Al is an interloper. He breaks into empty houses, high end usually and stays there. He never makes a mess, the owners never know he has been there and he gets a roof over his head.

One day he chooses the wrong house, at the right time and someone is murdered where he is staying along with 3 others. As they have left evidence of them being there, they decide to use their skills to solve the murder and clear their names. The story that follows, involves dodgy estate agents, solicitors, money laundering, family, friends. Will the new friends solve the murder and clear their names or end up deeper in trouble?

A whodunit with a difference. Al (not his real name), is an interloper, someone who occupies an empty house while the owner is at one of their other houses. Like an upmarket squatter, Why pay rent when you can have it for free?
One day he returns to a regular house to find someone else there. Em, Elle and Jonny also interlope and they persuade Al to join them in their latest house, an old vicarage in the country. But things don't go quite to plan and they find themselves on the run.
Al is meant to be writing down his version of events and the tone is as if he's just telling an after dinner story. It would be great to hear what happens next.

Such an engaging read! A clever concept and a fun romp throughout, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one!!
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Thank you to the publisher for the early copy of this!!

Absolutely loved this book.

Funny, pager turner.

It's not normally something I read but this caught my eye. Can't wait for more.

Al has an interesting alternative lifestyle. He lives off the grid as an interloper. He identifies luxury homes, ensures that the owners are absent and breaks in. He lives there in style and then moves on aiming to leave no trace of his presence. He lives his life by a series of rules that have kept him invisible until he makes a tiny mistake.

The title of this book intrigued me and the brief prologue sets the scene with Al in prison writing about his exploits. The prologue points out that Al is not dead and that his tale is going to be fun. Both points are true. There are several attempts on his life and his story is fun as he attempts to solve a murder and find missing millions before the authorities arrest him for the crimes.

This is a fast paced entertaining story with a great range of characters and good plot twists. Plenty of humour and intrigue and a satisfying ending.

Not knowing anything about breaking and entering, apart from what I’ve seen in television dramas, I thought this could be an educational read for me, even though I had no intention of taking the book’s advice. It’s a nice easy read and appears to be from the point of view of the original house entering criminal, but he quickly sides up with a small team who take similar action; they break into a house when they know someone is away and live there for a few weeks, months, until just before the owners return. This isn’t as simple and straightforward as it sounds and this excellent writer takes us through the good the bad and the ugly of being a house sitter, without the owner’s knowledge. The humour is often sarcastic, but it’s fun. You know, from the first chapter, that all is not going to go exactly to plan. None of the characters really appear to trust anyone else. Which stories are true and which are false? There will be complications and that’s when the interesting read really begins. I would recommend this as a nice easy read and without expecting it to be a non fiction book; it’s fiction as its best and I look forward to finding more titles by Andrew Hunter Murray.

Ah I really thought I’d love this book but sadly I just felt it dragged on.
I enjoyed some elements of the plot although I did get lost at times remembering who was who. There are a lot of characters and the two sisters are interchangeable, I could have used a character list.
The whole whodunnit element was well executed but the build up lost my attention. There were technical words I just don’t understand so my interest severely lacked halfway through.
I did like the narration and some of Al’s inner monologues were so witty and I particularly liked the notes on the current housing problems in the UK

Unfortunately I’ll probably forget I ever read this.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️💫

The blurb sounded interesting, but unfortunately the story did not live up to the hype.
Too slow, long winded and a bit daft, to be honest, I lost interest and DNF. Not for me, this one.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this title.

I initially requested this book because I liked the concept and the book definitely does live up to the blurb.
The plot itself is quite convoluted, it does feel like you're chasing your tail and going around in circles, slowly finding scraps of clues but they just don't feel important enough revelations. I will say I didn't solve the murder mystery but I didn't find the reveal very triumphant.
I think the main issue I had was the humour which I didn't get. The style of humour wasn't for me but I can see other people enjoying it and I think this is what the book relies upon.
I don't think the characters were very well developed, I didn't learn much about them at all because you don't know what they're lying about to protect their identities. However it meant that I wasn't very attached to them, but I did enjoy the impersonations, these I did find quite funny. There is also an unnecessary romance which I didn't particularly enjoy.
Overall I found this to be more chaotic than clever. This wasn't the book for me but I do think if you enjoy the humour and writing style of Andrew Hunter Murray you will like this main character, the interloping adventures and being amateur detectives.
⭐️⭐️ 2/5

Thank you to NetGalley, Cornerstone and Andrew Hunter Murray for the opportunity to read this advanced reader copy.

Review posted to Goodreads.

An original idea - not many of them these days - and a very entertaining read. The narrator is likeable, and despite him breaking and entering peoples houses you can't help but warm to him. The story is a fast paced page turner - a perfect holiday read, or for someone who has trouble getting into books. You are taken straight into the action, no tedious descriptions of why our narrator took up a life of breaking and entering.

