Reviews with content warning for Racism - Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes

8 reviews

bzliz's review

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This is everything I love in a campy mystery- it’s quirky, laugh out loud funny, and perfectly convoluted. And after finishing it I’ve learned that the author is the same Rupert Holmes who is a 2 time Tony winner and wrote the Piña Colada song. If I believed in such things I’d say it’s proof that god really does have favorites because this man is supremely talented.

The manner is which the story is told could be confusing for anyone not in the right headspace. Primarily it is a manuscript written by the Dean of a university for would-be murderers (aka deletists)- telling the story of three students of the school, all angling to kill their employers, and we learn that one of them will not be successful. Cliff Iverson’s story is told primarily through journal entries as he must document his studies for his sponsor, whereas Gemma Lindley’s and Doria Maye’s (aka Dulcie Mown) stories are told primarily through a third person omniscient narrator. It is implied that these omniscient sections are retellings of their events from undercover agents and former graduates of McMasters. Additionally, the book is split in two clear parts. The first takes place at the school where our student heroes are learning all the skills they need to become well-rounded deletists; the second is their return to the real world where they must complete their thesis (murder) in order to graduate and failure will result in their own deletion.

The only reason I cannot give this a full five stars is the tendency to use underlines to ensure a pun, double entendre, joke, etc lands correctly. It was distracting for me. I will still readily recommend this to anyone looking for a mystery book that takes an unconventional approach to the subject.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, and Death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Transphobia, Suicide, Alcohol, and Racism

Death, murder:

I hope if these trigger you that you haven’t picked this book up. Multiple people will be murdered in this book, with specific details as to how it was done included.

Sexual harassment:

Doria’s target Leonid Kosta exploits women looking to break into the film industry to lure them to his home. He also uses refusal of his advances against her, thus resulting in her desire to kill him. Gemma’s target Adele Underton essentially pimps her out (using blackmail) to a big wig coming to the hospital to secure them more funding. Gemma does not go through with it.

Sexual assault:

Cliff’s target Merrill Fiedler regularly uses his station to entice women to his bed (or office). He also drugs them so they’re unaware as he takes photos of them in a compromised state that he can later use as blackmail when he wants them to go away so he can victimize someone else, but also as a threat to keep them under his thumb.

Injury:

Gemma is nearly strangled at the school. Later she is hit with cinder blocks from 3-4 stories off the ground. Other injuries occur including a few poisonings, plus the murders themselves.

Alcohol:

They drink occasionally. Alcohol is mainly used as a method of concealing poison.

Homophobia:

There is clearly shame given to same sex partners that would be period appropriate. They are minor mentions.

Racism:

Gemma notes that it’s acceptable that her white father married a woman of color but that it would not have been so if their races had been reversed. Some microaggressions about her mixed race in her real life.

Suicide:

Cliff’s crush Cora overdosed on pills due to his murder target’s blackmail.

Transphobia:

Police make some comments about the “evidence” left at one of the crime scenes showing how the murderer must be a man masquerading as a woman. They toe the line between homophobia and transphobia depending on if they believe the target knew about the guise, which is all manufactured evidence anyway.

arfog's review

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dark funny

4.0

Very unique, funny but dark. McMasters is kind of like Hogwarts for murderers, where they teach you all the arts needed to complete a "deletion." Has you rooting for the students!

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drastichopeful's review

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I really, really liked this book! The characters were funny, the plotting was tense, and the ending was fantastic. Saying too much more would spoil things.

Content Warnings

cozyscones's review against another edition

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dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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toffishay's review

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dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

I liked this book well-enough, but I definitely wanted to like it more. The premise is so fun: a school that teaches you how to murder is ripe for puns and gags and you definitely get plenty of those. It still has adult subject matter though, so you get the vibes of a Series of Unfortunate Events or Truly, Devious, but with a mature element that really serves as a strong suit. The pacing is a little off for me. <SPOILER> The first part of the book centers around getting us acclimated to McMasters Academy, but then in the middle of the book the characters leave to carry out their "theses". At that point things slow down a lot of the three characters that we follow end up being so spread out that it can be a little bit of a slog to get through. I think that this isn't helped by the fact that even though we are following three main characters, the stories of Gemma and Dulci/Dorie felt way underdeveloped compared to Cliff's. Gemma is portrayed in a very middling way that makes you sympathetic to her, but she isn't very interesting to follow. Dulcie/Dorie is more interesting, but her ending falls so flat that it feels like the narrative is trying to punish her in a way that it isn't doing with Gemma and Cliff. And in both the cases of Gemma and Dulcie/Dorie, there endings feel rushed and incomplete, like all the attention was on Cliff and then the author remembers that they have to wrap up the other stories too. The romance between Cliff and Gemma felt weird too. He spends all of their interactions idolizing her for seeming nicer than other students and also being upset with her for her assignment with another character, Jud, because she is spending time with a man. And then at the end, it picks back up insinuating that they will get togehter? It feels underdeveloped. Ultimately, I think that this books could have been better served by focusing on Cliff's story, since that is the one that the author seemed the most attached too. <END SPOILER> I only have so much to say because I really wanted to love this book! It does hit on a lot of things that I like with a fun tongue-in-cheek framing, interesting mystery elements, a anti-hero stance that sides with the underdogs. All of that is great. But the characters, the length, and the division of the action/plot really drag this one down.

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honeyenbee's review

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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chocolate_pondue's review

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adventurous dark funny informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

As a mystery fan, this book sank its hooks into me from the very beginning. The world-building, fascinating information, and characters are so in-depth, they drew me in as if I was really there. I'd never commit murder, but it was such fun being immersed into the world and learning along with the students that I really wanted to study at the school. And though all the characters we follow are planning for and enacting murders, I couldn't help but root for them when the time came. I loved this book and I am very excited to know that there will be more to come!

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purplepenning's review

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adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

Wryly humorous, darkly satisfying, and only a bit too clever for it's own good, MURDER YOUR EMPLOYER is an ambitious and entertaining murder mystery turned inside out. Readers of this case study guide to homicide follow three would-be student assassins in the 1950s as they study, train, and enact their final murderous theses to successfully matriculate from McMasters Conservatory of the Applied [Homicidal] Arts. McMasters is a [poison] Ivy League-calibre "finishing school for finishing people off." The course work is high stakes but each student has such a deserving thesis subject that we can't help but root for high marks.

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