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The Burning Air
Of course it was love for my children, love for my son, that caused me to act as I did. It was a lapse of judgement. If I could have foreseen the rippling aftershocks that followed I would have acted differently, but by the time I realised the extent of the consequences, it was too late.
The MacBrides have always gone to Far Barn in Devon for Bonfire Night, but this year everything is different. Lydia, the matriarch, is dead; Sophie, the eldest daughter, is desperately trying to repair a crumbling marriage; and Felix, the youngest of the family, has brought a girlfriend with him for the first time.
The girl, Kerry, seems odd in a way nobody can quite put their finger on - but when they leave her looking after Sophie's baby daughter, and return to find both Kerry and the baby gone, they are forced to ask themselves if they have allowed a cuckoo into their nest...
Gripping and chilling, with a killer twist, The Burning Air reaffirms Erin Kelly as one of Britain's foremost psychological thriller writers.
The MacBrides have always gone to Far Barn in Devon for Bonfire Night, but this year everything is different. Lydia, the matriarch, is dead; Sophie, the eldest daughter, is desperately trying to repair a crumbling marriage; and Felix, the youngest of the family, has brought a girlfriend with him for the first time.
The girl, Kerry, seems odd in a way nobody can quite put their finger on - but when they leave her looking after Sophie's baby daughter, and return to find both Kerry and the baby gone, they are forced to ask themselves if they have allowed a cuckoo into their nest...
Gripping and chilling, with a killer twist, The Burning Air reaffirms Erin Kelly as one of Britain's foremost psychological thriller writers.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
302 people are currently reading
12089 people want to read
About the author
Erin Kelly
53 books1,609 followersErin Kelly was born in London in 1976 and grew up in Essex. She read English at Warwick University and has been working as a journalist since 1998.
She has written for newspapers including the The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the Express and magazines including Red, Psychologies, Marie Claire, Elle and Cosmopolitan.
She has written for newspapers including the The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the Express and magazines including Red, Psychologies, Marie Claire, Elle and Cosmopolitan.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 633 reviews
May 30, 2020
erin kelly can always be counted on for a well-executed thriller to while away a rainy evening.
and this one is her best yet. honestly, i didn't even bother reading the netgalley synopsis; i just saw she had a new book and clicked "gimmie" automatically. i don't have the same urgency to read her books the way i do with tana french, but i've enjoyed everything i've read and i expected to spend another quiet-evening-diversion with her new book.
which it is that, but this time, she's got some tricks up her sleeve!
this book is more ambitious structurally than her earlier work: it is multi-narrative, there are time shifts, the second chapter in particular is very carefully written and towards the end it will whisper, "oh, by the way, BAM!" which actually made me stop and blink for a few minutes, wondering if i was just a poor reader, or if i had been tricked. conclusion: tricked. and after that moment, it just keeps doling out the surprise sucker-punches.
and i am going to tiptoe my way through this review so as not to ruin that experience for any of you.
the story revolves around the macbrides, an english upper middle class family consisting of two parents, three adult siblings, their partners, and like a billion kids. and a baby.
and on the one hand, they seem like an all right family; they definitely care deeply for one another, but there is something almost off-putting in their privilege, in their smugness, in the way they view the world. they aren't a perfect charmed family; they have had their share of problems (especially poor felix. dana, this book is not for you), but every so often there will be a comment made that shows how little they understand about "how life is for other people," so when things start to go horribly wrong for them, there is a little schadenfreude for the reader, which i always feel a little guilty for when it happens, but there it is.
i am going to borrow a word from blair's review that i have never myself used, but it is the perfect word: "cosseted." the macbrides are cosseted. and this makes them unprepared for what happens to them when the unforeseen consequences of their actions come to haunt them. and it is spectacular.
in the role of antagonist-to-macbrides, we have darcy, a character so poisoned by a mother's needs and expectations and finely-tuned sense of justice that all that remains is a blazing intellect and a tunnel-vision vengeance-fueled need to destroy the macbrides.
also, kerry. felix's new (and first) girlfriend with a shattered past looking to find some relief from her own troubles.
all of these characters will gather together after the death of the matriarch in a country house in england to celebrate tar barrels day and spread lydia's ashes.
but oh so much more will happen.
this book was much more than the diversion i was expecting. it is a very tightly-written thriller with fantastic psychological depth and moral ambiguity. there is a lot to admire here.
for example.
this is a serious spoiler(i mean it this time), but i really need to applaud the irony of
also (and i mean it) it just highlights how tenuous their situation is, and i thought that was really well-handled. where humor usually is a relief from tension, this served to actually enhance the tension. very nicely done.
definitely a book to watch for, when it does come out. i look forward to reading her next one, because i think she has really tapped into something wonderful here, and will be one of those writers, like tana french and gillian flynn, who just keeps getting better and better with each book.
come to my blog!
and this one is her best yet. honestly, i didn't even bother reading the netgalley synopsis; i just saw she had a new book and clicked "gimmie" automatically. i don't have the same urgency to read her books the way i do with tana french, but i've enjoyed everything i've read and i expected to spend another quiet-evening-diversion with her new book.
which it is that, but this time, she's got some tricks up her sleeve!
this book is more ambitious structurally than her earlier work: it is multi-narrative, there are time shifts, the second chapter in particular is very carefully written and towards the end it will whisper, "oh, by the way, BAM!" which actually made me stop and blink for a few minutes, wondering if i was just a poor reader, or if i had been tricked. conclusion: tricked. and after that moment, it just keeps doling out the surprise sucker-punches.
and i am going to tiptoe my way through this review so as not to ruin that experience for any of you.
the story revolves around the macbrides, an english upper middle class family consisting of two parents, three adult siblings, their partners, and like a billion kids. and a baby.
and on the one hand, they seem like an all right family; they definitely care deeply for one another, but there is something almost off-putting in their privilege, in their smugness, in the way they view the world. they aren't a perfect charmed family; they have had their share of problems (especially poor felix. dana, this book is not for you), but every so often there will be a comment made that shows how little they understand about "how life is for other people," so when things start to go horribly wrong for them, there is a little schadenfreude for the reader, which i always feel a little guilty for when it happens, but there it is.
i am going to borrow a word from blair's review that i have never myself used, but it is the perfect word: "cosseted." the macbrides are cosseted. and this makes them unprepared for what happens to them when the unforeseen consequences of their actions come to haunt them. and it is spectacular.
in the role of antagonist-to-macbrides, we have darcy, a character so poisoned by a mother's needs and expectations and finely-tuned sense of justice that all that remains is a blazing intellect and a tunnel-vision vengeance-fueled need to destroy the macbrides.
also, kerry. felix's new (and first) girlfriend with a shattered past looking to find some relief from her own troubles.
all of these characters will gather together after the death of the matriarch in a country house in england to celebrate tar barrels day and spread lydia's ashes.
but oh so much more will happen.
this book was much more than the diversion i was expecting. it is a very tightly-written thriller with fantastic psychological depth and moral ambiguity. there is a lot to admire here.
for example.
this is a serious spoiler(i mean it this time), but i really need to applaud the irony of
also (and i mean it) it just highlights how tenuous their situation is, and i thought that was really well-handled. where humor usually is a relief from tension, this served to actually enhance the tension. very nicely done.
definitely a book to watch for, when it does come out. i look forward to reading her next one, because i think she has really tapped into something wonderful here, and will be one of those writers, like tana french and gillian flynn, who just keeps getting better and better with each book.
come to my blog!
