I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thanks to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for this ARC.

This writing style was a unique way of telling a story. The story was told mostly through journaling, a choice that will work for many readers. Unfortunately, it wasn't a style I enjoyed reading. The concept was interesting, but I couldn't connect with the plot. I recommend everyone give it a shot and see if it is a style you enjoy. For me, it was a miss. I give this book 2/5 stars but would recommend it to others to decide for themselves.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Rupert Holmes for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Murder Your Employer coming out February 21, 2023. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Who hasn’t thought about what the world would be like if a person who was the object of your trials and tribulations poofed into thin air?

The McMasters Conservatory is a prestigious school of the homicidal arts. To enroll, a student must have an ethical reason for eliminating someone who deserves a fate like death. The campus of this “Poison Ivy League” college has an unknown location, even those who study there. It’s a place where you might be the practice target of a classmate. The mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world better. Be prepared for a deadly education.

Overall, this book didn’t work for me. I had high expectations that it would be a fun how-to murder guide. I thought it’d be similar to Deadly Class. At nearly 400 pages, it just felt like it was dragging on. I would’ve liked it to be quicker paced with more action. It was also very dense with a lot of description and less dialogue. It’s just not my favorite style. There was nothing wrong with the writing. It was very smart and educated. I just didn’t feel a connection to the characters. I enjoyed the mention of Kansas City though.

I read somewhere once that Rupert Holmes had wished he had never written Escape (The Pina Colada song), and this made me a bit sad because I’ve always enjoyed it. You can see his exceptional use of word play throughout Murder Your Employer: The McMaster’s Guide to Homicide.

Murder Your Employer takes place in the 1950’s so a lot of the references to movies and famous people back then may be missed by readers in their 30’s or younger, unless you're a fan of that era of media. Since it does take place back then you also get a lot of old Hollywood and the use of the casting couch to coerce women into sleeping with those higher up. If this book were to take place today, Holmes would have had to write a very different book.

Also because of the era, Holmes is able to write a lot of rules of murder that would not be able to be done today because of cell phones and the internet. When one of the characters, Cliff, goes to the movie theater to see cartoons and newsreels before the movie, it starts to really get across how different things were back then.

I did find some of the ways to murder people interesting and I’m also fascinated by poisons and using food or drink as the method of delivery, so that was fun.
Holmes’s characters are well developed, and after finding out the back stories as to why they want to kill their employers I did want to finish the book to see how everyone handled their thesis… even though the book did drag at times for me, and what would normally take me a couple of days to read, ending up taking five days.

If you like historical crime novels and/or dark humor, you should definitely give Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes a read.

One of the most original thrillers I have ever read! I absolutely loved this book, and truly can’t recommend it enough. The synopsis is a little vague, but I think it’s best to go into this one not knowing a lot. Just know you’ll be in for a wild ride. This book has excellent characters, an original plot that keeps you turning pages, and a sharp sense of humour sprinkled throughout. I read this book in two sittings because I just couldn’t put it down. This is definitely a new favorite for me, and I highly recommend.

I will start by stating this book is so much fun!! Told by different points of view, we follow these characters as they are enrolled in an "academic institution" to learn the art of "deletion" ( murder) of their insufferable employers. Oh yes, and how to get away with it. The campus is a secret and one must complete their "thesis", or face the consequence. Will they all succeed or will some fail?

This is a great premise and the author keeps the book moving along. It is indeed a walk on the dark side, but oh so delightful. The characters are well developed and the world the author creates reminded me of the Harry Potter books. I highly recommend devoting an afternoon to read, you will want to know how it all resolves. I look forward to reading more from Rupert Holmes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for an ARC. The review is my own.

What a ride!

Cliff’s boss is a psychopath. And a powerful one at that. He managed to ruin Cliff’s career, have his best friend murdered and make the girl Cliff liked commit suicide. Cliff is a nice guy, but he decides to kill his boss for the greater good. He fails miserably but that’s where McMasters “finishing school” (pun intended) comes to play.

The beginning of this book reminded me of Monty Python and Futurama, it was bizarre and so funny! The academy with its seemingly jovial and good natured dean was idyllic and cozy which contrasted with its murderous purpose in a brilliant way.

There are kitchen gardens so the food is fresh and there’s an ice cream van to complete the bucolic setting. But there are also poison gardens and there’s ground glass in the ice cream.

As the story progressed it got darker. It should not have been a surprise, given the subject, but it was a little. All the twisted logic about murder (or deletion) being basically the only option for some individuals. All the mind tricks making you understand the motives and subsequently… root for the killer.

My only complaint is that this book is very long and at some point it started dragging.
However if you like dark humor and witty, intelligent writing, you will love it!

