Cats will rule on Langley Mystery Weekend

"The Langley City Cat Catcher is dead, and it's up to the amateur sleuths visiting the town to discover the killer.It will happen on Feb. 24-25, when Langley Mystery Weekend returns. "

“What happens when the leading candidate in a hotly contested race for the position of Langley City Cat Catcher is found dead behind the South Whidbey museum on election night? That’s what Langley mystery writers Saranell DeChambeau and Mike Hill will be plotting as they write the 17th Annual Langley Mystery Weekend script. The two-day interactive mystery play for the whole family takes place on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 24 and 25, between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on the streets and in the shops of downtown Langley. Cost to play is just $1 per mystery packet, which includes a mystery newspaper (sponsored and produced by The South Whidbey Record) a map showing the location of clues and scene of the crime, and a mystery solution ballot which makes correct guesses eligible for a Sunday afternoon prize drawing.Hill and DeChambeau are weaving a twisted plot which involves local politics, ancient Egyptian cat worshipers, a garden club and even the Yukon Mafia. Local actors will be wandering the streets portraying characters in the improvisational play, which is underwritten by U.S. Bank and the Langley South Whidbey Chamber of Commerce. The Mystery Weekend writing duo couldn’t be more different from each other: Four-foot-11 DeChambeau is a longtime resident who has been an actor in Mystery Weekend for many years; 5-foot-10 Hill is a transplanted Californian who moved to Whidbey just a year ago and, with his wife Charlotte, runs a gift shop in Langley.Hill added, With five cats in our family, we are definitely cat people. DeChambeau seems to prefer dogs, she said, but I made sure that in this mystery, cats rule! “