Published by Penguin
Publication Date: 25th April 2024
Book Description:
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.
My Thoughts:
What a fantastically quirky book! It fits my sense of humour greatly and had me chuckling at various points throughout as "Al" (not his real name) describes how his life has taken a rather unexpected and disappointing turn.
Al is an interloper (aka housebreaker/squatter, but he finds these terms quite demeaning, hence the alternative). He "borrows" the homes of well-to-do folks who don't currently need the accommodation as they're out of the country for a while. And life is going well for Al, until he breaks one of his own rules and revisits a home he has previously stayed in. Someone (plural) has got there first and puts Al's plans out of kilter. This is the first of a few things which go wrong for Al which ultimately lead him to be thrashing out his version of events on an ancient computer in the "IT suite" at His Majesty's pleasure.
I know this book won't appeal to everyone, but I found it very amusing in parts, edge of the seat thrilling in others and even tugged at my heartstrings a couple of times. Al is an excellent narrator, his observations of people and places are full of humour and the scenes leading up to his eventual incarceration are plotted so perfectly they would be well-placed among the pages of many an acclaimed thriller writer. The pacing is spot on and I would love there to be a sequel so we can find out whether life ever turns out to be kinder for our lovable interloper.
If you enjoyed Belinda Bauer's 'Exit' then I think this would be a great fit for you.
About the Author:
Andrew Hunter Murray is a British Author based in London. His first book The Last Day was published in 2020 and is set in a world which has spun to a halt causing civilisation to be brought to the brink of collapse.
He works for the TV show QI and writes for the magazine Private Eye. His second novel The Sanctuary was released in 2022.
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