If it weren’t for my Theme Team book club at my local library, I would likely never have even known about this book, let alone read it. For each of our bi-monthly meetings, we each read a different book on the same topic. For our September meeting, the theme was mystery. At the end of our July meeting one of our members mentioned this book to me because the author is the singer/songwriter for the smash hit “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)“. She went on to tell me the premise of the book. It sounded kind of absurd but fun, so I decided to read it.
The plot revolves around Cliff Iverson, an aircraft designer whose boss has changed his design on the latest aircraft, set to make or break the company. Unfortunately, his boss is conniving, controlling, selfish jerk who knows nothing of aircraft design. While the change will save money, it will also create a catastrophic failure at some future date, likely killing hundreds of passengers. When Cliff and two others confront their boss, he ignores them. Worse, one he forcibly retires without benefits by framing him for industrial espionage. Another is driven to suicide. Finally, Cliff has had enough and attempts to murder his boss. It doesn’t go well, but Cliff finds himself at a school that trains would be murderers on how to do it right.
This tongue-in-cheek tale of murder is so fun! I almost feel horrible writing that, but it is. The school attempts to have some morals behind murder by requiring it be done right and only to those who deserve it. In fact they have four rules that must be followed. Once at the school and after, the story follows Cliff and two other students and their “theses” (planned murders). These are incredibly complex and clever. However, they are rather easy to follow without being obvious. In fact, some of the things done aren’t clear when they happen until suddenly I found myself thinking, “Oh, that’s why they did that!” This is not a traditional mystery with a murder that you slowly learn who did it. Rather, you see murder from the other side and slowly learn how they plan to execute said murder. It is a funny, absurd joy ride of a novel that I recommend to any mystery fan.
My rating: 4/5