April 22, 2013
The Burning Air is a Viking Adult publication with a Feb. 2013 release date.
Often I have found that novels promoted as psychological thrillers really don't fall into that genre. Many times they are just mysteries or thrillers with a darker edge to them, but in the case of The Burning Air by Erin Kelly, the description of psychological thriller is dead on.
Rowan and Lydia have an idealic life. They have a good marriage, three healthy children, great careers, a nice house. But, when Rowan, a head master at a prestigious school is targeted by an obsessed mother and son over the rejection of a scholorship, the family finds their lives being scripted for them by a clever villian bent on revenge.
Writing a review for this book is like walking through a land mine. I don't want to give away anything, so let's just say that this book has many twist and turns.
Lydia is dying of cancer. We learn that she has kept journals for her entire married life and that mixed into the mundane everyday musings are some terribly dark secrets. When Lydia passes away, the family gathers for a traditional bonfire with their father. Over this weekend, the long buried secrets that tormented Lydia threaten to come to light. Circumstances will bring this family together and bond them forever as they face an enemy and deal with life and death situations they never saw coming.
For me, psychological suspense by definition is dark, twisty, and taut. Believe me, this book is all of those things. But, it is also the story of the strength of family. In the end we are left with the feeling that all those who remain will now be completely free from the past and will move forward with the help and love of one another.
The book was well written, well plotted and utterly absorbing. Highly recommend! Thanks to Netgalley and Viking publishing for the ARC
Often I have found that novels promoted as psychological thrillers really don't fall into that genre. Many times they are just mysteries or thrillers with a darker edge to them, but in the case of The Burning Air by Erin Kelly, the description of psychological thriller is dead on.
Rowan and Lydia have an idealic life. They have a good marriage, three healthy children, great careers, a nice house. But, when Rowan, a head master at a prestigious school is targeted by an obsessed mother and son over the rejection of a scholorship, the family finds their lives being scripted for them by a clever villian bent on revenge.
Writing a review for this book is like walking through a land mine. I don't want to give away anything, so let's just say that this book has many twist and turns.
Lydia is dying of cancer. We learn that she has kept journals for her entire married life and that mixed into the mundane everyday musings are some terribly dark secrets. When Lydia passes away, the family gathers for a traditional bonfire with their father. Over this weekend, the long buried secrets that tormented Lydia threaten to come to light. Circumstances will bring this family together and bond them forever as they face an enemy and deal with life and death situations they never saw coming.
For me, psychological suspense by definition is dark, twisty, and taut. Believe me, this book is all of those things. But, it is also the story of the strength of family. In the end we are left with the feeling that all those who remain will now be completely free from the past and will move forward with the help and love of one another.
The book was well written, well plotted and utterly absorbing. Highly recommend! Thanks to Netgalley and Viking publishing for the ARC
February 7, 2017
Underestimate this dark and extremely disturbing psychological thriller at your peril for its sinks its claws in and proves compelling, largely for the damaged narrators offering their individual perspectives and the sheer number of times that the author wrong-foots her readership. Punctuated by a series of unexpected revelations, the story grows steadily darker and demands the audiences attention, despite how implausible some of the supposed twists become. Sowing the seeds for the impending thriller element, dying matriarch Lydia MacBride, JP and recent MBE, leaves unspoken the extent of her "lapse of judgement", excused by her fierce loyalty and love for her children. Planning to destroy her diaries prior to her impending demise, she mourns her past actions, tentatively speculating on how much harm their discovery by her family would cost the cherished sanity and security of the MacBride clan. I guarantee Lydia's secret won't be any of the innumerable scenarios that readers contemplate.
Fast-forward one year and the depleted MacBride family reunite for what has become an annual familial institution, a Bonfire Night gathering at the secluded Far Barn in Devon, purportedly with the intention of scattering Lydia's ashes and attending the Tar Barrels festival. Turning to eldest daughter, Sophie, to portray their battle scars and deliver the narrative recounting the fallout from her mother's death as they converge on the barn, her anxiety is already raised. Father Rowan, long-respected as the headteacher of Saxby Cathedral school, the bastion of privileged education that his siblings have all graduated from, is a changed man. Now retired and in the thrall of loneliness, Rowan is no longer the routinely sober man he once was. Attempting to disguise a disintegrating marriage of her own, eldest daughter Sophie, with her own history of erratic behaviour, rushes to her father's side. Her own entente cordiale with unfaithful husband Will, father to her four children hangs by a delicate thread. Single mother and middle-child Tara seems happily contented with lover Matt and mixed-race son, Jake, by her side. As the sisters speculate on the first girlfriend that twenty-nine-year old baby of the family, Felix, is introducing them to, they are unprepared for the enigmatic Kerry, reluctant to be drawn into conversation and permeating a strange atmosphere among the tight knit MacBride bubble. Immediately feeling protective of their fragile younger brother with his facial disfigurement they are concerned at the beguiling beauty of the self-contained intruder. Clearly enamoured by Kerry, the sisters are suspicious about her potentially breaking Felix's heart. When Sophie returns to the barn after being coaxed into an evening out, leaving her newborn daughter in the care of Kerry, only to find no sign of their presence, the tension is palpable. It takes Sophie and Rowan stumbling across a blast from the past and encountering a surname that is forever etched on their hearts and minds to realise just what kind of a nightmare scenario they have fallen prey to.
Whilst the action is set over the weekend of Bonfire Night 2013 and a family reunion it then winds the clock back to 1996, introducing Darcy Kellaway and the point at which two families became entwined and young Darcy established an enmity and contempt for the inbred confidence of a privileged MacBride clan. Passing the baton of the narration through the hands of four very different voices, Erin Kelly delivers an exquisite illustration of a righting of an imagined wrong. Thought-provoking and horrifying in equal measure, the well constructed characters deliver a stunning performance of revenge in extremis. Much of Darcy's fierce hatred stems from an intensely close relationship with mentally unstable mother, Heather Kellaway, who ignites the initial flames of a long held loathing.
The Burning Air is a taut psychological thriller which simmers along and what begins as tit for tat retribution builds into something altogether more destructive. Whilst I did groan at the cliffhanger twist delivered at the halfway point, something that my own assumptions lured me into, it did prove a turning point in the novel. The Burning Air was looking like a four star read until halfway but what tipped it into five star territory was how Erin Kelly handled the bombshell discovery when the novel could have lost credibility, but instead she depicts an exhibition of a malicious vendetta and a promise to fulfil the dying wish of a delusional woman. But can a mother be held accountable for their adult offsprings actions anymore than a mother be culpable for the unforeseen repercussions of her interventions? Surely going down that road is the path to madness and one finding excuses for and justifications for every misdemeanour. It is hard to hoist either matriarch on their own petard, one in the grip of a delusional psychosis, her body under increasing physical strain from the effects of anorexia nervosa and her mind a prisoner to the condition, and the other with the best intentions. Two families, inextricably linked by one event having occurred seventeen-years previously shows how a pathological desire to avenge a mother's death can prove the destruction of both families.
