The Langley Mystery Weekend, a Whodunit That Involves the Entire Town of Langley

For the last 23 years, the residents, and thousands of Whidbey Island visitors, are presented with a chance to solve the crime, and share in the "reward". If you are a mystery sleuth, be it amateur, or professional, a great time is virtually guaranteed.

Now, my wife and I have gone to a mystery dinner theatre, and while that was heaps of fun, and I left with the Maltese Falcon statue for solving the crime, the Langley Mystery Weekend takes it to another level.

The playing field incorporates the entire downtown area of Langley, the list of suspects, at least this year, included over twenty persons who had a motive, or benefited from the victim's untimely death.

The clues, over forty of them, must be rounded up by those playing gumshoe. This involves visiting each and every Langley merchant who has a clue, in order to collect the clue that may, or may not, break the case. If you miss just one clue, you could find yourself baffled as to the identity of the "murderer".

On Sunday afternoon, there is a public meeting, where the "coroner" releases such important info as the time of death, and even the cause of death (update 2010: this information is now released on Saturday). There is even a crime scene to visit, to check for additional clues, that may help you break the case wide open.

For the Langley Mystery Weekend 2007, the theme was "Death by Chocolate".

Playing in this annual whodunit is very simple, straightforward, and inexpensive. For the huge sum of $5.00, yes, five dollars (update 2010: the price is now $10 per person, or $25 for a party of four), you may throw your super sleuth hat into the ring, and take a crack at solving the murder that has gripped the town of Langley.

Opinions as to the identity of the culprit has been known to pit neighbor against neighbor, friend vs. friend, and even to divide families, but only for the weekend....

So, how does one become a sleuth, to envy the likes of Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Charlie Chan, and such for the weekend?

I am so glad you asked.

The first step, of course, is to get to Langley, which is about a 45 minute drive south of Oak Harbor, on Whidbey Island.

When you get into town, park the car, and go directly to the Langley Chamber of Commerce, which is located at 208 Anthes Avenue.

You cannot start before 10:00 am, so there may be a line to wait in. But everyone is there for the same reason as you, the Langley Mystery Weekend, so you are sure to hear gossip about the victim, possible suspects, and more. It is important to keep your ears and eyes open, as you never know where a clue may come from.

When it's your turn, pay the cashier that huge participation fee of $5.00, and in exchange, you will receive a copy of the Langley Gazette, which is only printed once a year specifically for the Langley Mystery Weekend; it has all sorts of mystery weekend info inside, and sheds some light on the suspects, their connection to one another, and so forth.

You'll also receive the official entry form, where you write down "whodunit" and a brief explanation of why you think, or know, they did it, after you've finished your sleuthing.

Once you have your Langley Gazette, you are free to to start collecting clues, and talking to the suspects.

The suspects?

Yes, the suspects. This cast of shady characters is roaming the streets of Langley, where you have chances to ask them questions, maybe even listen in to other people asking them questions.

The suspects can be found in the shops, coffee shops, restaurants, and stores.

But beware... the mystery weekend suspects are not required to tell the truth. One or more of those suspects is attempting to get away with it so of course if you happen to be talking to that suspect then you're not going to get the truth. But since you don't know who committed the crime, you don't know who is telling the truth and who isn't.

But being a good detective requires that you consider all the facts, and then discount that which is not pertinent, wouldn't you agree?

In the Langley Gazette is also a map of the downtown area, that shows you where the crime scene is, and where each and every clue is located.

There is a fair amount of walking involved to obtain all the clues, but they are located within the downtown Langley area, and the two clues which are the farthest away from one another are within a mile.

We did see some folks driving from clue to clue, but the driving was slower than simply walking from clue to clue.

Since all the printed clues you must gather are inside the Langley businesses, you get a chance to see their goods, engage in conversation, and in the case of the coffee shops, restaurants, bakeries, and chocolate merchants, you can sample the goodies, and take some home, or back to the hotel, for snacks while you pour over the mystery weekend clues.

A good detective must keep his or her energy level up, since murder solving is demanding work.

While my daughter and I participated in the Langley Mystery Weekend, we decided to assume aliases, so as not to attract attention to our super sleuthing abilities. So, I became Holmes, and she became Watson, at least for the duration of the crime solving.

