Maybe It's About Time by Neil Boss

Thank you, Matador Publishers and Love Books Tours, for giving me a free copy of Maybe It’s About Time by Neil Boss in return for an honest review.

Novels set during the 2020 pandemic tend to focus on the aspects we all remember: masks, social distancing, the PM’s briefings. Maybe It’s About Time takes this up a level by showing how lockdown affected people differently according to their incomes.

Middle-aged Marcus is a partner in a London finance firm. He has a loving family, an incredibly luxurious lifestyle and a rebellious taste in music. At first he seems judgemental, but his natural kindness soon breaks through his cynical exterior.

Twenty-something Claire barely survives in a cheap apartment. Her husband has abandoned her and their two babies, and her parents are hopeless. In the past Claire has had suicidal thoughts, and Covid-19 shatters her fragile support system.

A maverick social worker brings the mismatched pair together. As the loving father of two young adults Marcus longs to rescue Claire, but their friendship is open to misunderstanding. Can he find a way to save this socially isolated single mother and her vulnerable children, without antagonising the wife he adores?

Neil Boss describes day to day life at a time of national crisis with wit and accuracy. His style reminds me of the diarist Samuel Pepys’ accounts of the Great Fire of London in 1666. I can imagine people reading Maybe It’s About Time hundreds of years from now, to learn about the experiences of Londoners during the 2020 pandemic.

I enjoyed Maybe It’s About Time and will definitely read the sequel it demands. My only criticism is that it takes a long time to get into the story. The first third of the novel includes a lot of technical detail about suspect business dealings at Marcus’ place of work. In my opinion this could have been summarised.