Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide: THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

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The first portion of the book centers on Cliff Iverson, who is anonymously "sponsored" into becoming a student at the McMaster Conservatory for the Applied Arts, a clandestine academy designed to help its students learn how to become "deletists," otherwise known as murderers. This first half alternates between sections from the academy's textbook/manual, and journal entries from Iverson and from the dean of McMaster. I felt that the use of journals kept the reader one step removed from the action, and 1/3 of the way through, I was missing much sense of a plot. The world-building felt a bit heavy-handed. I heard my voice but didn’t recognize it. “The things you do to people, Fiedler...” I flailed. “One day you’ll get what’s due you.” Yeah, that sure showed him. ardaigle on “Remember. There will be other days. And there will be other feelings.” Europe! Updated and finished. Weeeeeeee. So I was sunk. If Dobson knew enough to show me those sunglasses, then he had me dead to rights. I wondered if they planned to arrest me here and now. I sure would have liked a last beer before going to prison. I doubted they had beer in the death house. Certainly not draft. Suddenly, life imprisonment and a job in the library sounded like a vacation in sunny Madrid.

First off, the story is written as if you're opening an actual manual. It's about this school where people who have plans to kill somebody get shipped off to to learn how to do it. It's all written with a pretty blasé and funny tone. But my issue isn't with the tone. I really appreciated the tone, actually, but I disliked the writing. Too many unneccessary details, too many adjectives. The language used just didn't mesh with me. It didn't read easily. The plot had me intrigued and invested the whole time. I loved the setting of the school, from classes to the assignments given to through the eyes of our main characters. Witty dialogue and banter helped the book to maintain a consistent flow instead of feeling stunted. A story with humor that's not overdone, details and "twists" were logical and keeps you on your toes along with characters that aren't the ordinary papier-mâché stereotypes. Welcome to the McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts – a luxurious, clandestine college dedicated to the fine art of murder where earnest students study how best to “delete” their most deserving victim.

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One of the things that I missed at first that really would have helped me was knowing that this book is set in the 1950s as I struggled for a while with the time setting. There is so much dry humor here, I could totally picture it as a movie on the screen with the witty one-liners. I came to really care for the characters and was rooting for their success in their deletions as their employers were truly awful people. Not sure why this took me so long to get through! It's certainly a uniquely told story from a unique author, filled with a bit of mystery and humor and a lot of drama. In some ways, it reminded me of a TJ Klune book, and in other ways of a quirky suspense tale. Having received a comprehensive education in assassination, our three case studies return to life outside of the conservatory to execute their final thesis: delete their targets without being caught.

But it was the train that would kill Fiedler, I told myself for the hundredth time, knowing this to be the shabbiest of self-deceptions. I had all the intent of a killer but not the soul. Guns, knives, poisons… these were murder weapons, all of which I’m too inexpert or squeamish to wield with any guarantee of success. But I’d also ruled out poisons and all other arms-length methods that had sprung to mind, for they seemed too calculated and detached, requiring the meticulous planning of a certifiable psychopath. Then the notion of giving Fiedler one good, hard shove had come to me. Yes, I could probably manage that, particularly after having to restrain myself from doing so for the last three years, each time Fiedler savaged another helpless employee. A shove, a push, a jostle seemed very unlike an act of murder. It was simply what might happen at the beginning of a good old-fashioned barroom brawl, before someone in authority called out, “Now-now, boys, there’ll be none of that here!” One justifiable shove for all the demeaning, degrading insults and condescending sneers Fiedler flayed and spewed in all directions each workday. Although this beautifully designed DIY manual is full of twists, the emphasis is on comedy . . . but the extraordinary Holmes can pull the heartstrings too.’ THE TIMES Last week I chose to read instead of listen and IT WAS SO MUCH BETTER !!! (It’s a loss of an audible credit but print is the way to go!). Added to that, the set up wasn't consistent. First, you open up the book to read the foreword of the current dean of McMasters, the school. Then it starts adding exerpts in from one of the new students' diary, the diary of Cliff Iverson. The first chunk of the book is actually just that, with some additional quotes and info from the dean. But then, quite a chunk in, we start to have two more perspectives. So where, from Cliff's and the dean's perspective we see Dulcie and Gemma as side characters for a big part of the story, all of a sudden they're also main characters?? With a final thesis before him, Cliff will have to develop the perfect plan to kill someone and ensure that he is not caught. He relies on some of his fellow students and those around him who have ideas that could help him. However, he is also the target of others who seek to exemplify all they have learned from the McMasters Conservatory. When presented with the time to complete his final assignment, Cliff will have to decide if all this training is worth it, turning him into the ideal murderer. Rupert Holmes does well to create an eerie and thought-provoking book, whose realism is left to the reader’s imagination.It all went a bit downhill when the book moved on to following three students through three murders. The murders were hugely overplanned, in a way that sounds clever at first glance but entirely depended on a whole lot of people unknowingly doing things exactly as hoped, and detailed so lovingly that the book slowed to an absolute crawl. And also, they were three entirely unrelated murders! I wanted to see them woven together, or for something to bring the various characters and plots together (ideally in a way that would give them a bit more actual character work), but it was just three chopped up accounts of three unconvincingly elaborate plans to kill people, and by the end I will admit to skimming. Prepare for an education you’ll never forget. A delightful mix of witty wordplay, breathtaking twists and genuine intrigue, Murder Your Employer will gain you admission into a wholly original world, cocooned within the most entertaining book about well-intentioned would-be murderers you’ll ever read. Rupert Holmes spins this unique story that is sure to open the reader’s eyes and pique their curiosity. This is a thriller like no other, told as a piece of fiction and journal of one of the new students at The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts. This secretive organization seeks to train those to commit murder without leaving a trace. Holmes leaves the reader wondering just how much is fact and where the fiction commences.

Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide, Vol. 1 is the clever brainchild of author, playwright, composer, and singer-songwriter Rupert Holmes.PW: You've won a Grammy for your song writing, two Edgars for Broadway plays and multiple Tonys for your Broadway play The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and you have just been Continue reading » I thought this story was going to be amazing, but it just didn't work for me. It was messy, the writing didn't work for me, there were way too many unneccessary details and I felt no connection to the characters. Please understand that by nature I oppose all senseless killing... but in Fiedler’s case, murder makes perfect sense. Who hasn’t wondered for a split second what the world would be like if a person who is the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you’ve probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this “Poison Ivy League” college—its location unknown to even those who study there—is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate...and where one’s mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live.