Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide

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For a mystery that's about commiting a murder rather than solving it, the suspense was real and palpable. The sergeant produced a half-pint bottle of Early Times from his hip pocket and topped off the tumbler’s unknown liquid with a generous slug of the bourbon. This is actually a pretty interesting and entertaining murder mystery where the mystery is not who dies or who dunnit; it’s how the would be ‘deletist’ (we don’t say ‘killer’ here) will achieve their goal while not getting caught and still observing the 4 main principles of ‘deletion’ (we don’t’ say ‘murder’): Is this murder necessary? I'm purposely leaving out almost all plot details because it's way more fun to go into this one knowing almost nothing and just let the book happen to you.

It just follows Gemma and Dulcie and Cliff on their separate murder planning from their own perspectives, no diaries involved. 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.

We follow three characters as they make their way to the McMasters Conservatory, a school whose sole goal is to teach its students how to commit their perfect murder on an appropriate target. While I found this more engaging than the first half, I think I might have preferred to focus on just one of their stories. Cliff is there as a scholarship student, and much of the novel is addressed to the benefactor who made it possible for him to become a more effective murderer. For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.

Slow burn to edge of your seat, this story leaves you guessing and assuming…only to be questioning if what you read was truly fiction, or entirely possible. Sure, maybe I looked laughable, a man who might even be remembered by witnesses, but certainly not anyone who resembled myself.

This piece, part textbook, part novel, and even with a slice of journal, offers the reader a varied view on murder and how to execute it properly, if you will pardon the pun. The schemes all three would-be employer deletists come up with are that level of complicated, and of course a good chunk of it is not explained until later (in some cases with more detail than others, but you can probably fill in most missing blanks if you’ve been paying attention). The first chunk of the book is actually just that, with some additional quotes and info from the dean.

The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.They both looked almost pleased with me, as if I’d successfully completed some unholy hazing ritual. Set in the 1950s, the author creates an intriguing and atmospheric setting with a cast of interesting characters. Holmes asks readers to suspend disbelief from the get-go, and he just keeps asking for more blind credulity as the narrative advances. The book focuses on three students, and the methods of achieving and dodging murder are sometimes offensive by modern standards (the book is set in the 1950s, but doesn't feel like a historical novel.

Rage built in me until it was not now just about Fiedler but all that was wrong in the world, with the remedy requiring nothing more than ramming this pompous peacock as the train rocketed into the station. A breathless salesman sprayed me with a sample of cologne, but I shrugged him off with a breezy “Not today, thanks! I enjoyed some of the banter and perspectives, which added something to the larger reading experience. Strong narrative flow helps push the story along, though there are times it lags and kept me waving my hand in the air in hopes of spurring things along. Mega-talented Rupert Holmes has mastered just about every entertainment genre with the awards to prove it.Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide has a bit of mystery, a smidgen of mayhem, a splash of dry humor, and a dash of murder.