Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide – Book Quiz
Quiz Overview
Welcome to the McMasters proficiency test. These 20 questions cover plot sequence, character motivation, thematic elements, and synthesis, based on the full story of Murder Your Employer. Use your knowledge (and the main book page if needed) to answer. Mix of multiple-choice and short-answer formats.
Questions
1. Plot – Sequence (Multiple-choice)
After Cliff Iverson’s failed attempt to push Merrill Fiedler into a subway train, what happens to him?
A) He is arrested by uniformed NYPD officers and sent to prison.
B) He is recruited by disgraced ex-cops Dobson and Stedge, who drug him and take him to McMasters.
C) He escapes and hides in Canada for a year.
D) He confesses to the police and is released for lack of evidence.
2. Plot – Sequence (Multiple-choice)
What is the name of the exercise in which students must identify a hidden poison in a meal served by Dean Harrow?
A) The Four Enquiries
B) The Salt Shaker Challenge
C) The Banquet of Peril
D) Poisoned Consommé seminar
3. Plot – Sequence (Short-answer)
At the Track Meet, Cliff rescues Gemma from Jud Helkampf by sliding across what structure?
4. Plot – Sequence (Multiple-choice)
How does Doria Maye kill Leonid Kosta?
A) She poisons his drink with delphinine.
B) She pushes him into the River Strid.
C) She bludgeons him with the base of an Oscar statuette.
D) She suffocates him with a pillow.
5. Plot – Sequence (Multiple-choice)
After Cliff successfully deletes Fiedler, what does he do to the crime scene?
A) He calls the police and confesses.
B) He forges a suicide note implicating only Fiedler and destroys his own confession.
C) He flees to Montreal and assumes a new identity.
D) He plants evidence to frame Lilliana Horvath.
6. Plot – Sequence (Short-answer)
What does Gemma do when Adele Underton reveals she is pregnant just before the cinder‑block trap falls?
7. Plot – Sequence (Multiple-choice)
Who turns out to be Cliff’s secret sponsor, covering his tuition at McMasters?
A) Dean Harbinger Harrow
B) Lilliana Horvath
C) Captain Dobson
D) Jack Horvath’s cousin Patrik
8. Plot – Sequence (Short-answer)
At the end of the novel, Cliff Iverson returns to McMasters in what new role?
9. Character Motivation (Multiple-choice)
Why does Gemma Lindley want to delete Adele Underton?
A) Adele stole Gemma’s House Call program and is blackmailing her over a stolen syringe.
B) Adele is having an affair with Gemma’s father.
C) Adele is planning to close St. Ann’s Hospital.
D) Adele threatened to fire Gemma’s mother.
10. Character Motivation (Multiple-choice)
What drives Doria Maye to kill Leonid Kosta?
A) He refused to give her a salary raise after she starred in three hit films.
B) He burned her script, offered her a degrading pig voice role, and humiliated her.
C) He fired her best friend without cause.
D) He threatened to reveal her past as a con artist.
11. Character Motivation (Multiple-choice)
Why does Cliff Iverson consider Merrill Fiedler “a little Hitler” who must die?
A) Fiedler embezzled company funds and framed Cliff for theft.
B) Fiedler made dangerous design changes to the W-10 aircraft, killed Jack Horvath, and drove Cora Deakins to suicide.
C) Fiedler physically assaulted Cliff on multiple occasions.
D) Fiedler sold classified military secrets to a foreign power.
12. Character Motivation (Multiple-choice)
What do we learn about Jud Helkampf’s motive from his simulated murder scenario in the hospital seminar?
A) He wants to kill his stepfather to inherit his estate.
B) He wants to kill a rival medical student.
C) He wants to delete a nurse who rejected him.
D) He wants to stop his father from remarrying.
13. Character Motivation (Multiple-choice)
Why does Audrey Jäeger stage a mock murder with Cliff during the Track Meet?
A) She is secretly in love with Cliff and wants to protect him.
B) She is a McMasters staff member assigned to monitor Cliff’s progress.
C) She wants to frame Simeon Sampson for her own deletion.
D) She has been ordered by Dean Harrow to test Cliff’s loyalty.
14. Theme / Symbol (Short-answer)
What does the term “The Enemy” mean in McMasters lexicon, and which law enforcement agency is explicitly excluded from it?
15. Theme / Symbol (Short-answer)
Explain the significance of the “Four Enquiries” that Dean Harrow uses to confirm Cliff’s commitment.
16. Theme / Symbol (Short-answer)
What does the River Strid symbolise in Gemma’s original thesis plan, and why does it become a trap for her?
