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. With a final thesis before him, Cliff will have to develop the perfect plan to kill someone and ensure that he is not caught. He relies on some of his fellow students and those around him who have ideas that could help him. However, he is also the target of others who seek to exemplify all they have learned from the McMasters Conservatory. When presented with the time to complete his final assignment, Cliff will have to decide if all this training is worth it, turning him into the ideal murderer. Rupert Holmes does well to create an eerie and thought-provoking book, whose realism is left to the reader’s imagination. I will be honest, the book lost me somewhere in the middle. As soon as they were out in the world, preparing to execute their assignment (pun intended), I got a little lost. Mostly because I wasn’t aware of their plans. And the other part is maybe because I prefered the school setting. We knew mostly about Cliff’s plans, but even he went off script. And I know that the surprise and mystery elements have a say in us going in blindly, but I didn’t enjoy it because everyone was scheming at the same time and it was difficult for me to follow all three storylines without a lot of clues. If this was done separately, I would not have faced character and plot exhaustion and would have enjoyed this book so much more. Rupert Holmes spins this unique story that is sure to open the reader’s eyes and pique their curiosity. This is a thriller like no other, told as a piece of fiction and journal of one of the new students at The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts. This secretive organization seeks to train those to commit murder without leaving a trace. Holmes leaves the reader wondering just how much is fact and where the fiction commences.

Even though this book largely takes place in an academic setting and the entire plot is about learning how to properly murder, I wouldn’t classify this book as dark academia at all since it’s actually pretty lighthearted and there’s not really any mystery element involved. 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 is ground glass in the ice cream. 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?

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I will be honest, the book lost me somewhere in the middle. As soon as they were out in the world, preparing to execute their assignment (pun intended), I got a little lost. Mostly because I wasn’t aware of their plans. And the other part is maybe because I prefered the school setting. We knew mostly about Cliff’s plans, but even he went off script. And I know that the surprise and mystery elements have a say in us going in blindly, but I didn’t enjoy it because everyone was scheming at the same time and it w

Those of a certain age ( ahem) may remember him for 1979’s earworm “Escape (The Piña Colada Song).” A funny, fast-paced, flip-the-playbook mystery in which three ordinary citizens are trained in murder on a luxurious hidden estate . . . a fantasy academy laid out like a combination of Hogwarts, Downton Abbey, and a White Lotus–style resort. . . . Holmes can clearly do anything.” —The Los Angeles Times

As I finally sit down to start typing this review, I still haven't decided if I'm going to round up or down from my 4.5 star rating, so I guess we'll see what I talk myself into by the end of these several paragraphs. A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism. 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. Also very heavy on the justification for each murder. Like, if you run a murder school, I don't think putting so much emphasis on whether a person deserves to die actually serves as any kind of moral absolution. Just do it, like the ad says.

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. The second half of the book flies. Seeing the students play out their theses was a lot of fun!! I think that I had been with this book for so long that I configured the ending. Disclaimer: This review is not meant to promote the murder of despicable employers, but rather to encourage the enjoyment of this book/audiobook. I highly recommend! Dobson and Stedge looked at each other with infinite pity as I realized the words “He’s not dead?” could be used against me in a court of law. Despite the miraculously good news that I’d evaded the electric chair, the nearly-as-bad update was that I’d be going to prison for attempted murder while Fiedler was alive and free to be a menace to the world.Prepare for an education you’ll never forget. A delightful mix of witty wordplay, breathtaking twists and genuine intrigue, Murder Your Employerwill gain you admission into a wholly original world, cocooned within the most entertaining book about well-intentioned would-be murderers you’ll ever read. With dry humor and an eye for hidden clues, Rupert Holmes imagines a secret Hogwarts-like school that teaches the fine art of pulling off the perfect (and perfectly deserved) murder. An utterly creative and deliciously diabolical read.’ Alafair Burke, New York Times bestselling author 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. Through their diaries, interactions with each other and the dean’s reports, we follow their progress. It was interesting to see what the classes are about and the weekly timetables, including the eating schedules. What I found very intriguing were Cliff’s attempts to escape the school in the beginning.

Welcome to 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. Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes is presented as a handbook written by Dean Harbinger Harrow of McMasters Conservatory and details the experiences of three students from the graduating class – aeronautics engineer Cliff Iverson (whose anonymous sponsor remains a mystery revealed at the end of the story), hospital employee Gemma Lindley and Dulcie Mown (alias for Hollywood diva Doria Maye) - each of whom seeks to execute a sanctioned deletion of their respective employer/boss. We follow all three candidates through their orientation, training and ultimately their “thesis” which translates into how to apply all they have learned in executing their plan, failing which has its own set of consequences. Much of Cliff Iverson’s story is told through journal entries (first person PoV). The plot had me intrigued and invested the whole time. I loved the setting of the school, from classes to the assignments given to through the eyes of our main characters. Witty dialogue and banter helped the book to maintain a consistent flow instead of feeling stunted. A story with humor that's not overdone, details and "twists" were logical and keeps you on your toes along with characters that aren't the ordinary papier-mâché stereotypes. Despair set a place for itself at the table. Was it always this easy to catch a murderer? One sentence in and we were already at the opportunity stage. “At the newsreel movie theater in Grand Central.” 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 the McMasters “finishing school” (pun intended) comes to play.

We are introduced to our main character Cliff Iverson when he attempts unsuccessfully to kill his horrible boss. Presented in the form of a textbook for the McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts, we follow Cliff mostly through his journal entries as he navigates his education to learn how to successfully "delete" (aka murder) his employer, and most importantly, to get away with it. We also follow two of his other classmates, Gemma and Doria, as they learn the skills to both murder their own employers and to avoid getting murdered themselves. Brilliant concept: a finishing school for would-be murderers teaching you how to do it and get away with it. I liked the start, in the form of a sort of handbook, and the depiction of the students at work. Foremost in my mind was that Fiedler was still living, but also living in ignorance of my desire to kill him. If I refused to do what these ex-cops said, they could turn me in, and that would be the end of that. Better to give Dobson and Stedge the impression that I was cooperating, find a way to break free, and take a second stab at killing Fiedler, perhaps literally. I drank the potion with the abandon of a Dr. Jekyll who’s just learned that a fortune has been bequeathed to any man named Hyde.