A Murderous Education

In Murder Your Employer author Rupert Holmes takes delight in turning the murder mystery genre on its head while adding a dash of fantasy into the mix. Rather than a “whodunit” as most mystery stories are, this book follows aspiring murderers on their quest to succeed at their specific homicide with their chosen victims. We follow along as they work through their study of the craft of “deletion” at the McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts.

The McMasters Conservatory is, of course, the fantasy mixed into the book. Think Harry Potter’s Hogwarts, but rather than teaching young and gifted wizards, this institution is schooling those who aspire to murder. It’s hidden from the outside world with elaborate care. In fact, no one in the book seems to know for sure where the McMasters Conservatory actually is - not even what continent it’s on.

This story is told with a wicked sense of humor, and the audiobook really brings that humor to the fore.

The conceit behind the book is that the current dean of McMasters has decided that the time is right to share some of the wisdom of the Conservatory with the general public and so he is writing this book. He has gone into the records of the Conservatory and chosen a set of protagonists to help illustrate some of that wisdom. So, with the stage thus set, we dive into the 1950s (far enough in the past so as not to tell tales out of school (as it were) and endanger the lives of any living “deletists”.

We follow along with three students - Cliff, Gemma and Dulcie. Cliff is a bit of a clutz while still being a successful aeronautical engineer. He really wants to kill his louse of a boss and has very good reasons to - his boss is responsible for at least one suicide and several failed careers. But his plan is also a bit of a clutz and he fails in the attempt. He thinks he’s done the deed and made a clean escape when two “policemen” show up and inform him that he failed and should be arrested for attempted murder. But of course, things aren’t as they appear and the two “policemen” escort Cliff, with a bag over his head, through some indeterminable amount of travel and into the McMasters Conservatory.

Gemma has killed once before and now has good reason to do so again. Her boss is also a louse, as well as a thief and a blackmailer, and she has poor Gemma in her clutches. Gemma meets Cliff at McMasters where she is already studying to accomplish her goal.

Dulcie likewise arrived at McMasters before Cliff. A Hollywood actress, her career has peaked early. Her boss, the head of the studio where she is under contract, is a real creep who’s holding her back because she won’t “play the game” with him.

We follow the stories of these three through to their murderous (mostly) conclusions, and even a bit beyond. Loose ends are tied up and by the end our protagonists are naratively delivered to a place where they could easily feature in what I’m sure will be a sequel.

The narration of the book goes back and forth between the Dean of McMasters and excerpts from the writings in Cliff’s contemporaneous journals. Cliff has written these journal entries to his anonymous benefactor, who has secretly taken an interest in his intended murder and is paying his tuition at McMasters. In the audiobook Simon Vance provides the voice of the Dean (with an appropriately highbrow and middle-aged British accent), while Neal Patrick Harris reads in the voice of Cliff (as an American young man).

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the audiobook of this mystery, and can, and do, highly recommend it to fans of both mysteries and fantasies.

Which brings me to a couple of book / audiobook related points:

• I have to confess that I first purchased the paperback version of this book before downloading the audiobook. I alternated reading and listening, and at times I did both - I listened while I read. I’ve recently learned that this act of listening while reading has been given the name “Immersion Reading”, and I for one am a fan. I’ve indulged in immersion reading on a number of my books this year with great result and especially enjoyed doing so with this book.

• I’ve said before that I’m not usually a fan of audiobooks that have multiple narrators. But Simon Vance and Neil Patrick Harris did a tremendous job bringing this book, and its dry sense of humor, to life. Both narrators added a whole lot to my experience with this book.

RATING: Four Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

RATING COMMENTS: Author Rupert Holmes takes delight in turning the murder mystery genre on its head while adding a dash of fantasy into the mix. And I took great delight in “immersion reading” this book.

WHERE I GOT MY COPY: I purchased a paperback copy of this book at O’Hare airport while on my way from home to another extended stay in Australia, thinking I’d read the book on the plane, which didn’t happen. When I finally pulled the book of my To Be Read pile I also looked up the audiobook version on Everand. Really recommend the audiobook on this one, but I also enjoyed my “immersion reading”!