The Nick of Time by Francis King

Meg, suffering from MS, neglected by social services and abandoned by her husband, ponders the phrase that is this book's title, "the nick of time". She has lost her footing and only just managed to stay upright by catching hold of a chair in her poky east London flat. "Nick means a little cut. And that is what time does to one, it gives one those endless little cuts, until sooner or later one of them finishes one off."

The handful of characters in Francis King's Booker long-listed novel all, in their different ways, find themselves lacerated as events unfold in this ambitious, politically engaged story. For Meg, it is deteriorating health and lack of support. For Marilyn, an overworked widowed GP, it is the tragedy which left her alone. Ditto for her live-in sister-in-law Audrey, while for the two older characters, Audrey's retired diplomat father Laurence, and wealthy software consultant, Adrian, problems stem from a more predictable physical/ sexual decline that money or prestige cannot halt. And what of Mehmet, the elusive illegal Albanian immigrant and lynchpin of this story, who unites the other disparate figures as he variously charms, intrigues and terrifies them?

This is a well-told and thought-provoking read. Sometimes King strains credulity in his attempts to tackle issues, as in one early discussion of changes to the asylum laws. The "secret and inviolable" Mehmet, meanwhile, is often as two-dimensional and unattractive as his portrayal in the Daily Mail - stealing our jobs, beguiling our women (and men), working the system, robbing us blind. He is a cipher rather than a character, unlocking the other characters' lives as well as a society's attitudes, prejudices and desires.

Marilyn, for example, may be drawn to Mehmet sexually but will she be seen with him in public, let alone contemplate marriage? It's the same with Meg, rapidly reliant on his support and kindness. And what of Audrey, who will wear herself down in a charity shop but is less giving when confronted with a more immediate and not at all humble human need.

When it works, The Nick of Time evokes comparison with Priestley's An Inspector Calls in which an equally enigmatic outsider is slowly revealed and destroyed, passed carelessly from hand to hand, another victim of life's "little cuts".