The Ballymara Road (38 page)

‘Would ye look at her now, almost as tall as meself,’ said Maeve as she pulled Nellie into her arms. Nellie’s tears turned to laughter as she heard everyone asking her questions, all at once.

In the midst of excited chatter, people fighting with each other to carry the bags and Angela trying to drag her out of Maeve’s arms, she looked back towards the river and she just caught them as, with a last smile, they turned away from her and, walking together, faded into the blinding sunlight, down the Ballymara Road.

~

We hope you enjoyed this book.

Nadine Dorries’ next book,
Ruby Flynn
, is coming in Winter 2015

For more information, click one of the links below:

About Nadine Dorries

More books by Nadine Dorries

About The Four Streets Trilogy

An invitation from the publisher

It is Christmas morning in 1963 and on a cold bed, in a hostile Irish convent, Kitty Doherty gives birth in secret to a beautiful baby boy. Still a child herself, Kitty is aware that the existence of her child presents a huge danger to the Irish Catholic community of the Four Streets in Liverpool, where she and her family live.

The baby is adopted by a wealthy family in Chicago. And that, as far as everyone in the Four Streets knows, is a problem solved. But soon it’s obvious the baby is very sick. Now his parents learn they have six months in which to find his birth mother and a bone marrow match.

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.

T
HE
F
OUR
S
TREETS

‘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

N
ADINE
D
ORRIES
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
.

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
.

S
HORT
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
.

The Four Streets

1950
S
L
IVERPOOL

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.