Good story told at a nice pace! Interesting plot; character portrayal is good too. Thank you.

Wonderful, fast-paced story, with excellent flow, enhanced by nice detail. I saw a couple of typos that really need fixing, as they were getting in the way of understanding what was happening, but other than that, no complaints.

I'm especially pleased at the solidity of the narrative, & at least as much, with the dialog. I know how difficult it is to sustain-especially in a lengthier piece, the characters & the pace. Three cheers for accomplishing that task!

And it's always great to see a really deep, complex, & COMPETENT Blair (though you really subtly showed how little HE knows it)! Thinking on his feet, being original & creative, & sooo compassionate-that's the Blair I fell in love with. Didn't we all?

But I love & respect Jim, just as much, & cannot IMAGINE him separate from Blair, not without my heart breaking. (It's why I can't-no, WON'T-read "death stories"). Because likewise, Jim's very complementary nature, his profound tenderness which he hides-even...just as does Blair... from himself!-& his tentative reaching out to the one person he trusts above all others...so different, & yet, they fit together superbly. Almost as if they were one soul... Not an original concept on my part, but all the more TRUE for that very reason. We've all noted that, & here, you did so too, without directly stating it. That's real TALENT.

Thank you for showing us what a truly great friendship between two men looks like! To me, these are iconic of such, & ALL friendships can use this light to hold up their own friendships to compare their camaraderie, respect & love for another person.

This one's a keeper!

I really enjoyed this story but I think you missed a great opportunity to expand on it. You spent the time to bring in the two extra brothers, set up the extra bombing plot, went to the trouble to set up the scene with the note not being from your villian, then dropped all of that. I was really wantin to see where you took all of that. Stumbling onto a second arson case, or a conspiracy case would have made for a good plot extension or for a good second story. Any chance for a follow up?

Bad things happen to good people. One of the tougher lessons in life. Good people do stupid things because they think they have no other choice. Fact of life. I really liked this piece and as soon as I have a minute to spare, I will read the rest of your stories. Thanks for sharing.

Excellent story; very well written.

One small quibble, however, about Audrey's "accent". "Y'all" is a plural (you all) and is never used to address one person. But thank you for putting the apostrophe in the right place!

I read this a long time sgo on "Cascade Library" and I liked it as much now as I did then.

Wonderful story, with a bit of a shock in it for me...my best friend's husband's cousin (sounds like an urban legend beginning, you know, the friend of a friend kinda thing, but it is sadly true...lol) was the man in Ohio. Small world. And as in his case, I felt for the perp/victim. Probably more so because of the real events. Sometimes it seems when you're the little guy, nobody much cares how much crap is shoveled on you, and it was nice to see your take on Blair's reaction. But as in real life, none of the sad, unfair events leading up to their actions could justify what they had done. But you have to wonder, when faced with such overwhelming odds, what would anyone be pushed into doing...for their children, their family...Hopefully anyone who reads this will be able to see that side, if only for a moment, because you wrote it so well. Thanks.

Thanks for the new story! It's a good one!

Who's a happy girl?

That's right~it's me!