Three Little Truths by Eithne Shortall

          I found myself getting completely sucked in to the fictional world of Pine Road. It's not just the story of our three main protagonists, it's the story of the road itself.  How the neighbours rub along together and the disparate range of personalities that live there.  From the irascible Shay and his obsession with owning everything nine feet from the property to the controlling Bernie, this is a street populated by real characters; it could almost be your street (except your neighbours keep themselves to themselves).

Ostensibly the story is about three women:

Edie - Newly married, desperate for a child and struggling to fit in.  She comes across as exceptionally needy on the page but once you have endured her visit to the in-laws you do find yourself empathising with her rather than writing her off as pathetic.  Her obsession with making friends on the street and "fitting in" does grate but only because you find yourself wanting to shake her and tell her that she is valuable, that she is worthy.

Robin - Living back at home with her "four and three waters" year old son after leaving her disaster of a partner she is struggling to find her feet.  She is doing her best as a mother but after years with Eddy and his dodgy businesses finding a job is proving difficult and living with her mother and father has it's own challenges.  When she gets the chance at a new romance her past comes back to haunt her in ways she never imagined.

Martha - The newest resident of Pine Road and the one who seemingly has everything.  Appearances really do deceive though and she is still suffering from the trauma of the break in at their Limerick home and she is struggling to move on from what happened and move away from blaming her husband.  Couple this with the trials and tribulations of raising teenage daughters and life is somewhat of a powder keg.

The stories of the three women flow around each other and take in the other women of the street.  Make no mistake, this is a book about women.  Regularly interspersed with extracts from one or other of the many Whats App Group message threads that give you a real feeling for the other characters that live in the street.  My favourite has to be the oh-so-superior Bernie.  She really is that one character you love to hate.

So, the characters are strongly written and believable; what about the plot?  The plot is quite sinuous and discretely threaded through so that everything that happens feels organic and realistic.  The only problems I had with it was the use of coincidence and also the tendency the characters had to misconstrue events.  I know this made for a little bit of tension and misdirection but it just felt forced in places - particularly the sections dealing with "the man with soulful eyes".

On the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent on Pine Road.