Date: November 06, 2021 07:59 am Title: Chapter 16
Great to see this back again, a gripping read as usual; and well, that was a bit of a twist! Or, is it a red herring…?
Date: November 05, 2021 10:10 pm Title: Chapter 16
I dont know why but I became suspicious of Kelly during this chapter. Honestly couldnt really tell you why, but Im keeping an eye on her. And also it figures that once I tell you that Im going to suspect Meredith you make it seem like its not Meredith. But honestly at this point who knows. Maybe it was one of the horses who came back for revenge. If its Pam just let her get away with it pls
Author's Response: how’d you know that it was a horse
Date: November 05, 2021 09:20 pm Title: Chapter 16
"He had a hard time imagining Stanley working up the energy to strangle a man" - undeniably true.
Meredith's an interesting candidate I haven't thought much about. Certainly both in canon and in this universe, she seems like the sort of person who might have a certain degree of darkness at her core, and also with a greater degree of savvy than you might detect at first glance. You did really well establishing her as a legitimate threat than declawing her a bit in relatively swift fashion. (And the prostitution bit makes me think Kelly had been asked to provide a different "service" to Packer that she was thinking of when she glanced at Jim's unmade bed. Ugh.)
Oooof. Brutal spot to leave this on. A split in the all-too-tenuous Dwight-Jim alliance... although I appreciate you giving Dwight a win here. Although I'm guessing the fact that he's making the reveal at this point means it's probably not Pam. Sigh. The dream of #PammeFatale lives on. And I love the subtle hint earlier that Dwight's going to reach that conclusion with Jim briefly considering that Dwight might be hunting for the murderer to put folks off the scent.
Also, thank you for in all universes making Ryan the absolute worst.
Date: September 08, 2021 04:00 pm Title: Prologue
I'm so behind with this review, my apologies.
This story just keeps better and better. The Pam of this story is so mysterious. We know she likes Jim, but we really don't know much more about her. So this most recent chapter makes things extra juicy. I'm on the edge of my seat for what happens next.
Date: August 21, 2021 11:12 pm Title: Chapter 15
BT. bt. B. T.
How do you keep ending chapters like this & expecting me to just be chill about it?! There is no chill here. Zero. Please update yesterday. I can’t deal.
Date: August 18, 2021 03:27 am Title: Chapter 15
YAY. I'M SO HAPPY TO SEE THIS UPDATED. *BLOWS HORN*
There's some really great writing in here depicting Pam and Jim as frail, flawed humans who would certainly LIKE to not have their first reaction to Roy's death be about what it means for them, but who can't avoid thinking about it. The need for comfort and closeness and full expression of life in the face of death comes across as organic here.
Hmmmmm. Feels like we ruled out a couple of suspects in this one. Feels like the reveal of the rope is too early for it to actually be Pam (although as I'm writing this, it occurs to me you might find something similar in everyone's room, and maybe the real killer just replaced theirs with Pam's... easy enough to do if you have staff help). The dream of Pamme Fatale is gone, but not forgotten. Although it does raise the question of whether or not someone is trying to specifically frame Pam. Same with Toby's accusation - if it's really him, it's early in the game still for him to be playing this card. (Although as Toby points out, complications with her family's future aside these deaths are breaking in a *very* convenient way for Pam. Hmmmmmmmmmm.)
Erin on the other hand is all sorts of suspicious here once again. (Her wanting Jim's shirt has me narrowing my eyes.) Is she covering for Jim, or herself? Feels unlikely she'd be working on her own if it's her - more like she's been pulled into something and is in over her head... My new guess? Michael. He's the person I most medium suspect.
Date: August 17, 2021 07:57 pm Title: Chapter 15
Jim's taking a lot of this on. His mind is at too many places at once to focus on anything. It's great that he's there for Pam and they've confessed their feelings, but what now? He doesn't have the money or life that Roy sustained. He's just a journalist. He still lied to her, it was to protect her feelings sure, but what happens if she learns the truth? As much as I want to root for these two and hope they make it, there're too many indicators that this'll probably lead to a tragic conclusion. Hopefully justice and love will win in the end.
The Rope! This was a step in the right direction to be sure, but the fact it was in Pam's room, coupled with his notebook... Pam being the killer is a popular theory (since Jim deduced it at the start of the whole thing) but there's also the fact that there's more than a single killer thanks to Roy's drunken confession and eventual murder, but given all the motivations, the connections that they have not only with Packer but also with *each other*, the monumental risks of the public finding out their secrets... the person behind all this must be a master manipulator. Maybe performing some sort of "domino effect" or something to that effect by having them kill each other off one by one, leaving their tracks clean. So yeah, Pam could easily be screwing with his mind by placing clues by her, or the mastermind is doing it, *or* the mastermind is sending *others* to plant the evidence for them by threatening the multiple killers that they'll reveal of their secrets if they don't comply. So yeah, even though Toby couldn't possibly be the murderer at that moment, who's to say he's not pulling the strings? Or Pam? Or even Phyllis? I need to reread to see who *Roy's* killer could possibly be, and why they were blackmailed/motivated to do so.
