In Liverpool, things have begun to settle down. A charismatic new priest has arrived. The Dohertys are coping with the tragic consequences of Kitty’s pregnancy – and the police seem close to solving the double murder which rocked the Four Streets to the core.
But now all that is about to be put at risk once again, in The Ballymara Road, the brilliant concluding novel in the Four Streets trilogy.
Reviews
THE FOUR STREETS
‘A vigorous and vibrant story of childhood in Fifties Liverpool... she has so vividly captured the Four Streets and its larger-than-life characters, the result is as fast-paced as it is entertaining. An addictive novel to be devoured at one sitting.’
Sunday Express
‘The characters are engaging, the street scenes cinematic and the theme of the novel powerful. One night I found myself reading it in the bath. You don’t do that for work.’
Ann Treneman, The Times
‘Catholic Liverpool, Irish immigrants and dark secrets... a funny and sometimes shocking saga. I couldn’t put it down.’
Cristina Odone
‘The characters are engaging, the streets scenes cinematic and the theme of the novel powerful.’
The Times
‘Angela’s Ashes with a Scouse accent.’
Irish Times
‘A heartbreaking tale.’
Liverpool Echo
The story of The Four Streets continues in Hide Her Name
About Nadine Dorries
NADINE DORRIES grew up in a working-class family in Liverpool. She trained as a nurse, then followed with a successful career in which she established and sold her own business. She has been the MP for Mid-Bedfordshire since 2005 and has three daughters.
Connect with Nadine on Twitter, @NadineDorriesMP.
Also by Nadine Dorries
Ruby Flynn
The darkest sins cast the l ongest shadow – or so they say. Ruby Flynn, set mostly in Ireland, is the enthralling story of one family, haunted by ancient wrongs. A stunning new family saga from the No. 1 bestselling author of The Four Streets Trilogy.
The FitzDeanes are powerful. They have estates in England, a castle in Ireland and a growing shipping business in Liverpool. But in Ireland, during the famine, a great and terrible mistake was made, which would come to haunt the family for generations. Now young Ruby Flynn, rescued when the rest of her family died during the storms of 1947, reared and educated by nuns, arrives at Ballyford Castle, to work as a nursery maid. It is a fateful turning point for the FitzDeanes – and above all, for the beautiful and feisty Ruby Flynn herself.
Ruby Flynn is available here.
SHORT STORIES
Run to Him
It is Christmas morning in 1964. For nurse Fionnuala Kennedy, it is work as usual. As she trudges through the cold streets to catch her bus, Fionnuala thinks of the secret which she has been keeping from her beloved mother and father – and of how on earth she is going to break it to them.
She promises herself that she will do it that very evening, when she gets back home. None of the hospital staff are expecting very much to disturb their routine _ it is Christmas Day, after all. And indeed, Fionnuala’s morning at the hospital begins quietly enough, but then all hell breaks loose, and she is faced with an emergency to rock her world to its foundations.
Run to Him is available here.
About The Four Streets Trilogy
The Four Streets
1950S LIVERPOOL
In the tight-knit Irish Catholic community of the Four Streets, two girls are growing up.
One is motherless – and hated by the cold woman who is determined to take her dead mother’s place. The other is hiding a dreadful secret which she dare not let slip to anyone, lest it rips the heart out of the community.
What can the people of the Four Streets do when a betrayal at the very heart of their world comes to light?
The Four Streets is available here.
Hide Her Name
This gripping follow on from The Four Streets finds the community alive with rumours and gossip after the murder which rocked it to the core.
No one knows – or is saying – who did it, least of all the police, but they are not giving up their search for the truth. Somewhere, in this tight-knit Irish Catholic community, someone must know something. Someone will surely talk one day.
Meanwhile, 14-year-old Kitty Doherty, pregnant with the dead man’s child, is a living danger to everyone who needs to keep the secret. Her mother, Maura and best friend Nellie’s grandmother, the redoutable Kathleen, decide the girls must be spirited away quietly to Ireland to await the birth of the baby.
But it isn’t easy to keep a secret that big.
Hide her Name is available here.
The Ballymara Road
The final gripping instalment of the bestselling Four Streets trilogy which began with The Four Streets and continued in Hide Her Name.
On Christmas morning 1963 fifteen-year-old Kitty Doherty gives birth in a hostile Irish convent. Kitty knows her beautiful baby boy presents a huge danger to her family’s Catholic community back in Liverpool’s Four Streets.
When her baby is adopted by a wealthy family in Chicago, Kitty considers the problem solved. But soon it’s obvious the baby is very sick and only his birth mother can save him.
In Liverpool, things have begun to settle down. A charismatic new priest has arrived. The Dohertys are coping with the tragic consequences of Kitty’s pregnancy, and the police seem close to solving the double murder which rocked the Four Streets to the core. But now all that is about to be put as risk once again.
A Letter from the Publisher
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HeadofZeusBooks
The story starts here.
First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Nadine Dorries, 2015
Jacket design: KS Agency
Jacket image: © Getty Images
Author photo: © Cassie Dorries
The moral right of Nadine Dorries to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (HB) 9781781857649
ISBN (XTPB) 9781781850091
ISBN (E) 9781781857632
Head of Zeus Ltd
Clerkenwell House
45-47 Clerkenwell Green
London EC1R 0HT
www.headofzeus.com
Contents
Cover
Welcome Page
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Epilogue
About The Ballymara Road
Reviews
About Nadine Dorries
Also by Nadine Dorries
About The Four Streets Trilogy
An Invitation from the Publisher
Copyright
The Ballymara Road Page 30