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

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. 

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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.