This is my first read by Erin Kelly and it was not the jaw-dropping twist of halfway through that impressed me; rather the nurturing of an antipathy and loathing that proved the destruction of predator and prey, forcing the family to cross a border and begin a new chapter in their family history, not of their own violation but one that is forced upon them by an irrational contempt. Whether the MacBride family were an innocent party or worthy of their fate is for the reader to decide, but with the primal instinct of a mother being to close ranks and protect their own, it is hard to damn Lydia MacBride. Despite the unlikelihood of anyone exacting such a destructive retribution so successfully as evinced in The Burning Air, it doesn't make it any less compelling. A dark psychological thriller where the staggered revelations keep suspense at an optimum and the carefully orchestrated plan for retribution unfolds with the MacBride family uniting to mourn their emotional strongest member in the form of matriarch Lydia. For a story awash with firecrackers throughout, the secluded barn in winter setting adds an eerie backdrop for the revenge that has waited two generations. If ever there is a novel which is ripe for a sequel bringing readers up to date with the multi-generational family is is surely this gem? A truly recommended read.
Fast-forward one year and the depleted MacBride family reunite for what has become an annual familial institution, a Bonfire Night gathering at the secluded Far Barn in Devon, purportedly with the intention of scattering Lydia's ashes and attending the Tar Barrels festival. Turning to eldest daughter, Sophie, to portray their battle scars and deliver the narrative recounting the fallout from her mother's death as they converge on the barn, her anxiety is already raised. Father Rowan, long-respected as the headteacher of Saxby Cathedral school, the bastion of privileged education that his siblings have all graduated from, is a changed man. Now retired and in the thrall of loneliness, Rowan is no longer the routinely sober man he once was. Attempting to disguise a disintegrating marriage of her own, eldest daughter Sophie, with her own history of erratic behaviour, rushes to her father's side. Her own entente cordiale with unfaithful husband Will, father to her four children hangs by a delicate thread. Single mother and middle-child Tara seems happily contented with lover Matt and mixed-race son, Jake, by her side. As the sisters speculate on the first girlfriend that twenty-nine-year old baby of the family, Felix, is introducing them to, they are unprepared for the enigmatic Kerry, reluctant to be drawn into conversation and permeating a strange atmosphere among the tight knit MacBride bubble. Immediately feeling protective of their fragile younger brother with his facial disfigurement they are concerned at the beguiling beauty of the self-contained intruder. Clearly enamoured by Kerry, the sisters are suspicious about her potentially breaking Felix's heart. When Sophie returns to the barn after being coaxed into an evening out, leaving her newborn daughter in the care of Kerry, only to find no sign of their presence, the tension is palpable. It takes Sophie and Rowan stumbling across a blast from the past and encountering a surname that is forever etched on their hearts and minds to realise just what kind of a nightmare scenario they have fallen prey to.
Whilst the action is set over the weekend of Bonfire Night 2013 and a family reunion it then winds the clock back to 1996, introducing Darcy Kellaway and the point at which two families became entwined and young Darcy established an enmity and contempt for the inbred confidence of a privileged MacBride clan. Passing the baton of the narration through the hands of four very different voices, Erin Kelly delivers an exquisite illustration of a righting of an imagined wrong. Thought-provoking and horrifying in equal measure, the well constructed characters deliver a stunning performance of revenge in extremis. Much of Darcy's fierce hatred stems from an intensely close relationship with mentally unstable mother, Heather Kellaway, who ignites the initial flames of a long held loathing.
The Burning Air is a taut psychological thriller which simmers along and what begins as tit for tat retribution builds into something altogether more destructive. Whilst I did groan at the cliffhanger twist delivered at the halfway point, something that my own assumptions lured me into, it did prove a turning point in the novel. The Burning Air was looking like a four star read until halfway but what tipped it into five star territory was how Erin Kelly handled the bombshell discovery when the novel could have lost credibility, but instead she depicts an exhibition of a malicious vendetta and a promise to fulfil the dying wish of a delusional woman. But can a mother be held accountable for their adult offsprings actions anymore than a mother be culpable for the unforeseen repercussions of her interventions? Surely going down that road is the path to madness and one finding excuses for and justifications for every misdemeanour. It is hard to hoist either matriarch on their own petard, one in the grip of a delusional psychosis, her body under increasing physical strain from the effects of anorexia nervosa and her mind a prisoner to the condition, and the other with the best intentions. Two families, inextricably linked by one event having occurred seventeen-years previously shows how a pathological desire to avenge a mother's death can prove the destruction of both families.
This is my first read by Erin Kelly and it was not the jaw-dropping twist of halfway through that impressed me; rather the nurturing of an antipathy and loathing that proved the destruction of predator and prey, forcing the family to cross a border and begin a new chapter in their family history, not of their own violation but one that is forced upon them by an irrational contempt. Whether the MacBride family were an innocent party or worthy of their fate is for the reader to decide, but with the primal instinct of a mother being to close ranks and protect their own, it is hard to damn Lydia MacBride. Despite the unlikelihood of anyone exacting such a destructive retribution so successfully as evinced in The Burning Air, it doesn't make it any less compelling. A dark psychological thriller where the staggered revelations keep suspense at an optimum and the carefully orchestrated plan for retribution unfolds with the MacBride family uniting to mourn their emotional strongest member in the form of matriarch Lydia. For a story awash with firecrackers throughout, the secluded barn in winter setting adds an eerie backdrop for the revenge that has waited two generations. If ever there is a novel which is ripe for a sequel bringing readers up to date with the multi-generational family is is surely this gem? A truly recommended read.
February 22, 2017
To fully enjoy this book, I think it's best if you dive right in without knowing or reading too much about it beforehand so my review will be brief and slightly vague.
The Burning Air is a psychological mystery that tells the dark, twisted tale of obsession, delusion, entitlement, narcissism and revenge all centered around the privileged MacBride family in modern day England.
The plot is narrated by 4 different characters so the reader experiences the story from each of their unique perspectives. We get to know their personality, past experiences and motivation in life which fills in the holes as the story progresses. By the end of the book, we get a multifaceted, complex narrative from several points of view. The narrative structure felt unique to me and it made this book more interesting than your typical mystery thriller novel.
My only small complaint with this book was that the background story of one narrator, Darcy, went on for a little bit too long for my tastes.
The Burning Air is a psychological mystery that tells the dark, twisted tale of obsession, delusion, entitlement, narcissism and revenge all centered around the privileged MacBride family in modern day England.
The plot is narrated by 4 different characters so the reader experiences the story from each of their unique perspectives. We get to know their personality, past experiences and motivation in life which fills in the holes as the story progresses. By the end of the book, we get a multifaceted, complex narrative from several points of view. The narrative structure felt unique to me and it made this book more interesting than your typical mystery thriller novel.
My only small complaint with this book was that the background story of one narrator, Darcy, went on for a little bit too long for my tastes.
September 11, 2016
This was not a bad book. It held my interest, that's for sure. I wanted to know what Lydia had written in her diary. Darcy intrigued me, even after the author duped me regarding . The only conclusion I can draw is that Darcy is mentally ill, functional yes, but completely obsessed for years with the McBride family. What did the McBrides do? I think they just lived their lives until they were put into danger. Did their true colors show then? Eh, so the story was a little contrived, but I enjoyed it anyway.
February 9, 2019
The Burning Air by Erin Kelly for some people I think it would be a great family drama / psychological thriller but it just didn't work for me it was almost a dnf but I felt I needed to keep going ,I've read a few books similar so I found it a bit predictable there was a moment of 'WHAT' which I never would of guessed.
