Chapter summaries Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide Rupert Holmes

Murder Your Employer Chapter 3: Chapter I Summary & Analysis

Spoiler Notice: This page contains detailed plot points from Chapter 3 (Chapter I) of Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide. If you have not yet read the book, proceed with caution.

Summary

Cliff Iverson, a former aircraft designer, attempts to murder his abusive supervisor Merrill Fiedler by shoving him in front of an oncoming New York subway train. Dressed in a clumsy disguise (fedora, false beard, padded coat), Cliff pushes Fiedler on the platform but fails: a bystander—later revealed as ex-police Sergeant Stedge—yanks Fiedler to safety. Captain Dobson and Stedge arrest Cliff at his hotel, showing him the evidence (discarded sunglasses, a security guard’s cologne trail). Instead of taking him to jail, they reveal they are disgraced ex-cops who have been watching Cliff for weeks. They offer him a choice: drink a drugged cocktail and be “reprieved” to a secret school for would-be murderers—McMasters. Cliff drinks the potion and blacks out, his head bandaged, ready to become a student.

Key Events

  • Cliff Iverson, in a padded disguise, waits on a New York subway platform for his former boss Merrill Fiedler.
  • He recalls how Fiedler ruined his career at Woltan Industries, planted Communist pamphlets, and caused the deaths of his friend Jack Horvath and his love Cora.
  • The subway train approaches; Cliff shoves Fiedler onto the tracks.
  • Sergeant Stedge, disguised as a commuter, pulls Fiedler away at the last second.
  • Cliff wriggles out of his costume in a department-store changing room, but a security guard (ex-cop Dave Vlastnoff) trails him using a unique cologne sprayed on him.
  • Police (actually Dobson and Stedge) knock on Cliff’s hotel room door, reveal they have the sunglasses and his prints, and arrest him for attempted murder.
  • Dobson and Stedge confess they are disgraced former police officers who arranged the entire scene to test Cliff.
  • They offer Cliff a “reprieve”: drink a drugged cocktail and surrender himself to an unnamed institution.
  • Cliff drinks, and the chapter ends with him promised a second chance to learn how to kill properly.

Character Development

  • Cliff Iverson: Introduced as a desperate, morally conflicted amateur killer. His initial plan is clumsy yet emotionally charged; he rationalises murder as a means to save future innocent lives. After his arrest, he shows cunning (stealing the empty gun) but ultimately submits to the ex-cops’ scheme, revealing a mix of grit and naivety. His backstory—orphaned, scholarship student, betrayed by Fiedler—sympathetically justifies his motive.
  • Merrill Fiedler: Remains a villain largely offstage, glimpsed only through Cliff’s bitter memories. He is portrayed as a sadistic workplace tyrant who manipulates, destroys careers, and likely caused Horvath’s death.
  • Captain Dobson & Sergeant Stedge: At first appear as classic tough cops, then unmask themselves as renegade enforcers with their own brand of rough justice. Their recruitment speech is darkly comic, and they treat Cliff’s failure as a teachable moment.
  • Security guard Dave Vlastnoff (mentioned): The retired cop who follows Cliff after the changing-room exit, demonstrating how even a well-planned murder can be undone by tiny oversights.
  • Cora & Jack Horvath (mentioned): Their fates (Cora dead, Horvath found dead in a park) drive Cliff’s rage and establish emotional stakes.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

  • The Perfect Murder vs. Reality: Cliff’s “expert” murder plan is undone by a ticket stub, a store’s cologne promotion, and a security guard’s vigilance. Holmes emphasises that even “genius” schemes have unforeseen cracks.
  • Disguise and Identity: Cliff’s layered costume (padded coat, false beard, sunglasses) physically represents his attempt to become a killer. His failure to shed that identity thoroughly mirrors the psychological weight of murder.
  • Justice and Vigilantism: Dobson and Stedge’s backstory—killing a child molester who bought his way free—frames the novel’s moral ambiguity: is extra-judicial killing ever acceptable?
  • The “Found Family” of Killers: The ex-cops treat Cliff not as a criminal but as an apprentice in need of training, foreshadowing the McMasters school as a twisted mentorship institution.
  • Fatal Flaw in Alibi: Cliff’s carefully saved ticket stub (meant to prove his alibi) instead betrays his premeditation, a motif of how attempts to control narrative often backfire.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 3 (Chapter I) serves as the true beginning of the novel’s plot after the prologue and frame. It establishes Cliff Iverson as the central protagonist, introduces the core conflict (Fiedler’s tyranny), and demonstrates the ineptitude that leads Cliff to McMasters. The chapter answers the question posed by the epigraph: what happens when an ordinary person tries murder and fails. More importantly, it reveals that the McMasters school is watching—and recruiting—failed killers. The dynamic between Dobson, Stedge, and Cliff sets the irreverent, darkly comic tone that will characterise the rest of the book. Without this chapter, the reader would not understand why a reasonable man would attend a school for homicide, nor would the novel’s “guidebook” conceit (with Cliff as a student) have a credible origin.

Study Questions & Answers

  1. How does Cliff’s disguised appearance on the subway platform both help and hurt his plan?
    The disguise makes him unrecognisable to witnesses, but it also makes him memorable (“a man wearing sunglasses on a subway platform… in a padded coat, fedora, and false whiskers”). The attention it draws undermines the goal of being invisible. Additionally, the sheer bulk of the padding and fake hair creates physical evidence that can be traced.

  2. Why do Dobson and Stedge choose to recruit Cliff rather than arrest him?
    They have been following Cliff for weeks and already know his motive (Fiedler’s abuse, the deaths of Cora and Horvath) and his failed attempt. They see in Cliff a “decent guy” driven to murder by a truly evil target, not a random psychopath. As ex-cops who once killed a child molester escaping justice, they believe in vigilante justice when the system fails. They want to train Cliff so he can succeed next time, turning him into a “student” at McMasters.

  3. What does the ticket stub reveal about the difference between a good alibi and a plausible one?
    A genuine person would not keep a ticket stub carefully placed on a dresser next to a watch; they would either discard it or simply leave it in a pocket. Dobson points out that saving the stub as proof of an alibi is unnatural, making it an obvious plant. The lesson: a perfect alibi looks artificial; a natural one looks messy and unplanned.

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