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

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

3.75

More than anything, I think this book shines when it comes to how the author built up his characters. They're vibrant and alive, and you get this sense that even the minor ones have some measure of fleshed out life guiding them. Each one's a character unto themself and carried the story where I found it starting to drag. Kudos also to its dedication to staying in its general time periods (1950s.... somewhere), though whether the slang and sentiments are wholly accurate I'll leave to someone else's judgement. The author certainly did a good job making it feel plausible though. 

It opened in a way I found both funny and novel, but I was more than a little sad when the humor didn't really carry through to the second half of the novel. It just took itself too seriously imo
post graduation from McMasters
.

While I found it a neat (if not always perclfectly executed) aspect, if you're not a fan of changing POVs in books, be aware that it happens a lot here, not just chapter to chapter, but even several times within one chapter as focus switches between both the different characters' live and actions as well as the one writing
(Harrow's omniscient perspectives and the excerpts from Cliff's journals)
. 

All in all, it's a fun time, but kind of see-sawed between a fun jaunt and taking itself a but too seriously in its second half.
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