But I would still recommend you to read it and see if you enjoy it because not every book is for everyone.
But I would still recommend you to read it and see if you enjoy it because not every book is for everyone.
June 20, 2018
minor spoilers ahead
*UPDATE JUNE 2018* - I’m lowering my rating down to a 1-Star, because I was just reminded of this book and how much I loathe it still.
The moment I finished this book, I grunted in frustration and cast it aside.
The progression of my feelings towards this particular novel from start to finish are as follows: curiosity > boredom > severe boredom > mild surprise > short-lived excitement > anger > annoyance > extreme annoyance > complete and utter disinterest.
Throughout the entirety of The Burning Air, I absolutely hated the MacBride family. Why, you may ask? Well, for starters, they are nothing more than an uppity, entitled, privileged brood. It may not appear that way to most, but to me, their every move made me dislike them. No matter what the circumstance, their societal caste remained intact. Sure, they had a few setbacks and familial issues, but the fact remains that they still managed to be raised in a wealthy, connected family, wherein everything they did had zero legal repurcussions. The Saxby police officer, a minor side character, pissed me off the most in his interactions with the family and Darcy. I mean, it was clearly a horrible thing done to one of their own, but to have the police force disregard the law and make lame excuses for the family's misgivings was absurd. To ignore the pleas of a child, and take the word of a family with a grudge, is just badbadbad. No officer of the law with a moral compass would ever be as spiteful and disinclined to pursue all avenues of a case (no matter what the offending party had or hadn't done in the past).
Privilege. It's a sore spot for me. I don't want to come off as bitter and resentful towards people with money and of higher standing, but here is a cut-and-dry example of one in which they pretty much get away with everything. And that, even though there were worse offenders in this novel, the MacBride family is portrayed as the victims; the ones we're suposed to root for and sympathize with. Yeah, no. Rowan is a prideful bastard who shows a complete lack of remorse for ruining a child's life (and one he knew had a horrible upbringing), and tries to justify it in the weakest of ways. Lydia, the matriarch, all her actions were excused as a mother's love for her children. Bullshit. Sophie was a blubbering, neurotic mess. Tara and Felix, as portrayed when they were children, typical kids of well-to-do families. Albeit, from Darcy's perspective; they really did come off as entitled little shits. Screw the whole condescending lot of 'em! And Will, Sophie's husband... how he managed to practically walk away unscathed after , and still have her willing to stay with him is ridiculous. Also, their young children were annoying as all Hell.
There was a moment, when Darcy was revealed for who they were, that I thought the book was finally turning in the right direction. And it did... for a short while, that is. I was pretty excited beginning that road to revenge, but then that, too, fell away once their actions became more sinister.
My thoughts are disjointed, because my mind is currently swirling with anger and frustration. I'll leave off on this, but it's a spoiler, so I'll use the appropriate tags -
*UPDATE JUNE 2018* - I’m lowering my rating down to a 1-Star, because I was just reminded of this book and how much I loathe it still.
The moment I finished this book, I grunted in frustration and cast it aside.
The progression of my feelings towards this particular novel from start to finish are as follows: curiosity > boredom > severe boredom > mild surprise > short-lived excitement > anger > annoyance > extreme annoyance > complete and utter disinterest.
Throughout the entirety of The Burning Air, I absolutely hated the MacBride family. Why, you may ask? Well, for starters, they are nothing more than an uppity, entitled, privileged brood. It may not appear that way to most, but to me, their every move made me dislike them. No matter what the circumstance, their societal caste remained intact. Sure, they had a few setbacks and familial issues, but the fact remains that they still managed to be raised in a wealthy, connected family, wherein everything they did had zero legal repurcussions. The Saxby police officer, a minor side character, pissed me off the most in his interactions with the family and Darcy. I mean, it was clearly a horrible thing done to one of their own, but to have the police force disregard the law and make lame excuses for the family's misgivings was absurd. To ignore the pleas of a child, and take the word of a family with a grudge, is just badbadbad. No officer of the law with a moral compass would ever be as spiteful and disinclined to pursue all avenues of a case (no matter what the offending party had or hadn't done in the past).
Privilege. It's a sore spot for me. I don't want to come off as bitter and resentful towards people with money and of higher standing, but here is a cut-and-dry example of one in which they pretty much get away with everything. And that, even though there were worse offenders in this novel, the MacBride family is portrayed as the victims; the ones we're suposed to root for and sympathize with. Yeah, no. Rowan is a prideful bastard who shows a complete lack of remorse for ruining a child's life (and one he knew had a horrible upbringing), and tries to justify it in the weakest of ways. Lydia, the matriarch, all her actions were excused as a mother's love for her children. Bullshit. Sophie was a blubbering, neurotic mess. Tara and Felix, as portrayed when they were children, typical kids of well-to-do families. Albeit, from Darcy's perspective; they really did come off as entitled little shits. Screw the whole condescending lot of 'em! And Will, Sophie's husband... how he managed to practically walk away unscathed after , and still have her willing to stay with him is ridiculous. Also, their young children were annoying as all Hell.
There was a moment, when Darcy was revealed for who they were, that I thought the book was finally turning in the right direction. And it did... for a short while, that is. I was pretty excited beginning that road to revenge, but then that, too, fell away once their actions became more sinister.
My thoughts are disjointed, because my mind is currently swirling with anger and frustration. I'll leave off on this, but it's a spoiler, so I'll use the appropriate tags -
March 26, 2020
3.5 stars
This is a family drama / mystery thriller that I enjoyed listening to.
I like the setting (English countryside) and the story is good. I found the first part of the book a bit boring and uninspired but it is worth sticking with it because the POV changes which completely alters the tone/focus of the story.
Some of the characters have limited development but I suppose it doesn't matter as much where the plot is strong...although that is the difference for me between a good and a great book.
The main character is good because they are fully explored but everyone else suffers a bit because we only know them as generic characters and altogether this took a little bit away from my enjoyment.
Still a good one to get lost in.
This is a family drama / mystery thriller that I enjoyed listening to.
I like the setting (English countryside) and the story is good. I found the first part of the book a bit boring and uninspired but it is worth sticking with it because the POV changes which completely alters the tone/focus of the story.
Some of the characters have limited development but I suppose it doesn't matter as much where the plot is strong...although that is the difference for me between a good and a great book.
The main character is good because they are fully explored but everyone else suffers a bit because we only know them as generic characters and altogether this took a little bit away from my enjoyment.
Still a good one to get lost in.
August 23, 2014
Erin Kelly's debut, The Poison Tree, focused on a single character: her follow-up, The Sick Rose, had two protagonists. With her third novel, she broadens the scope again with a story revolving around a whole family - grandparents, three siblings, their partners and children. The book begins as Lydia, the matriarch of the MacBrides, is dying: the story then flashes forward by just under a year as the remainder of the family gathers together to scatter her ashes. It's Bonfire Night, a traditional time for the clan to come together at their sprawling farm in the depths of the Devonshire countryside, but this time, there's a newcomer: Felix, the youngest sibling, has brought his girlfriend Kerry. She is breathtakingly beautiful and a natural with the children, but eldest daughter Sophie - already struggling to cope with the repercussions of her husband's infidelity - instinctively senses something odd about her...
