Actually, I’m a Murderer is the first novel in a new series by Horrible Histories author Terry Deary. I recently read this book as part of a Buddy Read (my first one!) with some other Bookstagrammers and it was a complete blast!
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Title: Actually, I’m a Murderer
Author: Terry Deary
First Published: June 12, 2025
Publisher: Constable
Genres: mystery
Acquired: purchase from a book store
Four strangers on a train. An unlikely introduction:
”Actually, I”m a murderer.”
It is 1973 and the lives of four people are thrown into turmoil when sharing a carriage with an unremarkable little man with glasses, on the night train back to Newcastle.
By the end of the following day, one of them will be dead, one will turn blackmailer and another forced to commit a crime. And all of them will be under the astute observation of Aline, the local police officer with her own agenda to fulfil.
When the body count begins to rise, the question is: just how many murderers are out there… and who will be the next victim?
A fantastic, twisty mystery that kept me guessing until the very end
This book caught my eye when I first read the book blurb. The premise sounds really interesting and I couldn’t wait to see how it played out.
The story is told from the POV of 3 different characters – Tony Davies (the main narrator), John Brown (the self-proclaimed assassin), and Aline James (a beat cop) and nearly half the time, the reader is spent wondering just how reliable any of the narrators are. Not just unreliable narrators, but the fact that “names have been changed” to protect identities makes things even harder to believe. I don’t know if I’ve ever spent so much time reading a book while simultaneously not believing anything any of the narrators were saying.
Without exception, almost all the characters we meet (and especially the three narrators) are morally-grey characters – there’s a lot of rule-bending going on and we get our fair share of murders, hired killings, blackmail, sexism, borderline assault… the whole gambit. But you end up rooting for some of them. And that made the story work.
Because almost the entire book is set in the 1970s, there’s a lot of sexism going on, especially in Aline’s POV – she is a beat cop after all and her partner is a real piece of work. It was anger-inducing, but it really set the tone for her storyline.
An ending that had me smiling
As any reader of this blog or follower of my social media knows, I read a lot of mysteries. A LOT. So there are very few plots or plot twists that surprise me because there are only so many ways you can set up a mystery story. But this managed it.
Honestly, the premise, the characters, the clues, the red herrings… the twist. The Ending! Everything about this book was a fun ride that had me smiling at the end. What a (nearly) perfectly satisfying ending! I can’t wait for the sequel!
Reading this book as part of a Buddy Read really pushed me to read the book in a different way. Since there were assigned chapters and deadlines, I had to really push myself to read this book on schedule and to keep detailed notes. It was a lot of fun to discuss theories, make guesses, and share ideas with other mystery lovers and I can’t wait to do it again.