A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

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.

Featuring crooked houses, dodgy coppers and a lot of lockpicking, 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.
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Love for A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering. . .

'Fantastic' Zoe Ball
'Madly fun and exciting' Lisa Jewell
A joyous read from start to finish. I loved it!’ Clare Mackintosh
'Witty, dazzling and incredibly addictive' Jenny Colgan
‘A bloody brilliant, fantastic book’ Philippa Perry
'It’s laugh-out-loud funny, proceeding at a pace that makes it almost impossible to put down.' Sunday Times
'A comic delight' Financial Times
'Smart, satirical, knowledgable, accurate, punchy, laugh out loud funny, surprising, shocking, thought provoking ... Loved it.' Matt Chorley, The Times
'A propulsive plot, an ingenious narrator and lashings of intrigue make this a genuine and thoroughly enjoyable page-turner.' Guardian
'A thoroughly entertaining mix of whodunnit, social satire and a cunningly smuggled-in love story.Mail on Sunday
'Tremendous fun: a quirky, gripping and insightful novel that kept me reading late into the night.' Elizabeth Macneal
‘A giddy, addictive thrill ride of a book - who knew accidental espionage was so much fun?!' Daisy Buchanan
'Legit brilliant, FUN and FUNNY and I couldn’t recommend it more' Stevie Martin
Dark, funny, and deeply twisted' Val McDermid

©2024 Andrew Hunter Murray (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

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

User Reviews

Book 4.7
Narration 5.0
5.0
5.0
fluentindothraki 05/06/2025
4.0
5.0
flo_rina 06/04/2025
5.0
5.0
quiet_raven 01/06/2024

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