anyone else having problems with this quest? It's totally glitched for me.....everything goes fine until I try to seek advice from the Jarl's assistant (cant remember his name) the quest arrow appears above his head but there's no dialogue choice dealing with the quest....even after I get the amulet from the house....also the woman who accompanies you to the house has no dialogue choices after she enters the house..I've also gone to the mage to see if I could accuse him of the murder but no such dialogue choice comes up...I've tried going to an earlier save to run it through again and the same thing happens....it's totally bugged...anyone have the same experience? Any ideas?

you mean blood on the ice? that quest is incredibly buggy.

As drake_heart12 says, this quest is quite buggy - possibly the buggiest in the game. Doing things out of order or not completing certain sections fully can break it.

There's a walk through http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Blood_on_the_Ice. The bugs section is worth a look for things to avoid.

yeah it svcks, I went right to the chick in the bar and NEVER spoke to the guy at the house of curisoitys so I had the strange necklace in my bags forever.

I read that if you find one of his victems that tho you can loot it onto their corpse, only way to remove it from you bags after the quest is done. That is just a bug I had to deal with, but it sounds like less of an issue then your own OP. I am sorry

The steward has nothing to say, ignore him and follow the blood splashes on the ground. The quest will update by itself.

Have you talked to the lady that makes the "Beware the Butcher" notices? She's one trigger to forward the quest.

I can't remember her name, but she's in Candlehearth often. I think you show her the amulet.

I've seen the walkthrough so I know all the steps that have to be taken and I've tried it several ways...the stage about asking Jarlief's advice will not work so I went ahead to the next stage and investigated Hjerim..that part did work and I got the amulet..then I talked to Viola and she goes to the house with u but as soon as she enters there's no dialogue...the two bugs: not being able to get advice from Jarlief and not being able to dialogue with Viola will not allow the quest to proceed..anyone have anymore ideas that can be done?

Can you show the amulet to Calixto?

I've never had Viola want to go to the house and investigate, so I'm afraid I'm not much help, sorry.

I like to visit Museums, I have heard they can identify Strange Objects.

Save before talking to Callisto.

Yes..I have shown the amulet to Calixto and even sold it to him but the quest still will not update or move forward..

Did you find both 'butcher' journals *before* talking to Viola ?

I've tried talking to Wurfelth (or whatever his name is) but there is no quest dialogue unfortunately =(

Yes I went to the house and took the journals from the crate and then talked to Viola

Did you get the one from the hidden room ?

Ahh! Thank you! Didnt see the one in there...just did it and the quest updated..on my way to Wunferth =)

(snip)

Oh, by the Eight.

That... quest. It's just... no.

After talking to Viola, I think you have to leave town for a couple of days and return to know the killings have not stopped and you shall be called to solve the crime again. I dunno I'm one of those who still have the amulet in my inventory. 馃槙