A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering: The brilliantly entertaining new thriller by the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Last Day - Softcover

Murray, Andrew Hunter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1804941239 ISBN 13: 9781804941232

Publisher: Penguin, 2025

Synopsis

Property might be theft. But the housing market is murder . . . A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering is a gripping thriller about what it's like to be young, skilled, unemployed - and on the run.

'A comic delight' Financial Times

'A thoroughly entertaining mix of whodunnit, social satire and a cunningly smuggled-in love story' Mail on Sunday

'Laugh out loud funny, surprising, shocking, thought provoking ... Loved it' The Times

__________

Property might be theft. But the housing market is murder.

My name is Al. I live in wealthy people's second homes while their real owners are away.

I don’t rob them, I don’t damage anything… I’m more an unofficial house-sitter than an actual criminal.

Life is good.

Or it was - until last night, when my friends and I broke into the wrong place, on the wrong day, and someone wound up dead.

And now … now we’re in a great deal of trouble.

__________

Praise for A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering . . .

'A propulsive plot, an ingenious narrator and lashings of intrigue' Guardian

'It’s laugh-out-loud funny, proceeding at a pace that makes it almost impossible to put down.' Sunday Times

'Fantastic' Zoe Ball

'Madly fun and exciting' Lisa Jewell

‘Who knew murder could be so funny. A joyous read from start to finish. I loved it!’ Clare Mackintosh

'Legit brilliant, FUN and FUNNY and I couldn’t recommend it more' Stevie Martin

‘Dark, funny, and deeply twisted' Val McDermid

'Witty, dazzling and incredibly addictive' Jenny Colgan

‘A bloody brilliant, fantastic book . . . I’m bereft now I’ve finished it’ Philippa Perry

‘[Andrew Hunter Murray] has written something so funny and clever, you will want to give him a badge.’ Cariad Lloyd

'Tremendous fun: a quirky, gripping and insightful novel that kept me reading late into the night.' Elizabeth Macneal

‘This is a giddy, addictive thrill ride of a book - who knew accidental espionage was so much fun?!' Daisy Buchanan

'An excellent pacy caper’ Professor Sophie Ratcliffe

'Tremendous fun: a quirky, gripping and insightful novel that kept me reading late into the night.' Elizabeth Macneal

__________

Five stars for A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering . . .

'I just didn't want this to end. The narrator's voice is very, very engaging: a little cynical, very witty and all round jolly good fun'
'It has some brilliantly written characters and the plot keeps you engaged throughout'
'I was gripped to the very end'
'Great fun, fast paced and quirkily written'

About this title

About the Author

Andrew Hunter Murray is a writer, broadcaster and comedian. He co-hosts the award-winning podcast No Such Thing As A Fish, which has received 500 million downloads and toured the world. He also writes jokes and journalism for Private Eye magazine, hosts the Eye's podcast Page 94, presents BBC Radio 4’s Friday night comedy The Naked Week, and spent 14 years writing BBC2’s QI.

His first novel, The Last Day, was a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller, and one of the top 10 fiction debuts of 2020; his second, The Sanctuary, was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month; and his third, A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering, was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic literature.

Andrew lives in London, in a house which largely belongs to someone else (Barclay’s).

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1804941239
• ISBN 13: 9781804941232
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464