Charlie is a prostitute: young, good-looking, the sort that can stop traffic. She's intelligent and, rather like Rita in Willy Russell's play, is desperate to improve herself. Nigel is a community psychiatric nurse (I think - since he calls the other characters his patients) married to a teacher. Gary is Charlie's boyfriend - he's what a lot of people would call 'mental'. Either he's schizophrenic, suffering from drug-induced delusions or just has an overactive imagination - whatever the reason, an imaginary character called Galileo lives alongside him. This works very well. I like the way Galileo is introduced - it's interesting, arresting and unusual. Both Charlie and Nigel are addicted to cocaine. The book contains a lot of fascinating detail for someone like me who has never even tried weed (yes, I know - I've never had a life). Charlie's desperation to get another fix comes over very well - and is a convincing motivation for all that she does. Ralph, a more minor character, is Gary's friend. He generally bumbles through the narrative and is involved in a piece of black comedic slapstick at the end.

Nigel, it turns out, is not the do-gooder that he initially seems. Like Gary he is driven by his hormones, and is also incredibly gullible and naive. Gary is mainly out of it. His schemes and motivations come from Galileo and another imaginary figure called Chastity - who, of course, is unchaste. Sex, and the promise of sex, as well as the constant need for drugs, dominates Gary's life. He speaks, and thinks, in expletives and there are several sex scenes - motivated by lust rather than anything more noble.

When hormone-driven Nigel meets attractive Charlie in the absence of Gary, the inevitable results. What follows then is a puzzle of who exactly is manipulating whom. The ending is just a little rushed, to my mind, but satisfying and not expected. It is also a happy one, in which love, ultimately, prevails.

UNDER CONTROL is Mark McNay's second novel. It is a fast-paced and flows along well. It is a quick, easy read and a convincing insight into a world in which everyone has lost control.

I received this copy from Canongate as an uncorrected proof and so cannot include any quotes.