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  • Published: 5 August 2025
  • ISBN: 9781804941232
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $22.99

A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering





By the Sunday Times bestselling author Andrew Hunter Murray and shortlisted for the Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction 2024, 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.

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. Highly recommended.' Mail on Sunday

'Smart, satirical, knowledgable, accurate, punchy, laugh out loud funny, surprising, shocking, thought provoking ... Loved it.' Matt Chorley, 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 make this a genuine and thoroughly enjoyable page-turner.' Guardian

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

‘Filled with humour, shocks, love and hare – and a few tips on how to beat the housing crisis.’ Daily Express

'The plot is corset-tight and lavish with its surprises. An amusing crime caper . . . a delight.' Strong Words Magazine

'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

'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

  • Published: 5 August 2025
  • ISBN: 9781804941232
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Andrew Hunter Murray

Andrew Hunter Murray is a scriptwriter and fact-hunter for BBC2’s QI. He co-hosts the podcast No Such Thing As A Fish, which has had 200 million downloads, and has toured the UK, Europe and Australia. He also writes jokes and journalism for Private Eye magazine, and hosts the Eye’s podcast, Page 94.

The Last Day is his first novel.

Also by Andrew Hunter Murray

See all

Praise for A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering

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
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