HOW well do you know your neighbours? Would you notice if you didn’t see them for a while – or be unaware that anything was amiss until a bad smell began to linger?

Those are the questions that this pacy new thriller, in which a policewoman discovers that dozens of people aren’t found until months after death, aims to answer.

Is there something sinister going on?

In this – her third thriller in as many years – Elizabeth Haynes plays with society’s mistrust of the loner.

Her well-drawn central characters explore the mechanics of loneliness and despair, while the action – and there’s enough of that – taps into the deep-seated fear of dying alone.

From the gruesome opening gambit to the thrilling denouement, it’s very hard to leave alone.

7/10