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Murder Most Foul  by Larner 91 Review(s)
NotACatReviewed Chapter: 26 on 5/29/2015
Outstanding again, thank you!

Author Reply: And thank you! The deaths of Christopher Byers, Michael Moore, and Steve Branch were so terrible, but the injustice offered to their memory in the persecution of Damien Echols, Jessie Miskelley, and Jason Baldwin has to be one of the most indecent miscarriages of justice in the history of U.S. Justice.

Thank you so very much for your feedback. The case has been so dear to my heart, and I only hope that my story helps us all examine our own prejudices so that we do not allow them to color our judgments in the future. I felt I had to honor all who suffered in this case as I could, and I hope that we do not allow such travesties to reoccur indefinitely.

Again, thanks so much!

BranwynReviewed Chapter: 22 on 12/2/2011
So Pardrone wasn't so much inept as so badly intimidated that he couldn't properly defend his client. Quite a few people were threatened into silence. Good idea to disguise Danarion.

Author Reply: In the real case the defense lawyers were totally unprepared for the role assigned them. One has made a point of emphasizing just how poorly he was able to try to do his job, to the point that in the Rule 37 hearing for Jason Baldwin and Jessie Miskelley a few years ago he kept repeating it over and over again that he felt he was totally inadequate as Jessie's defense lawyer. And the man is now a judge in his own right.

Yes, good idea to disguise Danarion!

BranwynReviewed Chapter: 21 on 12/1/2011
Avrandahil has a strange idea of his duties as a coroner (which seems to be the role he filled). Malthor made me laugh--he really didn't want to give up that rare book. I liked how though he was probably too afraid to openly defy the authorities, he still did his best to preserve the records.

Author Reply: Frank Peretti isn't quite as bad as Avrandahil, although he does appear to be convinced that his job is to support the state's case as much as possible rather than to truly determine what happened. And to do this he's proved he will lie like a rug.

It's hard for a bibliophile to give up such a text as this! I KNOW, considering how I love those books that come into my hands!

BranwynReviewed Chapter: 20 on 11/28/2011
We finally meet the defendants! Garestil is obviously a few bricks shy of a load. And poor Danarion thinks the deputation is there to witness his execution. Berevrion is wise to continue to treat them as felons. Clearly there are people (like that annoying couple) who will refuse to even consider that the boys might be innocent and will be enraged if they escape punishment. Another great chapter! This is an amazing story. And has inspired me to do some reading on the real-life case.

Author Reply: Poor Garestil isn't really all that bright, is he? But he's a decent sort.

What else is Danarion supposed to think? At least he's realized that there's at least a chance now that he'll be vindicated.

And the pure poison of some of the nonsupporters in the real case is hard to imagine, even when we've been aware of it for almost two decades!

BranwynReviewed Chapter: 19 on 11/28/2011
Well, at least they now know where the murders occured which discredits some of the testimony against the three boys. Because he is misusing a marvelous talent and feigns ignorance of his own deceit, Avrandahil strikes me as even more villainous than the characters who were engaging in outright thuggery.

Author Reply: Yes, now they know where the children actually died.

And you can guess my attitude toward the ME who carried out the actual autopsies in the real case. Frank Peretti just lied in an interview he did with an Arkansas newspaper, and I've been shaking my head over it for the past three days! The man is an expert at twisting facts to try to justify the case against the three.

BranwynReviewed Chapter: 18 on 11/26/2011
Aww, I love the ent! He stole this chapter, especially when he handed back Vangil and apologized for breaking him! Of course, he doesn't have much or any contacts with humans and would have no idea how frail we are compared to him. And his presence also proves that the murders couldn't have happened anywhere near the field where the children play.

Author Reply: It was fun finding a way to work an Ent into the story. And he may have watched over the children at play, but hasn't tried to physically interact with them, at least. No, the children weren't murdered anywhere near him.

BranwynReviewed Chapter: 17 on 11/26/2011
I like Imrahil's son. Much like his father, isn't he? By this point in time, the entire deputation must be heartily sick of hearing what "everyone knows." When Berevrion asks if Danarion wore boots which would have left a distinctive footprint, I wondered if anyone had bothered to compare his boots with the plaster casts of the footprints. There is no way that a scrawny kid had feet as large as those of the actual murderer.

Author Reply: I rather like Erchirion as well.

They did compare the shoes confiscated from Jason, Damien, and Jessie to the two and a half footprints found at the site, and none of them matched. Nor did soil samples found in their shoes match the soil from the gully. But it didn't stop the police from continuing to focus their attention on the three or the prosecutors from continuing to seek to force the "evidence" to supposedly "support" their case.

BranwynReviewed Chapter: 16 on 11/25/2011
Poor Wendthor and the other children have been exposed to a great deal of violence in their few years. That's a sad story about the horse farm though probably common enough in that region. And yet more suspects!

Author Reply: It was definitely a violent period, and there was no way to successfully protect the children from the knowledge of just how bad things were. And, yes, even MORE suspects!

BranwynReviewed Chapter: 15 on 11/25/2011
The small town gossip strikes a chord with me. I lived for a time in Kent, Ohio, and neighbors would regale me with stories about the students killed in the May 4th shootings. How the ER doctors found lice on the bodies. And the two girls were sluts. And the only mistake the National Guard made was not killing all of the protesters. I was deeply shocked by the strength of the vitriol so many years after the events. Maybe there is something about that small town environment that brings out the credulous and vicious in human nature.

Author Reply: I agree. However, in the state of Washington, in Seattle, of all places, a couple were sent to prison for allegedly sexually abusing their daughter and their neighbor's child--and it was categorically proven that the crime for which they were sent to prison for seventeen years never even happened. It doesn't just happen in small towns.

BranwynReviewed Chapter: 14 on 11/24/2011
Those guardsmen were rather selective about whom they questioned and whose testimony they believed. Berevrion's discomfiture at the mention of oral sex was funny. He is not quite unflappable. Odd that no one considered that Danarion was recovering from a broken arm and couldn't have done the things he was accused of. But people were just seeing what they wanted to see.

Author Reply: You have nailed it exactly, Branwyn.

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