I have to admit that although I have really enjoyed Kelly's previous books, I had problems adjusting to The Burning Air at first. Apart from the fact that I'm generally dubious about family stories (too much stuff about children and parenting), I was put off by how thoroughly upper-middle-class, spoilt and privileged the MacBrides seemed to be - to the point that ! I found the family difficult to relate to, but I also couldn't help suspecting that the MacBrides' privilege was probably, in some way, going to end up being their downfall.
I was right about that, but not in any way I really expected.
After Kerry disappears with Sophie's baby daughter (this is not a spoiler - it's made clear in the tagline on the cover and is mentioned in the blurb!) the story takes an unexpected turn, jumping back seventeen years. We then get to see how the characters have come to be where they are now, and how Kerry's past intersects with the MacBrides' history. I was hooked from about chapter seven onwards, and raced through the book (biting all my nails, which I've spent weeks carefully growing), dying to know what twists the plot would bring. There were quite a few 'OMG' moments, and one revelation was so unexpected that it left me reeling and my mind whirring - I was tempted to go back to the beginning and read the story so far all over again!
I had mixed feelings about the climax and conclusion of the book.
I read a lot of books like this because I have a weakness for twisty psychological thrillers, but I'm often left frustrated by poor writing and characterisation or predictable plot points. Suffice to say, Erin Kelly's novels are a cut above the rest of the genre and The Burning Air shows how she's progressed - it is expertly plotted, where the plotting let her earlier books down a little. It probably isn't my personal favourite of her books simply because I found the atmosphere of The Poison Tree so nostalgic and magical, but in terms of structure, pacing and sheer unpredictability it is definitely her best yet. Did you enjoy Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl last year? Then you may want to give this one a try.
I have to admit that although I have really enjoyed Kelly's previous books, I had problems adjusting to The Burning Air at first. Apart from the fact that I'm generally dubious about family stories (too much stuff about children and parenting), I was put off by how thoroughly upper-middle-class, spoilt and privileged the MacBrides seemed to be - to the point that ! I found the family difficult to relate to, but I also couldn't help suspecting that the MacBrides' privilege was probably, in some way, going to end up being their downfall.
I was right about that, but not in any way I really expected.
After Kerry disappears with Sophie's baby daughter (this is not a spoiler - it's made clear in the tagline on the cover and is mentioned in the blurb!) the story takes an unexpected turn, jumping back seventeen years. We then get to see how the characters have come to be where they are now, and how Kerry's past intersects with the MacBrides' history. I was hooked from about chapter seven onwards, and raced through the book (biting all my nails, which I've spent weeks carefully growing), dying to know what twists the plot would bring. There were quite a few 'OMG' moments, and one revelation was so unexpected that it left me reeling and my mind whirring - I was tempted to go back to the beginning and read the story so far all over again!
I had mixed feelings about the climax and conclusion of the book.
I read a lot of books like this because I have a weakness for twisty psychological thrillers, but I'm often left frustrated by poor writing and characterisation or predictable plot points. Suffice to say, Erin Kelly's novels are a cut above the rest of the genre and The Burning Air shows how she's progressed - it is expertly plotted, where the plotting let her earlier books down a little. It probably isn't my personal favourite of her books simply because I found the atmosphere of The Poison Tree so nostalgic and magical, but in terms of structure, pacing and sheer unpredictability it is definitely her best yet. Did you enjoy Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl last year? Then you may want to give this one a try.
November 15, 2015
A copy of The Burning Air was provided to me by Penguin Group (USA)/Edelweiss for review purposes.
'Of course it was love for my children, love for my son, that caused me to act as I did. It was a lapse of judgement. If I could have foreseen the rippling aftershocks that followed I would have acted differently, but by the time I realised the extent of the consequences, it was too late.'
The Burning Air tells the story of a privileged family, the MacBrides, and how one small decision changed their lives forever. The story opens with Lydia, the matriarch, in her final days of life looking back on past regrets and one in particular that altered life far more than she had ever thought possible.
It's funny, but this first came out in the UK and not only does it have a different cover but a completely different summary that, in my opinion, gives away far too much regarding the plot. I'm quite glad I didn't actually notice this until after I had finished reading and knew less going into this. It made it much more exciting (so stay away from those UK summaries!)
There is much that can be given away, so I will keep this brief. Erin Kelly can really write one twisted, sordid mystery. I actually had a hard time getting into this one at first, I believe because you're given information in huge chunks that doesn't make a single bit of sense at first until you continue reading and all the answers slowly unravel themselves. And once those answers slowly begin unraveling and you think you know what's going on, you're thrown for a loop, then you find yourself reading at break-neck speed because you have to know what's going on right now. I was completely captivated. To me, there's not a better book than one like this.
So why only 4 stars? Wellll.... I was looking for a different ending and was actually looking for 'evil' to trump 'good'. This family is the definition of prominent, however, even they have their sordid secrets and those secrets definitely had the effect of changing your opinion of them. This essentially caused questions as to which side to root for, since neither side is truly 'good'. The Burning Air is a highly convoluted yet fantastically written tale of family secrets and an obsession that changes their lives forever.
'Of course it was love for my children, love for my son, that caused me to act as I did. It was a lapse of judgement. If I could have foreseen the rippling aftershocks that followed I would have acted differently, but by the time I realised the extent of the consequences, it was too late.'
The Burning Air tells the story of a privileged family, the MacBrides, and how one small decision changed their lives forever. The story opens with Lydia, the matriarch, in her final days of life looking back on past regrets and one in particular that altered life far more than she had ever thought possible.
It's funny, but this first came out in the UK and not only does it have a different cover but a completely different summary that, in my opinion, gives away far too much regarding the plot. I'm quite glad I didn't actually notice this until after I had finished reading and knew less going into this. It made it much more exciting (so stay away from those UK summaries!)
There is much that can be given away, so I will keep this brief. Erin Kelly can really write one twisted, sordid mystery. I actually had a hard time getting into this one at first, I believe because you're given information in huge chunks that doesn't make a single bit of sense at first until you continue reading and all the answers slowly unravel themselves. And once those answers slowly begin unraveling and you think you know what's going on, you're thrown for a loop, then you find yourself reading at break-neck speed because you have to know what's going on right now. I was completely captivated. To me, there's not a better book than one like this.
So why only 4 stars? Wellll.... I was looking for a different ending and was actually looking for 'evil' to trump 'good'. This family is the definition of prominent, however, even they have their sordid secrets and those secrets definitely had the effect of changing your opinion of them. This essentially caused questions as to which side to root for, since neither side is truly 'good'. The Burning Air is a highly convoluted yet fantastically written tale of family secrets and an obsession that changes their lives forever.
January 30, 2013
This was a dark psychological tale of obsession.
You put amidst a envious and bitter person who won't let go of a past that they feel could have made their future so much better and as a reader you might find that not to be the case.
The story switched between narratives of various important characters in this story.
After the crime occurs in the beginning of the story you are then taken back in the unraveling of the whys of it and how insidiously the plot was planned.
You feel eerily quite involved in this hunting down and destroying of souls but as the plan unfolds there are various possible outcomes and deadly consequences.
A gripping story that had me thoroughly immersed in its outcome.
http://more2read.com/review/the-burning-air-by-erin-kelly/
You put amidst a envious and bitter person who won't let go of a past that they feel could have made their future so much better and as a reader you might find that not to be the case.
The story switched between narratives of various important characters in this story.
After the crime occurs in the beginning of the story you are then taken back in the unraveling of the whys of it and how insidiously the plot was planned.