17. Theme / Symbol (Multiple-choice)
The epigraph by Guy McMaster says “It is simplicity itself to fire one’s employer. All it takes is some kindling and a match.” This line most directly introduces the theme of:
A) The need for elaborate planning in murder.
B) The darkly humorous justification for killing an oppressive boss.
C) The importance of arson as a deletion method.
D) The founder’s love of puns and wordplay.
18. Synthesis (Short-answer)
Compare Cliff’s and Doria’s theses in terms of how each uses the target’s vanity as a weapon.
19. Synthesis (Short-answer)
Why does Gemma ultimately fail in her deletion attempt, and how does her failure reflect the McMasters principle of “clean deletions”?
20. Synthesis (Short-answer)
In the postscript, Dean Harrow says the board objected to making McMasters public. What does the bust ceremony and the missing final line suggest about Harrow’s possible fate?
Answer Key
1. B – After Cliff’s failed shove, ex‑cops Dobson and Stedge recruit him by offering a drugged cocktail, then transport him to McMasters. (See Chapter I.)
2. B – The “Salt Shaker Challenge” is the dinner where students must find the poison hidden in the salt shaker (potassium cyanide). (See Chapter XII.)
3. He slides across the aerial tram rope (or “tram rope”) across Raven Ravine. – Cliff uses the rope to reach Gemma after Helkampf burns the cable. (See Chapter XXI.)
4. C – Doria kills Kosta with the base of an Oscar statuette after he insults her with “Oink.” (See Chapter XLIV.)
5. B – Cliff forges a suicide note to frame Fiedler alone and destroys his own signed confession. (See Chapter XLVII.)
6. She pulls back the convertible roof and throws herself over Adele, taking the fatal impact. – Gemma sacrifices herself to save Adele’s unborn child. (See Chapter XLVIII.)
7. B – Lilliana Horvath reveals she used insurance money to sponsor Cliff, after her cousin Patrik (a McMasters alumnus) told her about the school. (See Chapter L.)
8. He returns as a science professor and resident advisor. – Gemma and her mother arrive to find Cliff now on faculty. (See Chapter LII.)
9. A – Adele takes credit for Gemma’s House Call program and blackmails Gemma over the pentobarbitone and syringe theft. (See Chapters VIII, XIV.)
10. B – Kosta burns the script Doria wanted, offers her a degrading role as a pig, and refuses her proposition. (See Chapter IX.)
11. B – Cliff cites Fiedler’s deadly design alterations to the W-10, the murder of Jack Horvath, and the suicide of Cora Deakins after Fiedler drugged and photographed her. (See Chapter X.)
12. A – Jud plans to kill his stepfather by switching oxygen and ether lines to inherit. (See Chapter VI.)
13. B – Audrey reveals she is McMasters staff assigned to monitor Cliff’s progress. (See Chapter XXI.)
14. “The Enemy” refers to police, district attorneys, and forensic scientists. The FBI is explicitly excluded because many McMasters alumni work there. (See Terms of the Applied Arts.)
15. The Four Enquiries are a series of questions Dean Harrow asks to ensure a student’s deletion is necessary, just, and has no alternative. Cliff must answer them to confirm his commitment to killing Fiedler. (See Chapter VII.)
16. The River Strid symbolises a natural death trap that Gemma plans to use to kill Adele by making her slip into the lethal current. It becomes a trap for Gemma because Adele refuses any countryside outing, forcing Gemma to improvise. (See Chapter XL.)
17. B – The line uses dark humour to suggest that getting rid of an employer (by fire, metaphorically) is simple, reflecting the book’s mix of serious justification and black comedy. (See Epigraph.)
18. Cliff exploits Fiedler’s greed and confidence at the racetrack by first feeding him wins, then long‑shot losses. Doria manipulates Kosta’s vanity by feigning a breakup and using a fake detective to set up her alibi. Both use the target’s ego to lure them into a fatal trap. (See Chapters XXXII, XXXVII.)
19. Gemma fails because she cannot bring herself to kill an innocent bystander—she pulls Adele from the cinder‑block trap when she learns Adele is pregnant, sacrificing herself instead. This reflects the McMasters moral code of “clean deletions” that forbid collateral damage. (See Chapter XLVIII.)
20. The bust ceremony in Mr. Koniec’s kiln room, combined with the text cutting off mid‑sentence as Harrow’s honour guard arrives, strongly implies Harrow may be killed (either baked in the kiln or “meeting his maker”). The missing final line suggests his fate is ambiguous but ominous. (See Postscript and the ending explained page.)