The Burning Air: A Novel

by Erin Kelly Narrated by Candida Gubbins

Overview

The MacBrides lead a cozy life of upper class privilege: good looks (more or less), a beautiful home, tuition-free education at the prestigious private school where Rowan is headmaster, an altruistic righteousness inherited from magistrate Lydia.



But when Rowan and his three grown children gather for the first time since Lydia's passing at the family's weekend home¿a restored barn in the English countryside¿years of secrets surface, and they discover a stranger in their midst. A stranger who is convinced that Lydia was a murderer. A stranger who has been exacting vengeance upon the family for years without their ever knowing. And one who will threaten the youngest MacBride, baby Edie, and the clan's memory of Lydia, shattering their world forever.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

In this tension-filled suspense novel from Kelly (The Dark Rose), when the members of the MacBride family gather in Devon to scatter the ashes of wife, mother, grandmother, and magistrate Lydia, after her agonizing death from cancer, it becomes clear that all is not well. The usually sober father—retired headmaster Rowan—is unaccountably drunk; daughter Sophie and son-in-law Will may have reached an impasse because of an affair and a breakdown; mixed-race grandson Jake has been in trouble with the law; and disfigured son Felix has a beautiful new girlfriend whose initial silence unsettles everyone. The disappearance of baby Edie, cryptic excerpts from Lydia’s diaries, and the narrative of an individual perhaps wronged by the MacBrides indicate that family secrets can have far-reaching implications. While a bigger payoff regarding Lydia and Rowan’s actions would have been welcome, skillfully drawn characters and masterful building of suspense, which reaches a literally searing climax, will leave most readers well satisfied. Agent: Zoë Pagnamenta, Zoë Pagnamenta Agency. (Feb.)

From the Publisher

Erin Kelly is a seriously good writer, and this gripping novel is her best yet. I really loved it—couldn't put it down!”
—Sophie Hannah

“The Burning Air is a clever, creepy exploration of the deceit hidden even within the most apparently loving of families and the very fine line between justice and revenge. Erin Kelly is brilliant at showing the relentlessness of obsession and the evil that can be done in the name of love.”
—Elizabeth Haynes, author of Into the Darkest Corner

“In a strong field, Kelly is among the strongest. Her formidable control of plot twist and character keep you gripped, unsure of the outcome, until the bitter end.”
—Alex Marwood, author of The Wicked Girls

“A classic dark thriller combining suspense with gorgeous, evocative prose. . . . With writing so seductive and multiple voices that are pitch-perfect for the characters she’s created, Kelly shows that she is a writer who doesn’t need to keep repeating herself to stay in the game. A book that will consume the reader as fully as the bonfire set by the novel’s characters.”
—Kirkus

“Tension-filled . . . skillfully drawn characters and masterful building of suspense, which reaches a literally searing climax."
—Publishers Weekly

Kirkus Reviews

Kelly has hit her stride in this third outing, a classic dark thriller combining suspense with gorgeous, evocative prose. Told from the perspectives of four individuals, this story is British journalist Kelly's third offering and by far her most inventive novel. Set in England, the tale involves a close-knit family named MacBride, whose members soon become the focus of a pathological mission to destroy them. It starts with Lydia, beloved mother of the clan and magistrate of the court, who is dying. Lydia confesses in one of the diaries she's kept most of her life a deed so terrible and life altering that she realizes if her family reads it, the contents would forever change them. But she doesn't plan on that happening since she intends to destroy all of her diaries before the end arrives. Meanwhile, the rest of the MacBride family continues on with their lives: Her disfigured son, Felix, once a happy and handsome child, brings a mysterious woman into their midst. Sophie, the oldest daughter and mother of three boys and a baby girl, struggles with her once-perfect marriage to Will. And Tara, mother of the mixed-race teen, Jake, seems to finally be happy with her boyfriend, Matt, a surrogate father to Jake. Rowan, the former schoolmaster, mourns his wife but takes great joy in his grandkids. And the entire group comes together at the traditional family getaway near a remote village, where cellphones won't work and no electronics are allowed. It is there and in both Saxby and London that a tale of unreasonable, sustained hatred and revenge bubbles up, threatening to tear the happy family apart and leave them with a wound that will never heal. With writing so seductive and multiple voices that are pitch-perfect for the characters she's created, Kelly shows that she is a writer who doesn't need to keep repeating herself to stay in the game. A book that will consume the reader as fully as the bonfire set by the novel's characters.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176458183
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	02/09/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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