Well-written as always!
Date: August 17, 2021 06:40 pm Title: Prologue
I was so happy to see a new chapter was posted! The intrigue continues . . . 🙂
Date: August 17, 2021 04:31 pm Title: Chapter 15
Yeah, like Jim I don't think we're any closer to figuring out whodunit. Toby discovering Roy dead at Jim's feet like that, especially this harder, angrier Toby certainly is something to consider. Jim is just blown all over the place. Feeling guilty about Roy, angry about Toby, scared for Pam, and of course somehow he still feels like he's the one that needs to figure all this out.
Makes sense that with his feelings for Pam going the way they are that he'd want to run to her arms. However she shuts him out at first. There could be host of reasons for that to be sure. Then of course the big twist there at the end. Packer's murder weapon seems to have come from Pam's room. That's big and I'm sure will only feed into the whirling thoughts spinning around Jim's mind.
1 [Report This]Date: August 17, 2021 08:00 am Title: Chapter 15
BT NO, you can’t leave me this way! As soon as Jim couldn’t find the other tie I automatically started scanning ahead to see Jim make the connection. Ahhhh. I really didn’t want Pam to be the murderer because that would mean she’s been deceiving Jim this whole time. :’c I’m just going to hope that Aly is right and somebody is sleepwalking!
1 [Report This]Date: August 17, 2021 06:41 am Title: Prologue
So happy to see a new chapter! I may have read it at 2:30am and it may have prompted me to have some very strange dreams but it's totally with it.
I have more questions than ever now. Why are the employees still working like maniacs with Packer gone? Who is the murderer? I have a theory. Everyone in the house! We need to talk.
Date: August 16, 2021 10:15 pm Title: Chapter 15
The GASP i just let out at the end. What the HECK does that mean?! Did Roy kill packer?? Or pam?? Or someone trying to frame them?? I mention this every time but im still not letting go of the slim possibility that its sleepwalking jim. Im shocked, confused, and needing the next chapter last week please.
Date: August 12, 2021 06:00 am Title: Chapter 14
I'm catching up on jam fics but wow so many questions about motivations and secrets in this update! This fic just keeps getting better and better!
1 [Report This]Date: June 27, 2021 11:12 am Title: Chapter 12
You know what you did with that bathtub scene and I am in belief that you are, in fact, the murderer. I hope you’re proud.
Date: June 18, 2021 03:13 pm Title: Chapter 14
Oooh, that’s an answer to the Roy backstory that I definitely wasn’t expecting. You are so good at this.
“ Maybe they could just forget it all and stay locked in his bedroom, sustaining only on each other, and when someone came for them at the end of the week they could say “there’s been a murder? We didn’t know, we’ve been too busy here.”” Would also read this story, not going to lie.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Never before has a storyline about Roy been so damn interesting. I am concerned that the implication will be that Jim pushed him down the stairs & all of a sudden will be suspect number one for everything…
As always, your writing is flawless & I am in awe of your talent.
1 [Report This]Date: June 10, 2021 04:40 am Title: Chapter 14
So glad to see this is back - and with such an intriguing chapter...
an interesting twist on things with Roy's ramblings and guilt over his involvement in a anti-Japanese hate crime - an interesting foreshadowing to the end and his own demise - Karma. Whether or not it was meant as commentary but also makes you think about the state of things in current times.
Anyway, Toby's vitriol, makes me wonder is that specifically towards Jim, is he jealous and crushing on Pam in this world too or is he just being written as if you are Michael? His attitude toward Erin leads me to believe the latter, but still holding on to the former.
Erin is just as adorable (the vision of her in the socks and shoes - so vivid)
in your telling of her and feel bad for her but why is she stealing his stuff?
Curious too what the drink was?
Sorry to see no Pam in the chapter but the ending - oh man, Jim's going to look like a suspect for sure now. Please don't leave us hanging long
Date: June 09, 2021 05:55 pm Title: Chapter 14
True story: I finished a detective novel over the weekend, and I was thinking at the end of it, "this is not nearly as an engaging a mystery as Murder in Savannah." So I'm particularly glad it's back.
NGL: I've kind of been wondering if we were going to acknowledge the fact that this is taking place in the Jim Crow South in 1947. I did not anticipate we were going to acknowledge the anti-Japanese violence of the era. Well done. Poor Hide. He's not been a lucky man in most universes. Seems starkly and depressingly realistic that Roy would've gotten away with this for that time, and you know, many, many, many years to come. Okay. I'm sad now. Ummmmm... I *do* like that you managed to make Roy's confession both a red herring/misdirect AND an explanation of part of the mystery of Roy, and squeeze in a little about his connection with Packer at the same time. That's just really well-executed mystery writing right there.
Also. HIM DYING AT THE END. AND IN A WAY THAT COULD REALLY EASILY IMPLICATE JIM. Completely karmic, fun parallel, and also HUGE TWIST. This is all working out really nicely for Pam, isn't it?
