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

What if the Discworld's Assassin's Guild existed in the real world? That's it. That's the plot. Go to a university where they'll teach you to be a better class of murderer.

The first half is excellent. Chuckles all the way through. A heady mix of every boarding-school novel you've ever read, and funny little twists and turns. Lots of the dialogue is straight out of Terry Pratchett (and I can't be the only one to notice that the school crest features an Anhk and Morpork, right?).

It is a very silly introduction to the deadly serious business of death.

And then the second half - where the characters we have been following go and do the grisly deed - is a real let-down.

The murders are so convoluted. They rely on a string of unlikely coincidences, preposterous behaviour, and daft plots. It is a confusing and rambly mess. Tangled to the point of absurdity and increasingly hard to follow.

All build-up, no pay-off.