The Burning Air: A Novel

by Erin Kelly

Overview

“Erin Kelly is a seriously good writer, and this gripping novel is her best yet.” —Sophie Hannah, author of Kind of Cruel

A stand-out author of deeply atmospheric psychological thrillers, Erin Kelly is on her way to joining the bestselling ranks of Kate Atkinson and Barbara Vine. Until now, the MacBride family has led a cozy life of upper-class privilege: good looks; tuition-free education at the prestigious private school where their father, Rowan, is headmaster; an altruistic righteousness inherited from their mother, magistrate Lydia. But when the MacBrides gather for the first time since Lydia’s passing at their restored barn in the secluded countryside, the family discovers a stranger in their midst: a stranger who is convinced that Lydia was a murderer—and who has been plotting a spectacular revenge that may shatter their world forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143124528
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/25/2014
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.73(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Erin Kelly is a freelance journalist and the acclaimed author of The Poison Tree and The Dark Rose. She lives with her family in North London.

What People are Saying About This

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

Editorial Reviews

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

From the Publisher

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.)

Publishers Weekly

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.

Kirkus Reviews