Just make the next one a little shorter. It's longer than most of Lovecraft's stories :P

Would it better if I eliminated one of the characters from being a suspect every day or something?

Erissa did it and being the novice thief, she couldn't handle the pressure, so she started blaming everyone else! Not to mention, she said that she and her husband left the library - her husband wasn't in the library with her, he was in some game room playing with the Nord and only then his wife joined him, so she lied about her whereabouts that would work as the alibi that could be confirmed by her husband being with her 24/7. She must have done the crime trough that period of time!

Lying is not nice, Erissa - gets you caught and shit.

(I didn't actually read it all yet, I chose a character and decided to read about them.)

I think you confused some stuff about Erissa statements with Borwen's statements.

Also to clarify. When Erissa says "left the library" she means left the library to go have dinner.

That I did - damn.

I still have no idea who was the thief, but I think I may have an idea of what was stolen:

We know Nedene is a rich woman (well, Dark Elf :-P ). She lives in a big mansion with a library, a music room, a gaming room and outdoors baths among other things, and a lot of servants. So, if something valuable would have been stolen from her chambers she wouldn't have any problem pointing what it was to help the authorities retrieve it more easily.

We also know that it was her birthday, and she invited a bunch of her friends to stay with her (well, I'm still not sure if she really invited the Khajiit, considering there was nothing for her to eat, and the zero interaction there was between the two). There was no formal dinner or cake... but I'm sure there were gifts. And that's what was stolen from her chamber: one of the guests gifted her something. But why would Nedene want to keep this gift a secret? Because if it was made public it would reveal the secret relationship between her and the mysterious gifter. Probably one of the two married men (or women, if she has that inclination).

I really love your thinking. Makes me hope you write a story for us to read. But I don't think you are specific enough on what the item is for me to say yes or no.

Hahah, thanks for your compliment, but I don't think I'd be very good at making a good mystery story (plus, you don't want to read more than a few lines of my awkward English at once, trust me :-P ).

Regarding my lack of specificity... I know we are supposed to be the detective from your story, but I'm afraid he's much more smart than me, or I lack his psychic powers, it's one of the two. ;-D

Nedene is appalled by your suggestion. She says that a woman of her stature would never be involved in an affair. Furthermore, all the gifts were received by her servants. You feel certain that the theft is not related to any possible affair Nedene had.

Not entering, but +1 for the giveaway! Also, hopefully this helps to give it a little more publicity:

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/how_does_one_make_a_gift_aka_gifting_on_gog_for_dummies/post120

bumping to see if anyone else wants to take a shot at this

Everyone had a hand in this case, but the actual theft was committed by two persons.

Abelle needlessly brought potions with her, planning on using the time she spent as a visitor to scour the area and come back at a later time as a theif. Her knowledge and collection of potions would be usefull in infiltration and collecting objects, but she'd know better than to try anything that could be implicated to her. She could still sell her potions however, expecting a client in Nedene, the night elf.

Borwen stole these potions during the mentioned bathroom visit by his wife, as wood elves are naturally stealthy. He didn't know what the potions would do however, choosing to test these on Hulgard, the nord, while he was intoxicated by some means. Likely it would have been the High Elves, Telind and Erissa, who's high position of themselves would allow them to easily find amusement in demeaning someone, such as a drunken nord. One of these was the restore fatigue potion, which allowed him to parade drunk through the rooms.

The nord dropped another potion that was given to him, the personality potion. Shabhira has an opinion of the Imperial guest unlike the fact that Khajit normally frown on all races, and to pay any one mind over another. This potion is the one found in Abelle's room later, having also given her a higher sense of morality. A small handfull of gold goes unseen in Abelle's dresser to pay for it. The angry music played mentioned by Albecious was her trying to drive away the drunken Nord, leaving at his own amusement.

Hulgard also used the water breathing potion, but it was something else he thought would continue his intoxication.

The theft was committed by the High Elves, being the ones that had the least amount of attention in the house. The drunken Nord served to distract everyone while the two used their knowledge and intellect to bypass guest, lock and servant (Who says magic users can't pick a lock?). The theft of the potions was a coincidence, and the strange collection of people together was meant to drive friction and mistrust of the different races to make it harder to pin judgement on themselves, who in their self seen perfection could never stoop to petty theivery. They would use the item to try and implicate another guest either for personal reason or reason of racial history.

Borwen is the wife of Albecious in the story so...

Okay, so I got the gender mixed up. Swap it around, the husband went to the bathroom while the wife stole the potions. A thought, next time you might want to add those gender labels with married couples since there's no obvious male/female names in Tamriel.