You feel eerily quite involved in this hunting down and destroying of souls but as the plan unfolds there are various possible outcomes and deadly consequences.
A gripping story that had me thoroughly immersed in its outcome.
http://more2read.com/review/the-burning-air-by-erin-kelly/
February 9, 2013
A taut and suspenseful tale that will keep you hooked from the outset, ‘The Burning Air’ is the latest psychological thriller from Erin Kelly (‘The Poison Tree’, ‘The Sick Rose’). Revolving around the MacBride family, Kelly weaves a story full of surprises and reveals, that consistently wrongfoot the reader, as the sins of the past come knocking at the door…
I am not going to dwell on the plot too much as that would entirely spoil the cleverly placed reveals that drive the central narrative. As a family gathers to mark the death of their mother and tensions are revealed within their relationships, Kelly then skilfully takes us back to the seemingly inocuous events of seventeen years previously, and how the desire for retribution for these aforementioned events, burns strongly in the psyche of a disturbed individual with devastating results. By using this parallel timeline and overlapping narratives and viewpoints of the MacBride family members, Kelly twists our perceptions of each character and it quickly becomes obvious that someone within the group is not all that they appear to be and there are dark surprises in store. This plot device works exceptionally well, and personally I found that it was very difficult to put the book down because as each individual narrative came into play a little more of the story unfolded, driving me on to discover just what was going to happen.
With the contrasting characters of the resolutely middle class family members, interesting tensions arose, particularly amongst the siblings and their partners, all under the stoical gaze of the patriarchal figure of Rowan MacBride who himself discovers some unpleasant truths about his late wife as the story progresses. All the characters are exceptionally well drawn and believable, from the interactions between parents and children, be they young or adult, and the different dimensions to the interplay between the MacBride siblings, Sophie, Tara and the unfortunate Felix. Without a doubt, the most intriguing and mesmeric character is Darcy, whose own personal experience and perceived slights by the MacBrides, is the most complex character to understand, and cleverly your sense of empathy to and disgust towards waxes and wanes as the plot develops. From Darcy’s unfortunate and frankly bizarre upbringing, Kelly consistently manipulates our feelings towards this character and their desire for revenge, whilst highlighting Darcy’s intelligence in the way that this seeking of retribution is planned and carried out. Darcy much put me in mind of one of the quintessential dark, disturbed characters of Ruth Rendell’s psychological thrillers, namely an individual utterly in the power of a controlling parent and highlighting the dangers of misguided nurture over nature.
As with ‘The Poison Tree’ that successfully made the leap from page to screen in a TV dramatisation, I think that ‘The Burning Air’ could achieve the same. Kelly carefully renders the sense of place and location throughout the book as the action circles between the town of Saxby, during the MacBride children’s formative years, and then to the rural setting of Far Barn in Devon and the sense of isolation that plays such an important role in the book as the tension and danger mount. This description of setting along with the nifty plotting and solid characterisation all added to my overall enjoyment of the book, and if you enjoy a dark, psychological tale with a clever surprise or two, this is definitely worth seeking out.
I am not going to dwell on the plot too much as that would entirely spoil the cleverly placed reveals that drive the central narrative. As a family gathers to mark the death of their mother and tensions are revealed within their relationships, Kelly then skilfully takes us back to the seemingly inocuous events of seventeen years previously, and how the desire for retribution for these aforementioned events, burns strongly in the psyche of a disturbed individual with devastating results. By using this parallel timeline and overlapping narratives and viewpoints of the MacBride family members, Kelly twists our perceptions of each character and it quickly becomes obvious that someone within the group is not all that they appear to be and there are dark surprises in store. This plot device works exceptionally well, and personally I found that it was very difficult to put the book down because as each individual narrative came into play a little more of the story unfolded, driving me on to discover just what was going to happen.
With the contrasting characters of the resolutely middle class family members, interesting tensions arose, particularly amongst the siblings and their partners, all under the stoical gaze of the patriarchal figure of Rowan MacBride who himself discovers some unpleasant truths about his late wife as the story progresses. All the characters are exceptionally well drawn and believable, from the interactions between parents and children, be they young or adult, and the different dimensions to the interplay between the MacBride siblings, Sophie, Tara and the unfortunate Felix. Without a doubt, the most intriguing and mesmeric character is Darcy, whose own personal experience and perceived slights by the MacBrides, is the most complex character to understand, and cleverly your sense of empathy to and disgust towards waxes and wanes as the plot develops. From Darcy’s unfortunate and frankly bizarre upbringing, Kelly consistently manipulates our feelings towards this character and their desire for revenge, whilst highlighting Darcy’s intelligence in the way that this seeking of retribution is planned and carried out. Darcy much put me in mind of one of the quintessential dark, disturbed characters of Ruth Rendell’s psychological thrillers, namely an individual utterly in the power of a controlling parent and highlighting the dangers of misguided nurture over nature.
As with ‘The Poison Tree’ that successfully made the leap from page to screen in a TV dramatisation, I think that ‘The Burning Air’ could achieve the same. Kelly carefully renders the sense of place and location throughout the book as the action circles between the town of Saxby, during the MacBride children’s formative years, and then to the rural setting of Far Barn in Devon and the sense of isolation that plays such an important role in the book as the tension and danger mount. This description of setting along with the nifty plotting and solid characterisation all added to my overall enjoyment of the book, and if you enjoy a dark, psychological tale with a clever surprise or two, this is definitely worth seeking out.
October 21, 2013
Lydia opens her diary, picks up her pen and prepares to commit her sins to its pages. Overwhelmed by her illness she finishes her entry stating ‘A good mother loves fiercely but ultimately brings up her children to thrive without her. They must be the most important thing in her life, but if she is the most important thing in theirs, she has failed.’ These words underpin the rest of one of the darkest stories I have read.
Set over a weekend from 1st to 3rd November 2013 Lydia’s family get together at Far Barn in Saxby Devon to spread her ashes. Lydia’s husband Rowan, her adult children Sophie, Tara and Felix gather together along with an assortment of partners and offspring. Without a television or mobile signal and only a tape deck and record player for music being at Far Barn is like going back in time and that is without the family memories of former holidays. The scene is set for a claustrophobic weekend where the consequences of the past make themselves known. When Felix’s new girlfriend disappears with Sophie’s baby on bonfire night the secrets of the past come tumbling out with each character having a part to play in this well-crafted story.
This was a riveting read with carefully presented twists along the way. Erin Kelly showcases her talents as a master of plotting. The characters that inhabit the pages of this book were distinct and when revelations were made about them these assimilated with previous knowledge with no jarring at all.
This is right up there as one of the best books I have read this year; I’d go as far as to say Barbara Vine has a worthy rival.
Set over a weekend from 1st to 3rd November 2013 Lydia’s family get together at Far Barn in Saxby Devon to spread her ashes. Lydia’s husband Rowan, her adult children Sophie, Tara and Felix gather together along with an assortment of partners and offspring. Without a television or mobile signal and only a tape deck and record player for music being at Far Barn is like going back in time and that is without the family memories of former holidays. The scene is set for a claustrophobic weekend where the consequences of the past make themselves known. When Felix’s new girlfriend disappears with Sophie’s baby on bonfire night the secrets of the past come tumbling out with each character having a part to play in this well-crafted story.
This was a riveting read with carefully presented twists along the way. Erin Kelly showcases her talents as a master of plotting. The characters that inhabit the pages of this book were distinct and when revelations were made about them these assimilated with previous knowledge with no jarring at all.