Al is a very likeable 'interloper'. He moves into luxury homes and 'squats'. He never steals, he repairs any damage he causes and is a thoroughly likeable character who is a loner. Then Al meets Em, Elle and Jonny and his problems begin.
Is this story implausible? Probably!
Is it entertaining? Definitely. Many laugh-out-loud moments. I loved it!
Many thanks to Netgalley/Andrew Hunter Murray/Random House UK for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Al (not his real name) calls himself an ‘interloper’ – an uninvited house sitter who breaks into the luxury homes of the rich when they are away for work or on vacation and makes himself at home. He’s being doing this on his own successfully for eight years and has saved himself a lot of rent while enjoying living at the very best addresses. He considers himself to be a professional and is meticulously careful to follow the list of rules he has made for himself, particularly not drawing attention to himself while staying there and leaving the house exactly as he found it. He has never had a problem - until now.

A miscalculation sends Al fleeing from a house just as he is on the verge of settling in and that’s when his problems begin. At the safety bolt-hole that he runs to, he comes across sisters Em and Elle and computer hacker Jonny already is residence. The three of them also like to stay uninvited in vacant properties and, being curious that their methods are different to his, Al agrees to go along with them to watch them break into their next house. Unfortunately, on their first job together, they find themselves in the middle of a crime scene. They know it’s only a matter of time before the police find them and arrest them so in order to clear their names they decide to investigate the case themselves.

This very original premise for a novel is executed with a light and slightly wry tone, narrated by Al with his quirky sense of humour and the introverted personality of someone who has lived alone too long. Al and his new friends test the bounds of plausibility as they try out their skills as amateur con artists, impersonating all and sundry in crazy scenarios to get the information they need to solve the case. The plot is smart and humorous, although could have benefitted from being more concise and not quite so convoluted, but overall it was very enjoyable and certainly never dull. Recommended for those looking for an entertaining, light and quirky mystery with a cast of engaging characters.

I really enjoyed this quirky read. I thought it was quite comical in places and it made me smile. It's a serious issue "breaking and entering" or "interloping" but this book, takes you on a fun journey and you find yourself laughing out loud, when all the characters start "interloping" together. It's a crime/mystery read, with great characters and a gripping plot. Huge congratulations to AHM, for writing another bestseller. Loved it.

I really liked the sound of this book but unfortunately it wasn't for me. I don't think the blurb was accurate for the story line as I was expecting a fun quirky read. I lost interest as it just went on a bit long with too much padding out of the story.

An enjoyable read with an original premise. Full of humour and strangeness, great fun. Will look for some more by this writer.

This book is such great fun to read. Yes it is farcical in many ways, but that is the intention. I found myself grinning from ear to ear at many things in this book from the comic asides to the situations that the characters find themselves in. The book has plenty of twists and turns and from the way it is written you need to read just one more chapter. I have previously read and enjoyed the books by this author, they all have things to think about and commentary on the modern day circumstance. Would recommend to anyone with a sense of fun.

Would you prefer to be in prison for something you didn’t do (murder), or something you did (housebreaking? Neither, you’d prefer not to be in prison at all. Al, our pseudonymous narrator, is on remand for a number of charges, but mainly murder, most of which he didn’t commit. However, he is certainly guilty of housebreaking (“interloping” Is his preferred word), although he has no intention of taking or damaging anything so perhaps his only crime is trespassing with intent. His intent is to find a place to live in comfort for a period measured by the length of time the owner is away, thereby saving on his living costs. He’s been doing this for eight years (he’s late twenties) with only occasional scares when, for example, an owner returns early and he has to make a speedy exit by a carefully planned route. He’s typing this story on a computer available to prisoners in the education area, and he notes that his troubles started when just such an event occurred, and he had to decamp to a fallback (less salubrious) property which he knows is always vacant. Except on this particular occasion he finds three other ‘interlopers’, Em, Ellie, and Jonny already ensconced. Against his better judgement he agrees to join then in interloping a large house in the Cotswolds, even though they do not follow his carefully developed rules for ensuring the operation will go off safely. Big mistake because the owner is on the premises, takes them prisoner at gunpoint and then gets himself inconveniently blown away on the doorstep. On the run from the police, who will be bound to stitch them up for the murder, their only hope is to solve the murder themselves.
This is a wittily, even facetiously, written tale, which, at heart, is a straightforward murder-mystery of the hunted protagonist type. It is fast moving, in the sense that lots of scene changes happen. Many of these are a bit unlikely, since they involve Al and Em in a series of impersonations and general conning, but the style carries one through the disbelief. The final resolution is appropriate, both in terms of the identification of the murderer and in the style in which everything is resolved.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

This was a fun read! The concept was really clever, and I loved the main character and the wit of the writing. I think the pacing was a little slow in parts, but it was still enjoyable and the mystery was satisfying to read. The light-hearted approach reminded me a little of Anthony Horowitz's books.

I liked the premise of this novel and the cheeky title. However, the pace was slow, the over use of dialogue that did not progress the story meant I did not finish.

Another book on my "up my street" list that sadly didn't live up to it's promise. I got bored and skimmed to the end. It grieves me to say this because I had high expectations that were not fullfilled. Certainly not a patch on another comedian's book I read shortly before.