Mystery Club: Students investigate and role play puzzling riddles

Who murdered Charlie, a billionaire musician who was found dead on his yacht?

That was the question the mystery club, led by co-presidents seniors Celine Liang and Michael Ren, were pondering.

They sat in English teacher Amy Keys’ room on a Friday lunch, working with a group of about 20 students. They distributed the roles: a wife who married him for his money, his estranged daughter, his childhood best friend and the lead singer in a rival rock band to solve the mystery. Through role play, the club members held an intense and focused look on their faces as they were determined to figure out the mystery.

    Mystery Club, which meets every Friday at lunch in room 006, allows students who are interested in mysteries to investigate them through episodes of “Sherlock,” puzzles or role playing scenarios in which they have to discover the killer.

    The club was started last year by Class of 2015 alumni Michelle Leung and Jasmine Deng. This year, Liang and Ren are co-presidents, junior Trevor Leung is treasurer, junior Brite Wang is secretary and junior Steve Lai is in charge of communications for the club. Keys is the adviser for the club.  

    “The main purpose of Mystery Club is to provide an environment where people who enjoy reading [or] watching mystery-related things can get to know one another and enjoy doing mystery related activities,” Liang said.

    During a regular meeting, members immerse themselves in mystery-related videos, movies or TV episodes, such as the “Sherlock” series.

    Recently, the club has been showing a few TEDx riddles involving aliens and zombies and has been watching the “Sherlock” Christmas special.

Occasionally, they also hold an activity called “mystery lunches,” which is when the students role-play a murder mystery case. Different students play out situations by taking on various roles and the other members try to figure out who committed the murder.

    Ren said that the club also holds an annual scavenger hunt involving riddles that lead students across the school to find out a secret message with a prize at the end.

    Since all the club members are mainly intrigued by mysteries, the members are able to connect with one another and become closer through these meetings.

    “I personally really enjoy Mystery Club because I’ve always loved reading Arthur Conan Doyle [the author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries] and I also really love watching ‘Sherlock’,” Liang said. “Mystery Club is a great place for both.”