This is right up there as one of the best books I have read this year; I’d go as far as to say Barbara Vine has a worthy rival.
April 22, 2013
I don't often read thriller stories. This one was definitely a page turner with pretty fast pace action (particularly after the first chapter) which kept me interested. I wanted to find out what's coming next but when the "secret" was revealed I was pretty disappointed as the secret turned out not to be that bad or original.
It's a bit hard to present a person who's obsessed with someone. I think Darcy's character was pretty well presented, the start of his obsession well described and believable. His languages and comments always void of human emotions (other than hatred), full of criticism towards everyone bar his mother.
I'm not sure if all MacBride family characters were that well painted as if Darcy took priority and they were to fit into his obsession. I'm not sure about Kerry's character. The twist at the end and her behaviour was surprising, I don't' think readers were prepared for this sudden change. It didn't come naturally out of her portraits presented by various characters in the book.
In the end the negative impact that Darcy has had on MacBrides is huge, messing badly the lives of all the children of Lydia and Rowan, scarring Jake for the rest of his life. Yet, it seems like that is somehow overshadowed in the book by some "secret" which, when revealed, makes you ask "was that all?"
It's a bit hard to present a person who's obsessed with someone. I think Darcy's character was pretty well presented, the start of his obsession well described and believable. His languages and comments always void of human emotions (other than hatred), full of criticism towards everyone bar his mother.
I'm not sure if all MacBride family characters were that well painted as if Darcy took priority and they were to fit into his obsession. I'm not sure about Kerry's character. The twist at the end and her behaviour was surprising, I don't' think readers were prepared for this sudden change. It didn't come naturally out of her portraits presented by various characters in the book.
In the end the negative impact that Darcy has had on MacBrides is huge, messing badly the lives of all the children of Lydia and Rowan, scarring Jake for the rest of his life. Yet, it seems like that is somehow overshadowed in the book by some "secret" which, when revealed, makes you ask "was that all?"
February 5, 2019
There is much to like about this novel, but the single-minded rage of a young man against a well-to-do family because of an academic issue seems to stretch out into ludicrous proportions. Darcy spends his life obsessing over and invading and manipulating their lives while they are, for the most part, insulated from it.
August 30, 2017
Don't read this review if you want absolutely no sense of a spoiler. There's no way I can state my primary problem with this book without some nuance for it.
Slow start that went super intense- that was a 4. But, for me anyway, after the bulk of the reveal to "who"- the rest became completely over the top. In some aspects, I don't think the eventual ending made sense. Or would it be possible as police were involved and they would never have let this "go" for the occurrence that they were told had occurred. The missing person would have been electronically and otherwise beyond any "secret" disappearance. As would the accomplice who is taking the proceeds of another at the ending.
Slow start that went super intense- that was a 4. But, for me anyway, after the bulk of the reveal to "who"- the rest became completely over the top. In some aspects, I don't think the eventual ending made sense. Or would it be possible as police were involved and they would never have let this "go" for the occurrence that they were told had occurred. The missing person would have been electronically and otherwise beyond any "secret" disappearance. As would the accomplice who is taking the proceeds of another at the ending.
March 14, 2017
Ah. A satisfying tale of a family in a horrific situation: the baby goes missing when all three generations are gathered together for a weekend in the country. Old secrets are brought to light, old issues revisited, tempers are frayed. This book easily packs enough tension for three or four others. This is what happens when you get the whole family together for a weekend without TV or cellphones.
Marvelous plotting, interesting and believable characters. I'll be reading more Kelly soon, I'm sure.
copy loaned by beloved MIL
Marvelous plotting, interesting and believable characters. I'll be reading more Kelly soon, I'm sure.
copy loaned by beloved MIL
September 7, 2014
The blurb seems to promise The Burning Air as a-child-is-missing thriller & to some extent it is, but primarily it is a revenge tragedy featuring two sets of characters. We have the McBride family: Rowan, the headmaster of a posh school in a cathedral city in the west of England, & his wife Lydia, a lay magistrate who as the book opens is dying of cancer. They have two daughters & a son, & assorted grandchildren who will play roles in the story too. Later we are introduced to the enemies of the McBride family, who have a longstanding grievance against the McBrides. I’ll call them the revenger, the revenger’s mother, & the revenger’s assistant. The revenger has had a very lonely childhood, home-schooled by an extremely eccentric & embittered mother, who believed that her child is brilliant & will have a distinguished academic career by winning a scholarship to this school. It has to be this school, lest mother be separated from her child during term.
Believing to have been a victim of bias & favouritism, the teen revenger launches a vendetta against the McBrides, a scheme perfected as an adult by acquiring a new identity & appearance, & recruiting a sidekick who’d been a defendant in Lydia’s court. This book marvellously portrays the corrosive effects of the monomaniacal pursuit of vengeance, with Lydia’s diaries serving as a kind of McGuffin or quest object, from which the revenger hopes to find a confession in Lydia’s own hand of having been denied the rightful prize.
I’ll not reveal how it all turns out but some of the results are highly ironic, yet, @ least in my eyes, pretty satisfactory. This would be a great choice for book-club discussion & I plan to nominate it for one I belong to. Various & sundry readers should come to quite different conclusions as to the degree of culpability exhibited by Rowan & Lydia McBride & to whether the ultimate fate of the revenger & some other characters is merited. Both the legal & moral issues Erin Kelly’s book raises are fascinating. One reason I love to read crime fiction lies in exploring the territory between legal fictions such guilt & innocence & the moral absolutes of right & wrong.
A few months ago I read JoJo Moyes’ The One Plus One - also a five-star but toto caelo different & opposed to The Burning Air. Yet their plots are similar, both based on a bright child of a single mum sitting a scholarship exam to get into an expensive school where they can hope to shine. Should you read these two books, you might want to ask which of them best portrays the world in which you believe you live. Your answer may well be enlightening.
Believing to have been a victim of bias & favouritism, the teen revenger launches a vendetta against the McBrides, a scheme perfected as an adult by acquiring a new identity & appearance, & recruiting a sidekick who’d been a defendant in Lydia’s court. This book marvellously portrays the corrosive effects of the monomaniacal pursuit of vengeance, with Lydia’s diaries serving as a kind of McGuffin or quest object, from which the revenger hopes to find a confession in Lydia’s own hand of having been denied the rightful prize.
I’ll not reveal how it all turns out but some of the results are highly ironic, yet, @ least in my eyes, pretty satisfactory. This would be a great choice for book-club discussion & I plan to nominate it for one I belong to. Various & sundry readers should come to quite different conclusions as to the degree of culpability exhibited by Rowan & Lydia McBride & to whether the ultimate fate of the revenger & some other characters is merited. Both the legal & moral issues Erin Kelly’s book raises are fascinating. One reason I love to read crime fiction lies in exploring the territory between legal fictions such guilt & innocence & the moral absolutes of right & wrong.
A few months ago I read JoJo Moyes’ The One Plus One - also a five-star but toto caelo different & opposed to The Burning Air. Yet their plots are similar, both based on a bright child of a single mum sitting a scholarship exam to get into an expensive school where they can hope to shine. Should you read these two books, you might want to ask which of them best portrays the world in which you believe you live. Your answer may well be enlightening.
