlight of my year and almost always falls on the weekend of my birthday,” she said.

The cast of repeating characters who volunteer their time and talents to play parts in the Mystery each year have ranged in age from 6 to 80. The McDougald family has been part of the Mystery since their now six-foot-four adult son Sean was born. All these talented, fun-loving actors not only donate their time, including pre-weekend cast meetings and photo shoots, but they make their own costumes, all to help the community and create an event families can enjoy together.

For many years, Saranell DeChambeau reprised her character I. B. Fuzz, the world’s shortest retired Texas Ranger. DeChambeau invariably solved the crime and announced her findings to the audience at the big reveal on Sunday of Mystery Weekend. Sadly, Saranell passed away in 2024 on the first day of Mystery Weekend.

Over the years we have lost a few of our favorite actors, some to work schedules, some to moving, and some to heaven. One of our current actors comes from Texas every year to play his part, Texas Ranger Chase Ketchum. Other actors come every year from off-island.

Playing a character in Mystery Weekend is not like a regular acting job. There is no fixed script, only a history of the events leading up to the murder. Each actor has a biography of his/her character to read, and they then need to answer the questions of the sleuths who are trying to solve the mystery. It takes an outgoing personality, a good imagination, and a talent for quick thinking to be an actor in this unusual type of play.

In addition to the actors, the people who come to solve the crime come from all over the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, and the Cotswolds in England (where they said they had a tradition of pub mysteries). The Chamber has hosted corporate team-building groups, family reunions, girls’ weekends, and were even on the bucket list of a woman dying from cancer. Martin’s favorite repeat group were The Hat Ladies who came for about ten years and always called ahead to find out what the theme of the mystery would be. They then made silly hats to match the theme, which they wore during the weekend.

The theme of the mystery can come from many places. Some years it has been inspired by politics or current events. Sometimes it is an offshoot of a popular fad, movie or book of the year before.

“One of my favorite mysteries was ‘Death by Chocolate’ where we invented a men’s gambling club we called the 49ers. They are still a repeating part of the mystery, a great favorite with the crowd, and their story is featured in the 40^th anniversary mystery ‘Death in a Small Town,’” said Martin.

“Another favorite was the year George W. Bush was elected after a decision by the Supreme Court. In it we tried to ease political tensions by spoofing the problems with Florida’s ‘hanging chads’ and ‘pregnant chads.’ Probably the most popular recent mystery was when we wrote the mystery around our Langley bunny problem,” said Martin. 

Martin and co-writers start tossing ideas around in late February planning for the next year. During the summer, ideas percolate, come and go, and finally settle out into one or two ideas by August. Martin then starts thinking which idea would work best in the landscape of the town, which actors could play which parts, how the actors might costume the characters, and how the crime will be committed. By September Martin usually has a rough outline of the mystery. In October, she emails the previous actors to see who is interested in playing a character in February. Then she starts writing in earnest. In January, the Cast Meetings and the photo shoot for the newspaper stories are scheduled. The clues come last since they are not all sold until sometime in February.

Martin said, “I learned early in my Mystery Weekend writing career that I always had to have a Plan B because you never know what can happen with this many people and moving parts involved. One year a major actor broke her leg, another year the District Attorney actor’s wife called me from the hospital two days before Mystery Weekend to say he had a heart attack and was having triple bypass surgery as we spoke. Another year our murderer was sick with the flu. That is when the “improvisational aspect” of the event comes in handy because I can gather the actors before the start of the event and give them instructions on how to explain the missing character.”

“Other times events in Langley have spookily mimicked the mystery theme such as the year our ‘murder victim’ was drowned. At that time our County Sheriff Mike Hawley, (a published mystery writer) was volunteering to ‘arrest’ the murderer at the solution play on Sunday. When we met backstage before the solution, he told me he would have to leave quickly as he had just sent his deputies out to the scene of a body which had washed up on Maxwelton Beach. Spooky!” said Martin.

Martin also shared, “Another time I wrote that a new building with shops, apartments, and a three-story underground garage was planned for a vacant lot on Anthes. Lo and behold, two years later that building (minus the underground garage) was on that lot.”

“We believe The Langley Mystery Weekend is the longest running event of its kind in the United States. If you Google “mystery weekend” it is usually the first item on the list. I feel privileged to have been writing it for so many years and hope to continue to be a part of it for many more,” said Martin.