LANGLEY, Island County — “Where were you on Thursday night? Do you own a black poncho? What time did you go home?” 

On the drizzly streets of Langley, Island County, a group of peppy youngsters peppered an evasive woman, dressed in head-to-toe purple, with questions. A man has been murdered, and these kids are on the case. 

“I hef no idea,” she said in an over-the-top Russian accent, waving one hand dismissively. “I am beeg girl, I don’t hef bedtime.” 

After jotting down this suspiciously noncommittal tidbit, I hustled across the street to catch a taciturn poker dealer (and would-be heiress) surrounded by a well-behaved mob. She let her black-clad lawyer handle their questions, most of which referenced a disputed will, critical in a legal battle over land ownership. “I cannot answer questions about an ongoing case,” the stone-faced lawyer said, as we dedicated interrogators scribbled in notebooks. 

On this day in late February, the often-sleepy Langley streets teem with kids in Sherlock Holmes outfits, adults sporting classic PNW REI-core, and dogs swaddled in sweaters. All us amateur sleuths are here for Langley Mystery Weekend, an annual townwide whodunit that draws people from near and far to crack a case in this peaceful, quirky Whidbey Island town. Thousands of crime aficionados spend a day or two gathering clues from local businesses and interrogating colorful suspects as they wander the streets — part improv theater, part interactive puzzle, all murder mystery. 

For 40 years, Langley’s annual Mystery Weekend has brought thousands of people together for two days of shared, ridiculous and uncynical delight. Part of that delight comes from the town itself, an artsy haven with spectacular water views, but it’s the many dedicated people involved who, over decades, have built the event into something truly special: Genuine fun for folks of many ages and demographics, and requiring only your enthusiasm and curiosity to have a good time (but an affinity for corny puns won’t hurt).

“You get this feeling of community with people you’ve never met before, which we don’t get enough of,” said co-writer Rachel McDougald, who’s been involved with Mystery Weekend for nearly 30 years. “It’s silly — and honestly, these days we need silly.”

Rules of play

Behind all this silly there’s a well-honed system, and here’s how it works: For each $16 entry fee, attendees get an official program with a dossier of characters, a story synopsis and one entry form to submit their guess as to whodunit; and a copy of The Langley Gazette, a fictional newspaper that fills them in on the mystery’s backstory. 

Then, they spend the weekend exploring downtown Langley, retrieving clues from participating local businesses (which is most of them), and interrogating the costumed suspects walking around town. 

After putting together their best theories of the case, sleuths submit their entries at the Langley Visitor Center. At 5 p.m. Sunday, participants gather at the Whidbey Children’s Theatre to watch Texas Ranger Chase Ketchum (actor Ben Parks, who comes from Texas every year to participate) reveal the murderer. If you can’t stay that late, don’t worry, the killer is announced online soon after. (You also don’t need to dedicate an entire weekend, plenty of people do their solving in one day.)

There’s a rhythm to the weekend. Saturday morning is a free-for-all, as people hurry to collect clues and interrogate characters at face value. Sunday has focus because, as Mystery Weekend actor Jerry Lechner said, “grown-ups can read between the lines.”

After a night spent combing through clues (and maybe building a massive timeline and murder map in your Airbnb, I don’t know, you do you) by Sunday, the sleuths are on a mission.  

First edition

In 1984, the year of the event’s founding, what Langley needed was business. A consultant had been brought in to help generate ideas to get people into town during slow winter months. A film version of the board game “Clue” was on the horizon; after meeting with local merchants, the consultant suggested a live-action version of the game. Together, they came up with the idea of Mystery Weekend, said Loretta Martin (AKA police officer Poly Graph, in this year’s mystery) who has been writing the Mystery Weekend since 1999. 

In 1984, Martin said, there were no actors wandering around. Instead, local shopkeepers interacted with the sleuths. The very first murderer was Josh Hauser, owner of the charming Moonraker Books, and known to Mystery Weekend participants to this day as Josh DeFax. 

In that first story, Martin said, Hauser’s character poisoned the local dentist. When Martin came on board she invented the legend that the dentist was an evil man who cursed the town to have a murder every February, the month he was killed. (He was her dentist and, Martin assures me, a very nice man.)

After writing the mystery solo for many years, Martin now co-writes with McDougald and Mike Hill.

Over the years, the mysteries have gotten more complicated, and ideas can come from anywhere. One year, when an explosion in Langley’s rabbit population made headlines, the writers scrapped the story they’d been working on and went with a rabbit theme. “The story was about a restaurateur that came to town and wanted to buy all these rogue rabbits and open a restaurant called Hasenpfeffer, Incorporated,” Martin said. “That’s one way we come up with these silly ideas.”

They’ve found inspiration in the absurd details of the 2000 presidential election, and written stories with time travelers and cows shot into space. The writers also weave in threads about modern concerns; last year’s mystery incorporated self-driving cars and this year’s, affordable housing.

Martin, who was born on Whidbey and worked in commercial design and broadcast art direction throughout the West Coast before returning home in 1995, has a talent for thinking big. This 40th year was her swan song as head writer, and she went out with a bang. 

