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A review by janae
Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
About halfway through this book I was certain it was going to be a 3, but the last fifty percent bumped it up a notch. While the beginning is intriguing there’s a pattern of mysteries revealed and then solved within moments, making it feel like there’s no tension or build up.
However, the second half of the book makes up for that in spades as we build up to the promised deletions. It’s interesting and definitely satisfying, although I will say the “shock value” of one of the nursery was, in my opinion, based on played out homophobic tropes. Sure, this is all set in the fifties so it’s plenty realistic but I don’t know that that makes it right.
I found that I was rarely truly surprised by events that happened, although before reading the page I couldn’t have guessed. I think that means the mystery was well built so that few things came out of left field while still being interesting. The biggest surprise for me was the “postscript” ending.
As for the characters, I found them lovable but shallow. Not at by any means, just lacking depth of character. I think that works for this book because the whole thing is filled with jokes and puns and a sense of levity, so very deep characters might have been out of place.
Regarding diversity, I marked it’s complicated because while there is a main character of color, and some diverse side characters overall the book is very white centric. Which is fine but there was just enough lack that I couldn’t honestly mark it as diverse.
Finally, I would reccommend this book to anyone who wants a light, fun, campy mystery. This is for lovers of puns and slapstick. If you don’t like dramatic, self aware humor based narration then this won’t be for you.
However, the second half of the book makes up for that in spades as we build up to the promised deletions. It’s interesting and definitely satisfying, although I will say the “shock value” of one of the nursery was, in my opinion, based on played out homophobic tropes. Sure, this is all set in the fifties so it’s plenty realistic but I don’t know that that makes it right.
I found that I was rarely truly surprised by events that happened, although before reading the page I couldn’t have guessed. I think that means the mystery was well built so that few things came out of left field while still being interesting. The biggest surprise for me was the “postscript” ending.
As for the characters, I found them lovable but shallow. Not at by any means, just lacking depth of character. I think that works for this book because the whole thing is filled with jokes and puns and a sense of levity, so very deep characters might have been out of place.
Regarding diversity, I marked it’s complicated because while there is a main character of color, and some diverse side characters overall the book is very white centric. Which is fine but there was just enough lack that I couldn’t honestly mark it as diverse.
Finally, I would reccommend this book to anyone who wants a light, fun, campy mystery. This is for lovers of puns and slapstick. If you don’t like dramatic, self aware humor based narration then this won’t be for you.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia and Murder