Audrey Brooks is a first rate cleaner – she can deal with almost anything. One of her regular jobs is the house of Anton Petrov, an elderly Russian. Polish the silverware, vacuum the carpets, wind the clocks… but one day, it seems that clean up the dead body in the study is on the list too.

Audrey leaves the house and calls the police, but when they arrive, the body is gone. As is any trace of the body… Thankfully Audrey and her friend Lewis have experience of this sort of thing and aren’t willing to let things go. But with no idea of the identity – or even the location – of the body, how on earth do you do you find the murderer?

Yes, it’s another cozy mystery. I’ll be honest – when I requested the review copy, it sounded a little more in the classic vein. An impossible disappearing body, a clock in the murder room that has lost four minutes… but this is cosy through and through.

The lead characters – Audrey the cleaner and Lewis the would-be crime writer – are a great pair of leads. Differing outlooks, differing motivations and while I guess there is a will-they-won’t-they, it’s very dialled down and under the surface. Their different points of view and different skill sets combine very well. They are really fun to read about. There’s a good selection of supporting characters – including the seemingly essential retired spy or two – which help things along.

As a mystery, though, it’s far more Crofts than Christie. We are watching our heroes solve the crime, rather than being asked to play along. To be fair, the guilty parties – and there are a few people with their fingers in the crime – are all on the page, but clues are sparse. I’ve said before about the “clue” of the photograph which never plays fair in a book – well, that’s here but you can also add in the “clue” of a certain smell. Unfortunately it’s not a scratch and sniff book.

That sounds like a moan – I’ll be honest, I was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t a classically structured mystery from the blurb and the set-up – but I did enjoy the book a lot. It’s fun, light and has a suitably complex plot. If you’re a fan of Richard Osman’s books, you’ll really enjoy this one. I might well check out the first one, 10 Marchfield Square, at some point.

Murder Like Clockwork is out now from Raven Books in hardback and ebook. Many thanks for the review e-copy via NetGalley.