Murderous weekend highlights winter

Mayhem, motive and means spell mystery at Land’s End

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune
Dozens of people gathered around cocktails in a cozy lounge, safe from the stormy, sullen sea scrubbing rocks clean below – sound like “Dark Shadows?”
No. This is a more immediate experience than that provided by a television show. Keith and Margo’s Mystery Weekend presents “A Homer Alaska Weekend to Kill For” Friday through Sunday at Land’s End Resort, and Homer people are invited to take part as the plot thickens.
The weekend won’t be completely restful because in keeping with the plot, a murder or two, maybe three, will be committed in a front room before witnesses. The weekend of crime will follow a scripted plot starting Friday evening when all meet. Infiltrating the group are actors who will do their best to blend in. But fear not, a kindly, disheveled local detective will become involved to help clarify the situation.
And he’s likely to be a real detective down from the Anchorage Police Department who not only wants a weekend getaway, but likes his work so much he doesn’t mind taking his sleuthing with him.
“We really do want local people to join in,” said Land’s End Resort Manager Patrick Cashman. “It’s a fun getaway for couples. You get to spend the whole weekend relaxing and being involved in a mystery.”
Even shy couples find themselves interacting with total strangers, all in the game of assembling clues, Cashman said.
Homer’s Land’s End appears to be the only hotel in Alaska to host the mystery weekend, which takes place throughout the country at out-of-the-way resorts such as the Graylyn of Winston-Salem, N.C. a hotel that looks like its made for an Agatha Christi plot. Writers Keith O’Leary and Margo Morrison, creators of the event, are award-winning writers, producers, and directors with backgrounds in motion picture, television and theatrical production. Since 1985 they have produced more than 7,000 of these live mystery productions
Land’s End has started a tradition, with this event being the sixth annual hosting of the event. Usually upward of 50-100 people participate, with many being repeat visitors, like the Anchorage law enforcement officers.
“They love the whole idea of thinking and working. It’s all staged out, so that you are a witness to what happens and, at the same time, you know the culprit is one of you,” Cashman said. “You never know, though, what the twist will be.”

Alaska’s backdrop might, or might not, be worked into the plot. Homer’s gloomy end-of-the Homer Spit isolation makes for a great setting, though. November storms literally whip up the waves and winds howl across the hotel’s decks. Much of the interaction takes place in the Quarter Deck overlooking the beach and elsewhere throughout the hotel, Cashman said.
The Friday reception starts “as a good spot for becoming familiar with the scheming, manipulative, deceitful and murderous people that you will be spending the next day and a half with. As opposed to the ones you meet every week back home,” reads a Web site description posted on the event.
“The mystery begins on Friday evening and develops at lunch on Saturday. Dreadful events occur, and you may stumble over a dead body or two. In the best tradition of television and the movies, the chances are good that a kindly, perhaps somewhat disheveled, local detective with a possibly warped sense of humor, will become involved to clarify the situation, guiding and cajoling you into thinking about the means, methods and motives of murder.”
Labeled as “The Masterminds of the genre” by the Los Angeles Times, their mystery weekends and events have been co-hosted author Mary Higgins Clark, Peter Falk and Dr. Henry Lee, and have been featured on Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous as well as all major television networks.
Homer people are invited to participate, even without staying at the hotel, Cashman said. There will be several opportunities to join in the plot at dinner Friday and Saturday and Sunday at brunch.

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Posted by Newsroom on Nov 11th, 2009 and filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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