By KATE POSS

Special to The Record

Dead of winter is prime time for solving a mysterious murder. This was the thinking in February 1984 when Langley locals brainstormed a solution for reviving business during those slow days. Now, after 40 years of hosting successful murder mystery weekends, the dead of winter brings life to the town.

Langley Mystery Weekend was launched, inspired by the game of Clue. Sleuths and suspects have gathered every February since its inception; the exception being 2021 when the COVID pandemic shuttered public gatherings.

Josh Hauser, owner of Moonraker Books, played the character of Langley’s first “murderer,” accused of poisoning dentist Rick Prael, who in real life, died in January 2011. As a continuing character, Hauser returns this year as Mayor Josh DeFax in Langley’s 40th anniversary celebration, “Murder in a Small Town,” hosted the weekend of Feb. 22 and 23.

“It’s been fabulous for the whole community,” Hauser said in a phone call. “It’s brought people in from all over. People look forward to it. It’s a great way for people to meet Langley and for them to meet one another.”

The Langley Visitor Center and Chamber of Commerce produces the event — which includes more than 40 participating local businesses that provide clues. It sells tickets, takes ads for its brochure, provides maps, publishes the Langley Gazette, a Murder Mystery newspaper, and coordinates the cast of characters visitors interview to suss out whodunit.

“Murder in a Small Town” revisits past themes, and includes former “suspects” and “murderers.” This year’s plot addresses realities faced on Whidbey Island such as housing shortages, rural zoning, NIMBY-ism and environmental preservation.

The story centers around the murder of recurring character “C.Z. Cash,” executor to an estate owned by his late girlfriend, “Coco Geaherdelli.” Cash’s ‘49ers Men’s Club’ ran poker games, and lucrative businesses such as a “Blackberry Bourbanaide” distillery, and production of hybrid chocolate banana slugs, which previously paid the estate’s expenses.

But times changed, the state shuttered the distillery and a heat wave wiped out the banana slugs. The men’s club membership shrunk to include Cash and two remaining members, who think they’ll get rich by selling the property valued at upwards of $10 million. Coco’s estate is put on the market, a move strongly opposed by Cash. Potential buyers include “Ray Lux” — a slick developer with plans to develop Coco’s 250 acres of pristine, forested high bluff land off of Saratoga Road. A competing bid for the property is waged by a local author, actually a spy, “Natasha Boriskoff,” representing an “old Russian friend” looking for a secluded getaway in a temperate climate.

Two groups form to protest Lux’s proposed high end development. One is P4P, or Parks for People, who have long campaigned for more parks and public beach access. They declare Lux’s development ignores Whidbey Island’s affordable housing shortage, and that the development would endanger the primordial forest and its important plants and fungi.

The other protesters belong to the group NOMI — Not On My Island. They say zoning should remain at one house per ten or more acres.

Meanwhile, with a cast of nearly three dozen characters this year, it’s up to visiting sleuths to gather clues from local businesses, interview the suspects and identify the murderer before the 5 p.m. reveal Sunday afternoon.

Loretta Martin has served as the lead writer on each mystery script since 1999. She was hired as the chamber’s director in 1998 and retired in 2007. She continues to enjoy the production, collaboration and fleshing out of characters with fellow writers. There is no fixed script for the actors, just a history of the events leading up to the murder. Each actor is given a biography of who they are, but their response to the sleuths is improvised in the moment. The character does not know who the murderer is until the big reveal.

The script and production of Mystery Weekend take about a year to plan.

“This is a non-linear form of writing—hard to do because there’s so many moving parts on the day it comes finally about,” Martin said. “We may sit down at first with a bottle of wine at one of the wineries. We have so many quick-witted suggestions from the suspects. I get a lot of ideas from them and I let them percolate and I start writing.That helps the story flow. We start with an over-riding idea, then I create the characters. They create their own story.“

Chris Crotty, Mystery Weekend’s main writer from 1990 to 1999, advised Martin on keeping mum regarding knowledge of the year’s murderer.

“Chris said, ‘Be careful you don’t tell who the murderer is because it’s a small town and it will get out,’” Martin recalled.

It’s a thrill for Mystery Weekend’s chief writer to see the stories and characters she helped create come alive on the weekend that includes her birthday. Martin plays a returning character, Officer Poly Graph.

“I am one of the luckiest writers in the world — on the day we have our photo shoot all of my characters come alive” Martin said. “They start interacting as my characters. That’s a real blessing to me.”

Martin, who has previous experience in television broadcasting, plus a talent for writing humorous, pun-laced scripts featuring colorful characters, has enjoyed her role in this long-running popular event that attracts visitors from all over the globe.

She’s collaborated with co-writers such as Rachel McDougald, who plays the character of “The Russian Spy Natasha Boriskoff” this year, and has performed in previous Mystery Weekends for more than 30 years.

Another co-writer of Mystery Weekend was Mike Hill, who used to own a shop in Langley and has since moved to California. He’s served as a co-writer for more than 20 years. On a previous Mystery Weekend, he was cheeky and gave visitors his own misleading clues about the murder victim that were not part of the script. Martin scolded him afterwards, and said he was only to give out clues, and it was up to the characters to raise doubts.

“I told him, ‘You messed up the murder … the characters were supposed to throw the red herrings,’” Martin recalled saying. “I said, ‘Your punishment, sir, is next year you’ll help with the mystery weekend.’ He has a great sense of humor and such a sharp mind.”

Clue collectors are advised to beware of red herrings characters may throw their way in the Mystery Weekend brochure and map: “Information pried from these ruthless folks may not necessarily be reliable. After all, the real criminal is out there and has every reason to lead you in the wrong direction!”

Martin’s former writing collaborator, Saranell DeChambeau, played the character “I.B. Fuzz” for years, and was the one announcing the culprit at the Big Reveal. DeChambeau died on the opening day of Mystery Weekend last year. Her “nephew” Chase Ketchum took over for her last year, announcing the murderer on that Sunday afternoon.

“Saranell was a fixture in Mystery Weekends,” said Betty Freeman, a Langley Visitor Center representative who has worked at the chamber since 2013. “Chase Ketchum is actually Ben Parks. He comes from Texas each year to play his part. He now reads the solution and points to the murderer.”

Freeman is actively engaged in weaving together all that needs to be done in the chamber’s biggest production of the year — Mystery Weekend. “I do the editing of the script,” she added. “The clues have to be edited. The copy for the program has to be edited.”

One year Mystery Weekend was filmed by cable TV. The Hallmark Channel filmed “Cafe Assassin — Grounds for Murder” for its series on fun American events in 2008.

This year’s Mystery Weekend hosts a parade at noon on Saturday, Feb. 22. The mystery will be solved at the Big Reveal at the Whidbey Children’s Theatre auditorium on Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m.

Tickets and merchandise can be ordered online prior to the weekend from visitlangley.com. Purchase tickets at the Visitor Information Center located at 208 Anthes Avenue, Langley on Feb. 22 or 23. The office opens at 9 a.m. Saturday for will call, and 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday for the general public.

(Photo provided) Bernardo and Vincent are artists for the weekend. Bernardo is also a time traveler who stayed in Langley after the mystery “Killing Time.”

(Photo provided) Blacky Beardsley, the Gazette Pirate, confers with Joe Curr and Little Joe Curr about selling gambling equipment from the 49ers Club.