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Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: AudiobookHub Recommendation
Chapter 2: — Welcome to McMasters
Chapter 3: — A School for Killing Your Boss
Chapter 4: — Cliff’s First Attempt
Chapter 5: — Through the Gates
Chapter 6: — Cleverness vs. Competence
Chapter 7: — A Curriculum in Deletion
Chapter 8: — Journals and Secrets
Chapter 9: — Why Fiedler Must Die
Chapter 10: — Lessons in Human Nature
Chapter 11: — Report Cards in Poison Ink
Chapter 12: — The Hunt
Chapter 13: — Dances and Alibis
Chapter 14: — Graduation Day, McMasters‑Style
Chapter 15: — Gemma Cuts the Leash
Chapter 16: — Amigo and the Long Con
Chapter 17: — Dulcie’s Hollywood Deletion
Chapter 18: — An Alibi in Infrared
Chapter 19: — Poison and Confession
Chapter 20: — Mercy in the Parking Lot
Chapter 21: — Jack’s Last Gift
Chapter 22: — New Arrivals
Chapter 23: — The Secret Curriculum
Description
Imagine a secluded campus of Tudor eaves, poison gardens, and a code that prizes clean exits over notoriety. Welcome to the McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts: a finishing school for finishing people. Here, students don’t just study— they practice. They conduct hospital simulations, test poisons at formal dinners, and learn why alibis are art, disguises are discipline, and vanity is the one pressure point you can count on.
We follow three students from the same class: Cliff Iverson, a principled engineer whose sadistic boss is covering up a fatal aircraft flaw; Gemma Lindley, a British hospital administrator being blackmailed over a heartbreaking act of mercy; and Dulcie Mown—better known to moviegoers by another name—an actress whose mogul has frozen her career and plans to erase her dignity.
Across drills, track-meet “deletions,” and a daring escape that circles back into a classroom, the school’s elegant dean and hard-nosed faculty shape their charges. Not every lesson ends well. Not every thesis succeeds. But the story builds to three high-stakes finales: a razor-edged con, an alibi-by-camera, and a moment when compassion outranks vengeance.
Told with wicked wit and a lover’s eye for puzzles, this is a comic-noir caper about justice, craft, and the costs of getting what you want. It’s also a stealth meditation on power: why bullies thrive, how systems protect them, and what it takes to stop them—cleanly, quietly, and for good.
Who Should Listen
- Fans of comic noir and clever capers who love plot mechanics
- Workplace survivors who enjoy revenge tales with a conscience
- Mystery readers who relish puzzles, alibis, and elegant reveals