Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

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

80 reviews

cranshrooms's review

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

christinereads1823's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Super interesting premise for a book! I enjoyed the interwoven plots and the excellent character development, but it was a bit dry during the first third which made it a little hard to get fully sucked into. After getting past the initial sections, the flow was much better and the plot lines were more clearly developed.
Overall very well done, a great morally grey read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Suicide, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent

kremington's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicide

justagremlin's review

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

peggyluwho's review

lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

2.75

It’s okay, but the schtick got old very quickly.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Suicide, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Alcohol

madalynn_owens's review

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.25

This was a really interesting and unique book! I could really really see this working as an 8-10 part mini series and thus was a bit lengthy at some points.
I found myself enjoying one of the MCs vastly more than the other 2 simply due to the time spent with them.
There is also a weird I think thinly veiled anti-abortion tiny side plot for about 3 pages that feels out of place but maybe I’m just misreading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Death, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Gun violence, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

katyhosbein's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

Loved learning about McMasters and the journeys of three students with unfortunate employers 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Sexual harassment

sylvanskezelene's review against another edition

dark funny tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Gun violence, Suicide, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

annhenry's review

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Hate crime, Suicide, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Pregnancy