On the HahaFiction shelf
Murder Your Employer
The McMasters Guide to Homicide
McMasters Guide to Homicide · Book 1 · 2023
Audiobook available
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.
From the publisher’s blurb
“I know. I’m such a nice guy.”Read the full description at Rupert Holmes, publisher-hosted excerpt
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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.
A few distinguishing details
- A college where a successful murder is the graduation thesis
More funny historical mystery
Sources & further reading
- Murder Your Employer (Unabridged) by Rupert Holmes on Apple Books
Book information
- Publisher and opening excerpt
Publisher
- Bibliographic record
Book information
- Kirkus review
Review
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