On the HahaFiction shelf
Mrs. Shim Is a Killer
Widowed and out of work, Mrs. Shim needs to keep her two children fed. The Smile Detective Agency sees a promising recruit in the former butcher: someone whose knife skills could earn far more as a contract killer.
From the publisher’s blurb
“being a killer is a stressful profession”Read the full description at Penguin Books Australia, publisher description
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What makes it funny?
Her interview turns murder into an employment opportunity, with arrangements for comfortable work clothes and a training allowance. Even the boss’s long examination of her two-line résumé makes this frightening new workplace feel embarrassingly familiar.
The comedy at work
The agency’s professional manners soften the language around killing while Mrs. Shim calculates what the money could do for her family. Practical worries about wages and bills keep colliding with the enormity of the proposed work.
Try this if…
For readers drawn to dark crime comedy with something to say about the work expected of women. The story moves among several characters, gradually assembling its intrigue from their separate views.
Good to know
Paige Morris translates from the Korean. Murder and bloody violence accompany the social satire, and Mrs. Shim’s financial desperation gives the jokes a painful basis.
A few distinguishing details
- Butchery as a qualification for a new career
- An assassination agency with ordinary hiring rituals
More funny contemporary & literary
Sources & further reading
- Mrs Shim is a Killer | Penguin Books UK
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