“Murder in a Small Town,” as the 2025 mystery was titled, brought back favorite characters and storylines from mysteries past. There were four crime scenes, and the established victim, former (fictional) mayor CZ Cash, staggered through town, mortally wounded. Among the many suspects: a sleazy real estate developer, the would-be heiress, some NIMBYs and some tree-huggers, some pirates, a couple of clown construction workers, a time traveler or two and more. But whodunit?

Behind the scenes

Sitting in the event’s green room at Langley City Hall early on a recent Sunday morning, Martin fields question after question. Do we have any more crime scene tape? Are we giving out a coroner’s report this year? McDougald is in and out, schlepping materials to set up this year’s crime scenes.

Around 8:30 a.m. actors start wandering in, dropping off their bags and eyeing the two cakes sitting on a table; one reads “Happy Mystery!” and the other “Happy Birthday!” (Martin’s birthday is Feb. 27). Hellos are said, a rousing, if rushed, rendition of “Happy Birthday” is sung, and then it’s time to hit the streets. 

To answer a common question: No, the actors don’t know who the murderer is; at least, not until about five minutes before the general public finds out. Spoilers must be avoided at all costs. 

Casting is a key consideration when crafting the narrative. “(The story) isn’t linear, so we usually start by thinking about the actors we have, thinking up silly names for them and what they might get into,” Martin said. 

Tim Simon, who played time traveler Bernardo DaVinci this year, said he loves the improvisational nature of the performance — you never know what you’re going to get. The actors, who devise their own costumes, have quite a bit of leeway when it comes to their characters. They’re given backstories and prepped on what they must say and what they cannot say, but otherwise, they can invent as needed (and given some of the off-the-wall questions they can get, it will be needed). 

Joanne and Jerry Lechner, who this year played wealthy anti-development activist Frieda Frye and her lawyer Perry Grisham, respectively, can explain concisely why they, and many other performers, keep coming back: “It’s really fun.”

Annie Horton read about Mystery Weekend in the paper before she even moved to Whidbey 31 years ago, and she’s been participating ever since. “I wore absolutely the wrong things, high heels and a silk dress,” she said of that first year, laughing. “So it’s a process. But I was looking forward to this before we moved on to the island, and it’s lived up to my expectations.” Part of the magic, Horton said, is the relationships the performers build with returning attendees. 

“It’s weird and it’s wacky,” said Jeremiah Donier, who played local mystery author Brooks Dammer. “Everybody comes together from all over to say, ‘Let’s have fun.’” 

By the numbers

As economic drivers go, the Langley Mystery Weekend still (forgive me) kills it.

“We met or succeeded all our metrics and ran into a few positive problems, such as having to turn people away from the reveal ceremony due to reaching maximum capacity,” said Nicole Whittington-Johnson, executive director of the Langley Chamber of Commerce. While official data on tax revenue for the 2025 weekend is not yet available, Whittington-Johnson said that, from the merchant surveys the chamber has collected so far, businesses saw an average 50% increase in sales.

Joe Menth, owner of local print shop Feather & Fox, said that this year, the shop’s revenue from the Saturday of Mystery Weekend alone nearly exceeded all summer weekend retail sales combined from last year.

And I get it. Over the course of my weekend, I spent more than I’ll ever admit on beautifully illustrated cards and colorful notebooks, meals, thrift-shop tchotchkes and fancy coffee drinks (I had to, it was rainy).

Because families and groups often participate together using one entry form, nailing down a precise number of attendees is difficult. This year, Whittington-Johnson said, 1,700 tickets were sold and an estimated 3,100 people participated. The majority of sleuths come from the Pacific Northwest, but the furthest traveler came all the way from Gloucestershire, England, she said. 

“The sleuths who’ve participated multiple years and get into it, forming themed groups with their own costumes — they’re the ones who make it entertaining,” Menth said. 

Secret ingredients

Downtown Langley’s small footprint makes it a perfect incubator for a live, interactive murder mystery to unfold — most of the 40-odd clues and 30-ish characters can be found within just a few blocks.

Wandering around, the energy is ensorcelling. People aren’t on their phones, they’re interacting with other humans and having a ball. Kids are asking to see the bottoms of the characters’ shoes. Everyone has a shared, silly purpose. Hear someone discussing a theory at the table next to you? Ask them about it. Missing a clue? Someone will share it with you. 

By Sunday afternoon, my friends and I homed in on Anthony Esquire, aka Tony E, the shady lawyer in love with the would-be heiress; and Joe Curr, a business associate of the victim who wanted him out of the way to sell their land to a developer. Feeling righteous, we submitted our answers. Justice was served.

Wrong! A few short hours later our purple-clad woman, a former Russian spy named Natasha Boriskoff played by McDougald, was carted away in handcuffs.

But Mystery Weekend isn’t about solving the case, for me anyway. It’s about committing to the bit. “Another year of overthinking it and undersolving it” as one friend, who’s been attending for decades longer than I have, sagely put it. 

So sharpen your pencils, bulk-buy your Post-its and mark your calendars for 2026, and you too could be mis-j’accusing innocent lawyers of murder. Trust me, it’s worth it. 

“We need more things that make us all collectively laugh rather than build up hostilities and frustrations. And I just love that,” McDougald said. “It’s like we somehow turn off the real world and just live in our own little movie for the weekend.”