This is the first book by Rupert Holmes in a series of the McMasters Guide to Homicide. It starts with employers. According to interviews with the author, two other books are in the making. Just like in his lyrics, you need to wait to the ending to get the last plot twist. That is the pleasant surprise but also, as per reviews online, the irritating part of the book. We must wait until the end.
The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts is under leadership of Dean Harbinger Harrow. He is the Dean of Admissions and Confessions, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Arts and Blackmail Letters, and of course, a Senior Fellow of the International Guild of Murderists. He is also the author of the guidebooks.
The book opens with the terms used at McMasters. They do not use the word killer. They prefer deletist. Victim is too subjective, so they use executive. When successful, the murder is a deletion. The Conservatory is serious business. All people considering a deletion must answer four enquiries:
1: Is this murder necessary? Is there no other remedy? No alternative possibilities?
2: Have you given your target every chance to redeem themselves?
3: What innocent person might suffer by your actions?
4: Will this deletion improve the life of others?
The students must plot their deletion in detail. Then, they present that plan, their thesis, to the board. All students must answer the four enquiries. To be successful, #1, #2, and #4 must be answered with yes. #3 must be answered with none. Once you are deemed ready by the board, you have to act on your thesis. And it better be a successful execution if not, McMasters deletes you.
This Conservatory, where you can learn all about drowning, poison, combat, and much more, is in a secret location. Students arrive sedated and blindfolded. That is also how they leave upon graduation. To ensure that after a failed deletion, the student does not tell the authorities about their education at the Conservatory, they are deleted. McMasters must protect their location, staff, and faculty. In other words, think twice before you set out to kill anyone. And if you decide to go through with it, accept your fate if you fail.
Holmes describes how three students find their way to McMasters, what they experience, the classes they take, dorm life, and ultimately, their thesis. We follow them through the detailed descriptions of their preparations, safeguards to avoid detection, plans to delete the executive, plans to avoid their own detection, and of course, their alibi.
In all three cases, the reader is taken along the thinking process. What the results are in these cases, you need to read for yourself. The three students are: Cliff Iverson, an aircraft engineer for Woltan Industries, Gemma Lindley, an administrative executive of St. Ann’s Hospital, and last Doria Maye (born Doris May Taplow) a Hollywood actor incognito on campus as Dulcie Mown.
Of the three, Cliff’s story seems to get the most attention. That is how I experienced it. I could be wrong. The weird part is that a lot of his story is presented as journal entries addressing the anonymous sponsor who made his studies at McMasters possible. At this point, I am not sure how Gemma’s and Doria’s tuitions were paid. It is probably in the book but with the many details, I don’t remember.
The guide has detailed descriptions and twists. It is a delight to read but only to a certain point. As soon as it interferes with the pace less layers would have been better. Holmes chose to underline certain words in the text for specific emphasis. For a moment I thought that if you read all the underlined words, something would be revealed but that does not seem to be the case.
The good part in this book is that all McMasters’ students have their reasons to delete and we experience their emotional struggles. None act frivolously. We learn about the curriculum, the faculty members, and their backgrounds. Thanks to Anna Louizos, we have beautiful illustrations and even a campus map.
I was wildly enthusiastic to start the book. In the middle I had to remind myself that just like in the song ‘Escape’ there had to be another twist in each story. That motivated me to keep reading. And indeed, in all three cases there is a last, and then another last twist. So, keep that in mind and enjoy the book, the first in a series. I look forward to the next book.
My other book reviews are here.