SALT LAKE CITY — Stolen jewels, a mysterious lodge in the woods, a journal full of clues — if you think this sounds like something out of a Nancy Drew novel, you’re almost right.
Salt Lake City’s new Mystery Escape Room at The Gateway mall is taking elements from the popular girl detective’s iconic stories and turning them into a unique, immersive experience.
The Nancy Drew-themed room, “The Mystery of the Missing Jewelry,” is the first of its kind since Mystery Escape Room is the first escape room company to partner with Simon & Schuster, a CBS company, to bring the girl detective to life.
“Every generation wants to hand down their love of Nancy Drew to children and grandchildren,” said Leslie Pardew, owner of Mystery Escape Room, in a statement.
Walking in off the street, the puzzles begin almost immediately at the Nancy Drew Escape Room. The waiting area is lined with bookshelves that may or may not be concealing secret doors, and the sign-in desk houses a mystery of its own for guests too impatient to wait for one of the escape rooms. And, in the Nancy Drew room, there is an ornate black telephone receiver that rings periodically with clues from Nancy herself.
In the escape room, visitors can become the main characters in the mystery. The story of the room says Nancy is staying at Evergreen Lodge, where a valuable collection of jewelry went missing 40 years ago. A newly rediscovered journal has confirmed the jewelry was stolen, and then hidden on the property.
It’s up to the escape room visitors to find clues that will lead them to the missing jewelry before a group of treasure hunters beats them to it.
Nancy Drew is not the only license exclusive to Mystery Escape Room. It also hosts “The Sword of Zorro” and “The Secrets of Downton Abbey.”
The Downton Abbey escape room, which opened in July, is also a first, as Mystery Escape Room was the first to acquire a license for the hit British drama, as the Deseret News reported at the time.
Mystery Escape Room caters to a wide variety of audiences, from families with children to corporate team-building events. Pardew notes that they cap each of their rooms at 12 participants, though he feels 10 is better.
“At a certain point, you begin to have spectators,” he said, explaining that the puzzles in each room are designed so that everyone has something to do, and so that the participants have to communicate with each other to succeed.
Pardew said he and his son, Jonathan, are the masterminds behind many of the puzzles and clues in the Salt Lake City location’s five escape rooms. Each of the escape rooms have different themes and storylines, and guests are given an hour to solve the clues in the room and “escape.”
For Pardew, the most important aspect of the rooms is that they be fully immersive.
“That’s why we add so many details,” he explained.
Escape rooms have become a growing trend over the last few years. In 2014 (the year that Mystery Escape Room opened) there were 22 escape room companies in the United States, according to The New York Times. By 2018, there were nearly 2,000.
The escape room is not the extent of Mystery Escape Room’s partnership with Simon & Schuster, however. The publishing house is showing its support of childhood literacy by also donating books to be distributed to schools and libraries in the Salt Lake area.
A spokesperson for the The Gateway also affirmed its support of this goal.
“As a hub for specialty interactive experiences, we’re proud to have this addition to our roster of entertainment and art exhibits here at The Gateway,” Jacklyn Briggs, marketing director, said in a statement. “We’re happy to help boost literacy in Salt Lake by working with partners on book giveaways and helping instill a love for books to our youngest visitors.”