# Murder Your Employer

*The McMasters Guide to Homicide*

By Rupert Holmes · McMasters Guide to Homicide, book 1

Profile: https://hahafiction.com/books/murder-your-employer-fef90ef7/

Cliff Iverson tries to kill his boss and fails. His reward is an unexpected scholarship to McMasters, a secret college where adults learn to murder people they believe deserve it. Graduation requires a successful killing, leaving Cliff and his fellow students with a demanding final assignment.

## What makes it funny?

Cliff carefully arranges to push his boss in front of a train, then comforts himself that the train would be the killer. His journal keeps interrupting its confident account with admissions, qualifications and nervous asides to the sponsor paying for his education.

### The comedy at work

Holmes treats homicide as a respectable academic discipline. The college has admission standards and scholarships, and its pupils worry about completing their theses. Cliff’s determination to remain a decent person makes his account of studying murder especially slippery.

### Try this if…

Readers drawn to boarding-school parody, elaborate murder schemes and frequent puns may enjoy the combination of scholarly manners and lethal intentions.

### Good to know

Set in the 1950s, the book follows aspiring killers planning their crimes. Cliff’s journal shares the narrative with faculty material and the stories of two other students.

## What to expect

- Genre: Crime & thriller · Historical · Mystery
- On the shelf: Historical mystery
- Kind of humor: Dark comedy · Parody · Wordplay
- Format: Novel
- Audiobook: Available
- Published: 2023

## A few distinguishing details

- A college where a successful murder is the graduation thesis

## Sources & further reading

- Book information: [Murder Your Employer (Unabridged) by Rupert Holmes on Apple Books](https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/murder-your-employer-unabridged/id1629352234)
- Publisher: [Publisher and opening excerpt](https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Murder-Your-Employer/Rupert-Holmes/9781451648218)
- Book information: [Bibliographic record](https://www.fantasticfiction.com/h/rupert-holmes/murder-your-employer.htm)
- Review: [Kirkus review](https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/rupert-holmes/murder-your-employer)