A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering
Published on 22. May 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
464 pages
978-1-80494-123-2 (ISBN)
Description
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'
'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'
Reviews / Votes
Hilarious * Daily Mail * Smart, satirical, knowledgable, accurate, punchy, laugh out loud funny, surprising, shocking, thought provoking. Lovely short chapters. Loved it * Matt Chorley, The Times * Hugely entertaining...the novel is politically astute, gradually revealing a scam involving property and international money laundering. It's laugh-out-loud funny, proceeding at a pace that makes it almost impossible to put down. * Sunday Times * A propulsive plot, an ingenious narrator and lashings of intrigue make this a genuine and thoroughly enjoyable page-turner * Guardian * The plot is corset-tight and lavish with its surprises. An amusing crime caper...a delight * Strong Words Magazine * What drives Hunter Murray's chunky crime thriller along is Al's idiosyncratic, comic narrative voice. As a result, it's fun to spend time with him, even when it's clear he's not necessarily a great human being * Herald Scotland * Filled with humour, shocks, love and hate - and a few handy tips on how to beat the housing crisis... Funny, thoughtful and all-round entertaining * Press Association * In the delicious A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering, a hapless housebreaker and his fellow miscreants must solve a murder before the police arrest them; it's a comic delight. * Financial Times * I was hooked ... as it's filled with hilarious moments * Express *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Cornerstone
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 195 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 33 mm
Weight
328 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80494-123-2 (9781804941232)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Andrew Hunter Murray
A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering
The brilliantly entertaining new thriller by the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Last Day
E-Book
04/2024
1st Edition
Penguin (Cornerstone)
€12.99
Available for download
Person
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).
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).