Thank you NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

So much fun! A secret school where the students learn how to literally get away with murder .. and who hadn't thought about murdering their employer at some point in their working life? The story follows three unique individuals through their time at the school through their "graduation," the successful "deletion" of their target. Highly recommended, and much thanks to the Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this!

Unique premise about a school to teach you how to murder. I enjoyed reading about their training and the final product! Fun book.

This was a fun and entertaining read. I will say it took me a while to get used to the style of writing, but the story was captivating and once I got used to the narrative style, enjoyable. The plot was unique and the scenarios were fun.

Murder Your Employer is a tale of three killings in the 1950s, as told in a book from McMasters, a school that teaches ordinary people how to get away with the perfect righteous murder. Students are taught all the tricks they need to know in order to complete their “thesis” - meaning, murder their deserving target. But to protect this highly secretive school, failure to successfully complete either your course of study or your thesis means that the only one dying will be you.

This book is cleverly and engagingly written, and very funny at times, in a dark and absurd sort of way. I liked the characters and really enjoyed the three concurrent (murder) plots.

CW: suicide, and lots of cheerful discussion about murdering people

Representation: POC character, queer characters

Darkly enriching…this intriguing tale of mystery, mayhem, and murder is the perfect blend of intelligence and intricacy. Written from multiple perspectives, we follow the lives of three individuals on a mission to untangle their lives by order of ‘deletion’ (murder). As the story unfolds and you uncover what brought these students to learn the art of murder, you find yourself rooting for a killer. I would have liked just a little more thrilling moments sprinkled through the slow burn to keep me more invested, but overall it was quite the fun read

"So you have decided to commit a murder. Congratulations!"
I had the chance to read this arc thanks to Netgalley.
This book was dense, in a good/bad way. The story is very intriguing, but sometimes as a foreign reader I had hard times reading this, because it was very technical in some parts.
The idea behind the plot is wow, Mastermind! It resembles a tales, but with murder and mistery. In particolar I loved the multipov and the pictures and the inserts.

You can find my review on goodreads here:
http://www.goodreads.com/friend/i?invite_token=N2IyMDJjZmQtNjEyYS00M2NhLThlNjEtOTBhOWEyN2NiZDBk

This unique story focuses on a clandestine college that teaches students how best to murder their most deserving victim. To gain admission to the McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts, the student must have an ethical reason for "deleting" the person. The progress of three current students are featured: Cliff, an American aeronautical engineer, whose scholarship is being paid for by an anonymous donor; Gemma, a British nurse; & Doria, a Hollywood actress sent to film purgatory by a vengeful studio head. The students learn about unique poisons, how to set up alibis, wear convincing disguises etc. Cliff, Gemma and Doria are monitored by the faculty and then allowed to leave the McMasters campus to "complete their thesis" in the second part of the book with varying degrees of success and follow-up consequences.

I received a digital ARC from Netgalley and Avid Reader Press/Simon and Schuster. All opinions are my own.

This has to be the most charming primer on murder I have ever read, right up to and including the end. Who is the person who, if “deleted” from this world, would take with them all of your problems? Such is the question McMasters asks of its students, providing them with the tools and theories to help them successfully take deletion into their own hands. This book provides a campus novel, three capers, and even a romance. There is something for everyone to enjoy in this book, sadly never to be a series.

Murder Your Employer is about McMasters Conservatory where everyone majors in murder but not everyone successfully graduates. After a botched attempt at murder, Cliff Iverson is recruited to attend McMasters in order to learn the proper way to delete someone. The first part of the book is told in a journal format with Cliff narrating his education for the benefit of the anonymous sponsor funding his scholarship. The rest of the book follows the stories of his classmates Doria and Gemma. All have reasons as to why they want to murder their targets and all are devising the best way to do so without being caught. The tone of the book is rather lighthearted considering the focus on murder and while the format may be hard for some readers to get into, others will enjoy the quirky, offbeat humor.

This is a fun romp following the deadly adventures of new recruits at a school for assassins.

At the McMasters Conservatory, students and readers will learn about the moral philosophy and practicality of a good qualified “deletion” (their preferred term for murder). With class topics ranging from toxic poisons to deadly seductions, McMasters students will learn everything they need to covertly (and ethically!) commit a murder. The fact that it takes place in the 1950s adds a new element of possibility for the killers - with no cctv, cell phones or tracking devices, it’s easy enough to craft a clever kill and leave no trace behind.

The second half of the book is dedicated to a select group of students’ real world deletion attempts. Facing dire and deadly consequences if they don’t successfully complete their “thesis,” the students are highly motivated to excel at demonstrating their particular set of skills.