We had a sure fire plan in place to solve the murder, and claim our reward for doing so. We arrived at the Langley Mystery Weekend shortly after the official start, at about 11:00 am.

The reason was twofold, we wanted to avoid standing in a line, which worked flawlessly, and we didn't want our sleuthing abilities to be discovered by the mass of participants. If they all had realized that we were there, they might have all given up and gone home, before the mystery weekend event started. ;-)

We covered every inch of the downtown Langley area. We double checked and made sure we collected every single clue, and then marked the clue location off the map inside the Langley Gazette.

We also noted, on the map, all of the merchants we planned to visit the following day. After several hours of traversing the town, taking in the sights, chasing down leads, and investigating the suspects, we were confident we had all the information needed to crack the case wide open.

So we carefully and quietly collected ourselves, the clues, and the map, and returned to our home in Oak Harbor, otherwise known as our Whidbey Island headquarters.

Upon our arrival back to our Whidbey Island headquarters, we thoroughly assembled all forty something clues, arranged them in numerical order, and began our patented crime solving technique.

I cannot go into great detail about our patented technique, since we will need to use it again for the Langley Mystery Weekend 2008 but needless to say, after just two or three hours, we had the crime solved. My lovely and talented wife (who did not attend the event and did not look at one clue) glanced through the Gazette, read the articles and told us who she thought did it.

We, of course, scoffed. What did she know?

All the while, our son Cameron sat on the couch and watched TV.

After the deducting, clarifying, and verifying was complete, we ended up with the same exact answer my wife had already come up with!

As it turns out, my wife apparently knows more than we thought... Guess there's a reason why she's known as "Yoda" due to her expertise on the computer and incredible fact finding capabilities.

We carefully inscribed the required information onto the official Langley Mystery Weekend entry form, and then secured its safety for the evening.

You can never be too careful.

Sunday morning came, and we returned to Langley, and the scene of the crime. After a short review of our deduction, and some on scene verification of facts, we were confident we had solved the mystery weekend crime.

We held onto our entry form until just after the Coroners Public Report, just in case there was some new evidence introduced. We then handed our entry form off to the friendly staff at the Chamber of Commerce.

Knowing that it was in safe hands, and away from prying eyes, we took the opportunity to re-visit the Langley merchants we had noted on our map the previous day.

We collected more samples of chocolate truffles, candy, cinnamon rolls, and chocolate candles, for even further investigation once we returned to our Whidbey Island headquarters.

As the revelation of the guilty party was close at hand, we hurried off to the auditorium of the Langley junior high school. This was the predetermined location for the murderer to be announced, so we arrived a few minutes early, and obtained some excellent seats for the event.

The reward was substantial, and it was divided up among those who had successfully solved the crime.

Needless to say, Watson and I had solved the murder, as was expected.

However, to be fair to all the others who had also solved it ( I am sure that most of them had just guessed, or flipped a coin, or gotten a look at our answer) ;-) those sleuths with the correct answer were put into a bin (well, not the sleuths themselves but rather their entry forms), and then a form was drawn, and a prize given, again and again until the stash of rewards was exhausted.

In an attempt to comfort those who had solved the mystery incorrectly, there were a few prizes awarded to those poor souls as well.

Even though we did not get a share of the "reward", we were more than compensated for our services as super sleuths. We met some new friends, enjoyed several conversations with the suspects, and numerous residents as well.

And we had our own stash of goodies, as well as some very fond memories of our time together. My daughter and I had an incredible time, and it was so nice to see everyone there playing detective.

Some played as a family, others played as parents vs. the kids, and some pitted the guys against the girls. But no matter how they played, it was great fun for all.

A huge thanks to the town, for the Langely Mystery Weekend. We discovered another charm of Whidbey Island, and we will definitely be attending next year as well.

Langley is a charming small town filled with interesting sites, historic buildings, spectacular water views, and best of all, townspeople who annually invite the world to come in and play for the weekend.

Below is a link to a slideshow of pictures we took during our Langley Mystery Weekend experience.

Never Stop Exploring... Curtis

Langley Mystery Weekend 2007 Slideshow