I am fairly convinced someone on the staff is involved, or at least up to someone nefarious. I can't decide if it's Toby or if he's just, you know, a upright "moralist." Or maybe has a crush on Pam? Ugh. Toby. (Especially because I still think it's Erin. And it does occur to me that it may well be Toby thinks JIM is the murderer.)
Date: June 09, 2021 05:47 pm Title: Chapter 14
Twists and turns and twists and turns. One question answered but several more show up. Add to that the body count keeps going up, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Roy admitting Packer was cutting him in on the deal seems pretty par for the course. Makes sense that a character like Roy would want to get in with whatever webs Packer was spinning.
Toby's ire was really interesting to read. It was almost as if we could get a glmipse of what Toby could have been had he not been beat down by Michael for years. A man much more willing to fire back especially in regards to certian daliances as you put it.
Jim remembers a bitter smell from his grandmother's kitchen. Hmmmm. Bitter almonds are said to smell like cyanide. Which is a very interesting line of thinking. It's well within Meredith's wheelhouse to be ordering a drink that late at night. Yet it's Erin who is bringing the drink and seemingly dressed hastily. So it could be that Erin just grabbed the first decanter she saw. Could also mean Erin was the one who spiked the decanter. Though that also begs the question as to why she'd want to off Meredith. It also feels like Jim was not the target
(if in fact that way cyanide in the decanter) since he just grabbed the decanter at random.
Roy being drunk and falling to his doom. And the last person to see him alive was Jim. Jim who just had a shouting match with Toby. Toby who is no fan of Jim. Like I said, twists and turns.
Great way to keep the tension up that's for sure.
Author's Response: Erin wasn’t the only one with a decanter, so we can’t assume that whatever strange smell Jim smelled came from what Erin had on her tray. Erin and Toby both had glasses and bottles on their trays and both were left on the same table.
Date: June 09, 2021 05:26 pm Title: Chapter 14
It's back!
"He left out the details of Roy’s confession, not stupid enough to trust Toby with anything of value, information or otherwise."
This along with his total allegiance to Packer makes Toby still my primary suspect. Yeah, could be obvious, but it just makes sense given what we know. Giving Toby a backbone is an interesting choice, you're turning him into Lloyd Gross.
Guess Jim isn't the one after all given the final few paragraphs but who knows? Pam could be the one who killed Roy specifically (since he's the only one she would have a vendetta against), but I really don't want it to be her.
And then there's Erin... on my list. She's constantly getting yelled at by people and clearly comes from a sheltered household, and could end up snapping as a result. Maybe she wants to take out anyone disturbing the peace? Or maybe Packer was a father to her and she's taking out any potential suspects trying to find his real killer. Another reach, I know, but it's a possibility.
The Hide thing came out of *nowhere*, and a very neat touch tying in the factual events of a post-WWII America. A shame, he is the #1 heart surgeon in Japan. And Roy? Well, he certainly was a piece of work. Very like him to drink to forget. His descriptive death was sad to read, though, and it's interesting to see just how deep these connections to Packer go.
Another fun and gripping chapter!
Date: June 09, 2021 05:11 pm Title: Chapter 14
Wow. That was intense! Toby is incredibly annoying in this scene. Poor Erin! And what was in that glass?? And now Pam's single. Great chapter.
Date: June 09, 2021 04:57 pm Title: Chapter 14
*what?!*
I thought Roy confessing to a murder was gonna be the big twist but now he’s dead?! Toby is going to have a field day with this one. I need the next chapter immediately, please.
1 [Report This]Date: June 09, 2021 03:29 pm Title: Chapter 14
Ma'am.
Excuse you.
My jaw quite literally dropped at the end of that chapter. And as always, I'm in awe of your beautiful writing and how perfectly you describe these characters.
I'll take the next chapter now pls.
Date: March 28, 2021 07:41 pm Title: Chapter 13
I love how Jim and Pam have become each other's person so quickly in this story. Like, snuggling to sleep? I love it.
We hadn't seen much of Roy till now, but boy did he come into the spotlight here. I can't wait to see what happens next!
Date: March 27, 2021 08:30 pm Title: Chapter 13
Goosebumps. Actual goosebumps, BT. That last line. DAMN. So good.
Date: March 27, 2021 01:07 pm Title: Chapter 13
ACH, poor Creed! He's with his horses now. It's strange to think of him being gone, you always sort of thought he was immortal.
I love Dwight being undeterred by murder. This is very much the Dwight who eats his way through the awkwardness of Dinner Party.
How *did* that notebook get back in his room? You have Pam, being there without him... Ryan, free to wander while Kelly and Erin occupied Pam... really any of the staff.... hmmmmmmm. ::suspicious look at Pam, who definitely mentioned yet another possible motive here with her appearance of complicity with any wrongdoing of Roy's::
As stated in chat: my bet is Roy killed Creed, perhaps for having discovered him destroying some evidence of his nefarious doings, but someone else killed Packer. (Probably Pamme Fatale. Or... maybe Erin.)