Just when you feared novelty in murder mysteries was as dead as the secretive owner of a sprawling country house, along comes Anthony Horowitz with a fresh, invigoratingly meta take on the genre. His latest release, Close To Death, is the fifth instalment of the popular Hawthorne series, which pairs surly, morally strident ex-policeman Daniel Hawthorne up with a (hopefully) fictionalised version of the author himself, famous to many as the creator of Alex Rider and Foyle’s War.

This time around, Horowitz is scrambling to meet the upcoming deadline for his next book. In desperation and against his better judgement, he turns to one of Hawthorne’s oldest and most complex of cases for inspiration. What follows is a classic locked door mystery, set in an affluent Richmond cul-de-sac, where an obnoxious neighbour with no respect for the sanctity of car parking spaces has succeeded in turning the once close community into a battleground.

Featuring a lively cast of suspects which include an alcoholic GP, a chess grandmaster and an octogenarian ex-nun, this is a fast-paced, witty novel that’s brave enough to poke fun at the implausibility of its own plot. Close To Death is a bracing shot in the arm for lovers of cosy crime.