Coming Home to the Four Streets

Coming Home to the Four Streets by Nadine Dorries is the 4th book in The Four Streets series. Eric, the local milkman, looks forward to having a morning cuppa with Maggie Trott each day. It gives them a chance to be close and flirt. After all, Eric is married to the acerbic Gladys. Eric just hopes that word never gets back to Gladys. Peggy Nolan is not doing well since Maura Doherty departed for Ireland. Maura kept Peggy on a schedule and made sure that Peggy and her family had food to eat. Paddy Nolan rarely heads to the docks to pick up work preferring to spend his time at the local pub spending what little money he has earned. Maura and Tommy miss the Four Streets. Life is Ireland is not what they expected. It is a hard life running Talk of the Town with little profit. Maura misses her friends, and she is worried about her son, Harry who is being ill-treated by the local schoolteacher. Callum is staying out of trouble, but his twin is getting out of jail soon. His mother, Annie sees only the best in Jimmy, but Callum worries that Jimmy will cause more trouble upon his release. Some people are betting that Jimmy will be back in jail before a week is out. The neighborhood looks forward to the carnival each year which is in a few weeks, and they rely on Captain Conor's ship to supply some needed items. Unfortunately, there has been no word on the ship and supplies are running low. I found this historical novel easy to read with a cast of realistic characters. I thought the author captured the time-period and the locale. We get to see the hardscrabble life the dock workers and their families experience. They may not have many physical luxuries, but the people in Four Streets have each other. They help each other out when in need. The book does contain foul language and intimate situations. The Four Streets series does need to be read in order because information that is needed is not included in Coming Home to the Four Streets. Coming Home to the Four Streets has a good ending that will make readers of the series smile. If you enjoy dramatic historical sagas, then you will like reading Coming Home to the Four Streets.