Hate to be the one that derails the whole "Cookin' at home - with Grizzly Adams!" scenario we've got going on here - but I had problems with this quest before I learned the trick to it.

The quest would simply not begin for me. Susanna would never leave the Candlehearth, thus Calixto would never kill her.

If you don't care about the immediate beginning of the story of the quest - you can skip straight to Step 9 and forgo finding Susanna's body, and talking to the guards.

If you pickpocket the key to Hjerim off of Tova Shatter-Shield, and enter Hjerim, the quest will begin and jump straight to "Follow up on the evidence from Hjerim." as soon as you pick up one of the "Beware the Butcher!" fliers.

You can then go through Hjerim, find all of the evidence, and continue the quest normally.

If you're like me, and enjoy keeping as many active NPCs in your game as possible (Makes the world seem more populated.), you can skip the 3-day waiting period and not have another npc killed by Calixto. Once you have the amulet identified, sell it to Calixto, then go straight to Wuunferth. Do not speak with Jorlief. Wuunferth will tell you where Calixto will strike next, and if you're fast enough - you can save his last victim before he kills her.

This method gets me a completed quest, Hjerim, and peace of mind everytime. All though Susanna's corpse will still appear in the graveyard. Poor gal.

Hope this helps someone! =)

Weird. I've never seen Susanna in Candlehearth. She's been dead on the grave on both of my characters.

So, by using your method does Susanna appear on that grave slashed up or just in the Hall of the Dead at/near the end of the quest?

I saw http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Susanna_the_Wicked in Candlehearth once, on one toon, but I don't recall the circumstances. Perhaps it was daytime, yet? I don't recall any dialog, other than the usual "I'm just here to clean up."

Well, I have started it, but Viola is NOWHERE to be found. Have waited, walked all over, tried the inn in the evening, tried her house. There's a weird quest arrow on the ground near the inn....I wanted that house badly, but I give up!!!

On one of my character's I toatally skipped over her, went to Calixto sold him the amulet and went to the court wizard after that. I'm pretty sure that right after leaving the house, I talked to a guard about the amulet, but he had no dialouge to talk to Viola.

I would try to sell the amulet to Calixto and then go talk to the wizard and see if it will let you continue. The guide actually give's different way's that it can be done, if you've done this, if you've talked to... etc. It's worth a shot.

Pretty sure that was my thief character and I was more worried about accidentally getting a bounty because of the stolen quest Item's that she had on her, than finishing that quest. So I totally forgot to speak to Viola and as it "finished" I didn't bother going back and re-doing it.

Thanks! I will try that.

Apologies for the necro.

Susanna is to Candlehearth what Saadia is to The Bannered Mare. She's the serving girl. Hangs out in the kitchen. She's always perpetually in that kitchen or upstairs where everyone hangs out in my saves unless I perform the key nabbin' method.

And to answer your question - her corpse appears in the graveyard, but with no fanfare. People don't even stop to look. I've gone to check the Hall of the Dead after reading this, as i've just finished the quest again.. and she isn't there. She's not in the graveyard anymore, either.

As a side note - does the overall theme of this quest remind anyone else of Dragon Age 2's Act 2 big bad? I'm aware the concept might not be original, but it's eerily similar.

All I meant was that I've never seen her alive. Both times I've entered Windhelm for the first time she's already dead on that grave.

I just took my mage to Windhelm to sell some junk, er, treasures. I forgot all about looking for Susanna. Will have to look into it next time I'm there.

Well I had a character in progress when 1.4 came out, never could start the quest.
Then I started a new character, and it started fine, right after my 4th visit (I was counting carefully).

Everything went smoothly with the investigation, etc., but I sided with Imperials so I was unable to get the option to buy Hjerim until after the war.

Actually there was one problem.... I messed up somehow with the amulet: I killed C inside Hjerim and the "strange amulet" is stuck in my inventory. But that doesn't bother me.