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

Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

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

35 reviews

sarasreading's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

I picked this up purely for the cover and went in fully blind. From the cover I expected this to be Victorian with a female protagonist, but I was wrong on both fronts. This ended up being unlike anything I've read before, which was interesting. There were parts that lagged for me, but the novelty of it kept me on my toes. It was also really clever, which I liked. The uniqueness of this book will probably have me checking out future books by this author.

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flower_mail's review

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adventurous 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

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blackeyedraptor's review

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adventurous dark funny informative mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.75

This is a comedically dark book that I enjoyed quite a bit. Told from many excerpts of journal entries and record-keeping, it was a really clever and unique way to make you feel like the McMaster school was a real place. The eventual and unavoidable murders were cleverly done, and it was like watching a movie like The Prestige where you have to finish it to know how it all comes together in the end.

Definitely a brain twister book, but I'll definitely be reading it again and look forward to reading any sequels.

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goeagles91n's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-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

4.25

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bigheadcam's review

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.25

Murder Your Employer is like if Harry Potter was written for the macabre, in a good way. It's a fun story with some interesting (if at times, simple) characters as well as a fantastical setting in the form of McMasters and the U.S. in the 1950s.

It's worth mentioning that I think part of the reason that this book takes place in this time period is because quite a few of the methods mentioned in this book around "getting away with murder" would not be possible due to today's surveillance state and much more accurate and sensitive forensic technologies. Still, a good romp through hypothetical murders and the fantasy by proxy of an evil employer being shown the door!

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agirlsnightbookbash's review

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challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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a_little_teacup's review

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dark slow-paced

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

3.5

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bzliz's review

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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.

chezler24's review

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

"Don't commit homicide. Commit a tragedy."

A fantastic read to kick off the new year! (I technically started this at the tail end of December, but I read most of it in January so I'll count it.) Holmes embraces what could be a dark topic with engaging wit and whimsy. Throughout the novel, you follow three main characters (Cliff Iverson, Gemma Lindley, and Dulcie Mown) in their separate quests to "take care of" their individual problems. What seems to be a straightforward assassination plan is handled with care, stealth, and cautiously laid out plans that tie up every loose end imaginable. The act of killing isn't just thrown about willy-nilly, and it's interesting to see the different moral/ethical guidelines put in place by McMasters. Holmes successfully immerses the readers in the ideology of the McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts by introducing them to the different classes, techniques, and professors that help create well-rounded deletionists (not murderers, obviously). Such an engaging book with a fitting while somewhat unexpected end!

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justbobbi's review

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adventurous dark lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.75

This book instantly hooked me. The first few chapters were great! Then it got really boring, then good again, now I'm struggling to finish.

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