Aug 2026

I picked up Stephen Graham Jones’s ‘Killer on the Road’ because I’d heard good things about him.

Also, the cover gave off eighties vibes, and I’m a sucker for that kind of thing.

Jones’s novella opens with a prologue. A trucker attacks a hitchhiker and eats a part of him, all while talking about a man who can take others’ forms. Yes, it’s grim and gory. From there, we enter the story proper, following Harper, a teenager who’s running away from home. She catches up with her friends, and they begin a road trip together, with her little sister tagging along.

You can guess who they eventually run into.

I almost suggested this to my book club group, and I’m so glad I didn’t. Not because it’s bad, but because it’s gory as hell. It’s certainly not the sort of thing I’d recommend to non-horror aficionados.

The story takes place in one night, and you can feel that frantic energy as the hours tick by. The novella’s length works in its favour; there is little breathing room, and the deaths hit hard and fast. It’s an adrenaline shot of a story that I could envision: Jones has a cinematic way of telling a story.

On the flip side, the length also hurts the story. Some of the characters’ reactions to what happens fall a little flat. I know they’re teenagers and still lack fully developed prefrontal cortices. But still, I’d expect more freaking out and panicking than the calmness Jones presents us with. Something about it didn’t read true to me. I know that by avoiding emotional meltdowns, Jones kept up the pace. But the protagonists often feel psychopathic in their detachment.

The villain himself was quite cool. Eating human parts to become a copycat, trying to fit in with the rest of the world. Storing jars of eyes and fingers along the highway. It was all rather unsettling. I liked the idea behind it all, even if the ending felt rushed and anticlimactic.

Even so, I’m curious to check out Jones’s other works, particularly his full novels. ‘The Only Good Indians’ and ‘The Buffalo Hunter’ kind of call to me, so I’ll pick those up in the future.

If you want something that feels like a gory eighties B-movie, ‘Killer on the Road’ takes a bloody good stab at it.

★★★☆☆

Murder Your Employer is a novel I wanted to read based on the title alone.

The story begins following Cliff Iverson. He’s on his way to – you guessed it – murder his employer. His employer caused the suicide of the woman he liked, and the murder of his best friend, all of whom worked for the same company. And he got fired in the process. But he fails in his “deletion”. And two mysterious folks are hot on his trail, but they don’t want to arrest him. Instead, Cliff Iverson ends up at an academy for wannabe murderers, with his tuition fees paid for by a mysterious benefactor. Think of it kind of like Hogwarts for adults instead of children, and for wannabe murderers instead of magic users.

Once we get into it, we begin following two characters we meet along the way. They each have people they want to off, and their own reasons for wanting to do so. One is a nurse, Gemma, being blackmailed by her boss. The other is an actress, Dulcie, being blacklisted by hers. Each of the characters we meet are unique and likeable – even the bad ones. The plot is full of twists and turns, and you’ll be begging to know who survives the academy, and then who succeeds in the titular instruction. The writing is witty and clever, chock full of puns and plays on words. There are so many that many fly under the radar and go unnoticed. But they never become annoying or get in the way. The book is humorous already, but these additions elevate Holmes’s writing.

Oh, and in case you didn’t know, the Rupert Holmes (fitting surname) who wrote this is the same Rupert Holmes of Escape (The Piña Colada Song) fame. So you can make a playlist for your reading sessions.

I’m not a massive murder mystery fan (although this feels more like a ‘will they murder mystery’). Yet, I couldn’t resist this book’s charms. It pulled me in right away and kept my attention all the way through.

If you like dark humour, give this book a go; if you have similar tastes to me, you’ll find it delightful.

★★★★☆

Month: Aug 2026

Book Review: ‘Killer on the Road’ by Stephen Graham Jones

Book Review: ‘Murder Your Employer’ by Rupert Holmes