Published: February 21, 2023
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Series: N/A
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 400 (Hardcover)
My Rating: 4 Stars
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis:
From the diabolical imagination of Edgar Award–winning novelist, playwright, and story-songwriter Rupert Holmes comes a devilish thriller with a killer concept: 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.
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.
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.
How could I possibly resist a book with such an *intriguing* title? And then, to my delight, I found out it was a book about a school dedicated to the arts of offing one’s enemies without being caught. I didn’t quite know what to expect, other than a good time!
It begins with a few definitions, and a foreword by Dean Harbinger Harrow introducing us to the McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts and the three characters we would be focusing on. Cliff Iverson was fired from his engineering position with an aviation company for pointing out the changes his superior made would be deadly. The same superior was also tangentially responsible for Cliff’s mentor and a woman at the company he was interested in. When Cliff fails to push Fiedler, his hated superior, in front of the subway train Cliff is whisked away to McMasters. There he meets Gemma Lindley, a soft spoken woman of many talents, and apparently a desire to murder the woman blackmailing her. Gemma is one of McMasters more hesitant students, though she must go through with her deletion (a more tasteful and obscure word for murder) otherwise she herself will be deleted. Then there’s Doria Maye, Hollywood actress, who is enthusiastically attending McMasters so that she might be rid of her studio director who is holding a grudge against her for sleeping with someone else. If she doesn’t she’ll be stuck voicing an animated pig and her career will surely be over.
The characters are a delightfully interesting bunch, and though their goal is homicide they’re very easy to sympathize with because each has been obviously wronged. While that doesn’t make the “deletion” right, it certainly becomes understandable. McMasters itself is a fascinating school – it’s a picturesque campus in a secret location, and the classes are specifically geared towards a variety of techniques one might employ to commit the perfect crime. Everything from forgery to poisoning and seduction to disguise are available to study, though they have much more mundane names and the students’ curriculum are tailored to their specific method of deletion (their thesis).
I had a great deal of fun reading this though at first I was somewhat put off by the number of colloquialisms I didn’t quite understand. Then as I read further, I realized it was set in the 1950’s and that made much more sense. I don’t know if this is intended to be the start of a series, as the ending both implied it was planned and implied that nothing of the sort would happen. You’ll understand what I mean by that when you get to Dean Harrow’s epilogue if you choose to read this. I would definitely recommend it if you’d like a unique school setting with older characters and don’t mind the extensive number of murder puns.
Powder & Page 
Color me very, very intrigued… 😉
Thanks for sharing!!!
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