Climbing The Walls

When the new neighbour from hell is your mother-in-law, there's bound to be trouble . . .

This novel, a family drama about the eternal triangle of wife, husband and mother-in-law, is told from the points of view of all three: FREE (short for Freesia), her husband FLIP (short for Philip) and Flip’s mother MOYA (short for interfering mother-in-law).

Flip lives with his wife and their two children in Dublin, where he has a job he hates with a loans company. He's just a normal family guy until his mother's arrival as his next-door neighbour. Can he help it if the turbulence this creates drives him to seek sanctuary in the wide-open arms of another woman?

Free, whose grasp of housework is as tenuous as her mother-in-law’s understanding of the word ‘privacy,' finds herself unwillingly catapulted out of failed domesticity into the surreal world of a local shady businessman who entertains fantasies that they have a future together.

Meanwhile, the cause of all the trouble is disappointed that the house move hasn't livened up her own circumstances one bit.

But fate has surprises in store for Moya, Free and Flip that will shake their lives up once more. What will happen when they are all faced with a risky situation and family secrets are exposed? Can things ever be the same again, and will they even want them to be?