This was very light and breezy for a book about trained killers, and I especially enjoyed the clever dialogue. You can tell the author has experience writing dialogue for stage. Side note and fun fact: I just learned that Rupert Holmes is also the songwriter and performer of the song “Escape,” which is more widely known as The Piña Colada Song (as in “If you like Piña Coladas and getting caught in the rain..”) Neat!

Anyway… I could definitely see this book getting adapted for film or stage. The mid-century mystery vibes remind me of reading Charlotte Armstrong, and the clever assassin elements made me think of how much I enjoyed reading Killers of a Certain Age (another one with dialogue that would be perfectly adapted to screen!) If you like witty, punny mysteries with a vintage flare, you’ll want to pick up a copy of Murder Your Employer next week on 2/21/23.

Here’s what happens when you take talented students, a chance to use what they have learned at the McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts in the real world. The problem here is the excise is to ‘delete’ a person. It’s delightful as it turns the usual whodunnit on its head. It also hints that this is not the last we will see of the Applied Arts.

Murder Your Employer is an extremely unique novel, falling somewhere between historical fiction and mystery-suspense. Though, there is really no mystery element--we know who the prospective killers and victims are from the outset, and are told not all will succeed in their path towards murder. The biggest question, really, is who doesn't.

I should perhaps back-up; Murder Your Employer is a novel written under the guise of a textbook for the clandestine McMasters College that shapes would-be murders into their best killer selves. The story follows three students: scholarship student Ian who is determined to murder his former employer who is allowing a terrible plane defect persist and resulted in the death of two of his colleagues, famous actress Dulcie whose producer is preventing her from starring in any half-decent pictures for refusing his "casting couch" advances, and poor Gemma who can only afford one year of education and whose path to murder is a little more convoluted--I won't reveal it here.

The book is written in a combination of points-of-view. Ian's story is mostly told from first-person diary accounts, much much other of the book is told in reconstructed third-person, with a few passages from the dean of the school interspersed. It's a winding and a tad jarring method of story-telling that took me a while to get into. It also wasn't immediately apparent that this book was set, seemingly, sometime in the 1950s. But by the time I was halfway through, I couldn't put it down, desperate to see which students would succeed, and if so, how they would get away with it. Those looking for something unique, a bit unclassifiable, with multiple interwoven stories will probably find this one equally impossible to put down.

The book is characterized as "Volume One" and I'm curious as to whether we may ever see a Volume 2; Murder Your Lover, perhaps? But the postscript would seemingly leave the impression that this book is a one-off... we shall see.

Thanks to Avid Readers Press for my eARC and finished copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

5 stars - 9/10

This was a fun read providing you were not the target of the pupils attention. It is written as a manual for those attending the poison ivy school and for those who were having to teach themselves due to lack of funds/ a sponsor.

1.5 stars

I thought this story was going to be amazing, but it just didn't work for me. It was messy, the writing didn't work for me, there were way too many unneccessary details and I felt no connection to the characters.

First off, the story is written as if you're opening an actual manual. It's about this school where people who have plans to kill somebody get shipped off to to learn how to do it. It's all written with a pretty blasé and funny tone. But my issue isn't with the tone. I really appreciated the tone, actually, but I disliked the writing. Too many unneccessary details, too many adjectives. The language used just didn't mesh with me. It didn't read easily.

Added to that, the set up wasn't consistent. First, you open up the book to read the foreword of the current dean of McMasters, the school. Then it starts adding exerpts in from one of the new students' diary, the diary of Cliff Iverson. The first chunk of the book is actually just that, with some additional quotes and info from the dean. But then, quite a chunk in, we start to have two more perspectives. So where, from Cliff's and the dean's perspective we see Dulcie and Gemma as side characters for a big part of the story, all of a sudden they're also main characters??

Which, okay. Fine, I could get used to. But then the book kind of deviates from its entire concept: it being a manual and it including written reports of these students. It just follows Gemma and Dulcie and Cliff on their separate murder planning from their own perspectives, no diaries involved. Like, if you're committing to a concept, why not follow through with it?

Another gripe I had with this book is that the perspectives are all very "extrospective". Meaning it's mainly just characters describing a lot of what happens around them (hence the massive amounts of details describing A LOT of things), instead of them describing themselves, their character or their feelings. The characters only had a little bit of backstory and were solely focussed on preparing and executing their murders. This resulted in them having practically no personality, except for maybe the one or two traits Dulcie displayed. The author also tried to imply a little bit of a romance, or at least an interest, between Gemma and Cliff. But because they had no personality, this was wholly unbelievable.

With all of the detailing and overtly explaining how they all learned and planned their murders - the methods were smart, don't get me wrong - it became kind of repetitive. The book was way too long.

Long story short: where this book hooked me with its concept, it fell short on the execution.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this eARC with me in exchange for an honest review.