Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Murder Your Employer: The Mcmasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes

10 reviews

cranshrooms's review against another edition

funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.25

This book was a lot of fun! The style is innovative and engaging, it eas easy to invest in the characters and their stories, and the end was very satisfying. The afterword, however, felt rather on the nose and undeserved.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Chronic illness, Drug use, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Transphobia, Blood, Grief, and Pregnancy

dkamada's review against another edition

funny informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Medical content, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Classism

justagremlin's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

 

Nice book if you’re in the mood for some dark academia shenanigans. The chapter sizes are small, which makes it a fairly quick read. I always like books that have “journal entry” formats. I did feel like even though this is a multi-POV book, they didn’t spend much time on the two female MCs. It got a bit better as the book progressed, but while they were at the school, we didn’t see any of them learning

; actually, on that note, they barely spend any time at the school. I would’ve loved to have read more about the murder curriculum, but it feels like barely any time is spent on that :( And towards the end, the segments with Cliff are hard to follow.

 

But overall its not a bad read and I had a fun time with it. 

3.25/5

Recommended For: Fans of darkly humorous dark academia set in the past

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Homophobia, Racism, and Transphobia

homophobia transphobia racism:

The period this book takes place in is the early to mid-1900s so some of the characters are bigoted

Murder/Violence

Read. The. Title.

Rape, Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment

One of the targets to be murdered is a boss that sleeps with female employees and blackmails them. One of these employees is mentioned to be drugged. Another target is another boss who sleeps with several employees.

Suicide

The Main character recounts an employee committing suicide after being drugged assaulted and blackmailed by her boss, another character is revealed to have faked his suicide to look like a murder. Also lots of talk of making murder seem like suicide.

angorarabbit's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

TLDR: Very good Golden Age Style Mystery with a few twists. 

 

I was pleasantly surprised by this mystery novel. The blurb promises entertainment which is delivered mostly in puns in the first half of the book. Then Mr Holmes gets to work with an intricately plotted how-they done-it novel. 

 

The forward is a bit tiresome, but necessary to understanding the setting. The rest of the narrative is an omnipresent narrator and a mix of journal entries from the main character to his patron, reports, and letters. The later being indicated by chapter headings. The style is down to earth with enough description to fill in the blanks but not be flowery. The action is pretty easy to follow and main characters are easy to differentiate. 

 

The characterisation was okay, the minor characters suffered in particular. Main characters were somewhat stereotyped though they acted consistent with their characters throughout the novel. The first part of the novel was rather under peopled though filling a school like it should be is always tricky for both the writer and the reader. 

 

In true Golden Age fashion all the would be deletees were nasty humans. I thought two of them deserved an Orient Express experience to tell the truth. I anticipate there were after the funeral parties. The setting is 1950’s America so at least the author didn’t have to worry about the modern banes of deleters existence DNA and mobile phones. Though one deletion method was old fashioned, the other two were quite novel. 

 

The postscript does make me wonder if the punishment will fit the crime.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Body shaming, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Minor: Gun violence, Grief, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

collsin05's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.25

Good idea but terrible execution. Doria and Gemma were after thoughts and Cliff used up too much thought. The whole thing was a convoluted mess with long sentences, clunky paragraphs, and unnecessary chapters slowing now the pacing at intense plot points. I mean

Gemma was possibly killed and there were about 4 chapters between her getting crushed by cinderblocks and us checking in on her at the hospital to see if she even was alive

Gemma was never meant to succeed. She was never meant to be anything other than an object for Cliff to fond over. We were only introduced to her “backstory” after Cliff had been dreaming of her and acting like he knew her. The misunderstanding keeping them apart was her relationship with Jud, but that was just because she had to “platonically seduce?” Her target so she needed practice. Like I said that was all just made up for the purpose of making Cliff jealous. And she was set up to fail, with her flimsy little plan all the teachers said would fail, but they graduated her anyone despite them all agreeing that she wasn’t ready… because Cliff was ready. And if Cliff wasn’t going to be at school to play water polo and work in the kitchen, then why would the narrative bother taking place at the school? For female characters to exist outside the male gaze of the real and only protagonist? No she she had to go

and she had to fail because how else could she return to the school and be reunited with her beloved whom she had never spoken to. How else could she have a happy ending?

it was a general convoluted mess with deep sea diving, secret trash can drop offs, cross dressing, stealing cars, something about the Dali lama and there was this one Latvian delivery boy? It was impossibly to follow. There were no real plot twists and between Cora, Gemma, and doria there was an unsettling demonization of female sexuality as if their sexuality was owned by some polygamous man or another with true female promiscuity being severely punished and virginal purity being rewarded. Even if the narrator did call out this double standard and did punish the worst male offenders.

But it was clear in the end that the pure girl would be rewarded by winning Cliff, and the independent woman who don’t need no man would be turned into a pig one way or another, and that Cliff is the only true protagonist

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Excrement, Medical content, and Sexual harassment

The audio book has great narrators and the physical copy has nice illustrations But overall I would not recommend it. Reviews from 1 star to 3 stars all agree that understanding was severely hampered by how convoluted and unnecessarily long it was

flower_mail's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

matcha_cat's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Death, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Emotional abuse, Rape, Medical content, Grief, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

drastichopeful's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I really, really liked this book!  The characters were funny, the plotting was tense, and the ending was fantastic.  Saying too much more would spoil things.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Moderate: Racism, Rape, Sexism, Suicide, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia and Transphobia

chris_reads's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Very good whimsical fun. The narration was cheeky and full of deadly euphemisms. The 1950s academic setting really worked here. The characters were surprisingly sympathetic given their field of study. The murders and methods were creative and complex. And I especially loved the audiobook performance. 
There was one aspect that kind of bothered me: That being a side character using a cross-dresser, though fictitious, as the scapegoat for their plans. While it's certainly a unique means of execution, I don't like the implications. Though I don't think we're meant to particularly like this character or agree with her, so I can't speak to any underlying bias of the author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Misogyny and Suicide

Minor: Body shaming, Rape, Transphobia, Death of parent, and Alcohol

workplace harassment

bekah1210's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Sexual harassment