A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering, by Andrew Hunter Murray

This is definitely my favourite mystery novel that I’ve read this year. I’m already a fan of Andrew Hunter Murray from his podcast, No Such Thing as a Fish, that he does with other members of the writing staff from the TV quiz show QI, but I hadn’t picked up his other books because they seemed to be a bit futuristic-dystopian and, nope, can’t read anything dystopian these days.

However, the premise of this one — very much set in the present-day real world, so only lightly dystopian! — grabbed me right away. The first-person narrator of the story keeps a roof over his head by breaking and entering (though entering without breaking is actually the preferred way to do it) — staying in the homes of wealthy people while they’re away. He doesn’t steal or vandalize; he just takes advantage of unoccupied real estate, and figures his is a pretty victimless crime.

But just as he meets up with a group of other young people doing the same thing, they stumble into a situation they can’t just walk away from. A man is murdered in a house that they’re illegally occupying, and they’re unable to get away quickly enough without leaving a trace. Rather than fleeing the country, the trespassers decide to try to solve the crime themselves, so that if the police do track them down, they’ll have information to offer rather than being suspected of the crime themselves.

It’s a bit of a silly premise but the sharp, funny narrative voice makes this compelling, and I found it hard to put down.