February 2, 2016
It seems mean to give this only 3 stars when most of the elements would point towards a 4 star rating. edit: reduced down to 2 by the time I finished writing this!
I certainly enjoyed it. I read it pretty much in one fell swoop, which illustrates its page turning qualities. It's a story that rattles along. Not written or read as an exercise in English Lit, nevertheless I felt the gallop to the finish was more important than the journey - making the 'page turning quality' a double edge sword.
The book was about the MacBride family as victims. Unfortunately, I couldn't feel any great sympathy towards this family. They were types - the type of people you'd avoid at a social gathering, for their smugness, not a great companion to pointlessness and mediocrity. The book was diminished by its underlying snobbery - they were essentially a family of special flowers who couldn't possibly mix with the locals or attend normal schools but managed to be underachieving despite their privileges. Sophie in particular was really quite unpleasant, without ever being interesting enough to be horrible. Just smug. An unreal family who revelled in their unity and lacked any tensions or irritations among them that might have lent a spot of realism.
The book also featured Darcy, who is the narrator of probably half of it. I must admit, until he changed his name, I assumed he was a she. I think the story of his childhood and his relationship with his mother was designed to evoke pity or empathy, but I found it entirely implausible and quite badly thought out. Oh, and it contained that amber flag for me - 'read English at Oxford'. I mean, Zzzzzzz. How many authors use this one? It's just laughable. In fact, the whole character of Darcy was implausible, from his behaviour as a teen, his meteoric rise to wealth, his occasional but not habitual extreme violence, and the obsession/motivation for the crime.
Yeah, it's actually quite annoying because it actually wasn't a very good book at all, the literary equivalent of binge eating through a large packet of crisps followed by a box of processed cakes - you kid yourself you're enjoying it but if you stop to think afterwards your gut reaction is one of self-loathing.
I've previously loved The Ties That Bind and The Poison Tree but this is just down market junk, a cheap thriller with no insight into the human condition, because they're all so preposterous.
I certainly enjoyed it. I read it pretty much in one fell swoop, which illustrates its page turning qualities. It's a story that rattles along. Not written or read as an exercise in English Lit, nevertheless I felt the gallop to the finish was more important than the journey - making the 'page turning quality' a double edge sword.
The book was about the MacBride family as victims. Unfortunately, I couldn't feel any great sympathy towards this family. They were types - the type of people you'd avoid at a social gathering, for their smugness, not a great companion to pointlessness and mediocrity. The book was diminished by its underlying snobbery - they were essentially a family of special flowers who couldn't possibly mix with the locals or attend normal schools but managed to be underachieving despite their privileges. Sophie in particular was really quite unpleasant, without ever being interesting enough to be horrible. Just smug. An unreal family who revelled in their unity and lacked any tensions or irritations among them that might have lent a spot of realism.
The book also featured Darcy, who is the narrator of probably half of it. I must admit, until he changed his name, I assumed he was a she. I think the story of his childhood and his relationship with his mother was designed to evoke pity or empathy, but I found it entirely implausible and quite badly thought out. Oh, and it contained that amber flag for me - 'read English at Oxford'. I mean, Zzzzzzz. How many authors use this one? It's just laughable. In fact, the whole character of Darcy was implausible, from his behaviour as a teen, his meteoric rise to wealth, his occasional but not habitual extreme violence, and the obsession/motivation for the crime.
Yeah, it's actually quite annoying because it actually wasn't a very good book at all, the literary equivalent of binge eating through a large packet of crisps followed by a box of processed cakes - you kid yourself you're enjoying it but if you stop to think afterwards your gut reaction is one of self-loathing.
I've previously loved The Ties That Bind and The Poison Tree but this is just down market junk, a cheap thriller with no insight into the human condition, because they're all so preposterous.
July 6, 2013
I'm torn on how to rate this book. On the one hand I thought the writing was great, quite engaging and sometimes mesmerizing. The story was well thought out, and I did enjoy my time with it. The only issue (and it's a big one) was I had a hard time with the overall concept, Darcy's obsession with harming the Macbrides after one small perceived slight. I found myself actually rolling my eyes at various points, and wasn't able to lose myself in the book because I found myself continuously wanting to slap Darcy out of it.
With that said, I do like Erin Kelly's style and I'm going to be interested in checking out her other books. Rating this 3 stars, and wishing I could give it 3.5...
With that said, I do like Erin Kelly's style and I'm going to be interested in checking out her other books. Rating this 3 stars, and wishing I could give it 3.5...
January 8, 2013
The first half of this book was great. Terrific build up and tension and then the second half fizzled out like a dead squib. Very disappointed
February 16, 2013
Check out this review and others like it at BadAssBookReviews
There are no spoilers in this review and I keep my comments very neutral, as I think it is important going into this novel to not know too much. So if you have not yet read this book, you can safely read on!
I am a lover of the twisted, dark but beautiful psychological thriller -- The Secret History by Donna Tartt, In the Woods by Tana French, Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, The Likeness by Tana French, Broken Harbour by Tana French. So I have been meaning to read Erin Kelly for awhile. The Burning Air did not disappoint. It is a solid psychological thriller that kept me guessing, worried and on the edge of my seat. While not as beautiful and dense as a Tana French novel and not as twisted and disturbing as a Gillian Flynn novel, The Burning Air is a good read.
Where The Burning Air succeeds is in the portrayal of familial relationships. There are the siblings, the mother/child relationship, the husband/wife relationship and these relationships are shown as they grow or change overtime. The interaction of the sisters and brother was so real, so enviable that I wish I could step in and join them as they talked, laughed and ate. Ms. Kelly did not fail in creating a family that I could imagine envying myself -- so I could see why someone stuck on the outside of their dynamic would be jealous.
There is cruelty and violence in this book. It wouldn't be a good psychological thriller without that. Ms. Kelly slowly builds her villain in a believable way -- with layers of complex interactions. In the end I sympathized with the villain, but not enough to want the villain to be saved.
So who should read this novel? Readers who enjoy psychological thrillers rooted in family dynamics. Readers who enjoy books set in England and the countryside. And readers who like to be surprised. This not a detective novel and it has no Nancy Drew type character that is running around gathering clues. So why only 3.5 stars? The ending is wrapped up a little too cleanly. The villain is just a little to all knowing and things seem to happen too easily for the villain (once the villain reaches adulthood). 3.5 stars means I liked it, I enjoyed reading it and I would recommend this book to someone else. It is not a must read or a need to read before you die book, but it is good. This book would make a fantastic movie and I wonder, if Ms. Kelly had a movie screen in mind as she drafted this novel.
I am going to close out this review with some quotes from the book, like most authors of psychological thriller, Ms. Kelly has some gold nugget observations:
There are no spoilers in this review and I keep my comments very neutral, as I think it is important going into this novel to not know too much. So if you have not yet read this book, you can safely read on!
I am a lover of the twisted, dark but beautiful psychological thriller -- The Secret History by Donna Tartt, In the Woods by Tana French, Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, The Likeness by Tana French, Broken Harbour by Tana French. So I have been meaning to read Erin Kelly for awhile. The Burning Air did not disappoint. It is a solid psychological thriller that kept me guessing, worried and on the edge of my seat. While not as beautiful and dense as a Tana French novel and not as twisted and disturbing as a Gillian Flynn novel, The Burning Air is a good read.
Where The Burning Air succeeds is in the portrayal of familial relationships. There are the siblings, the mother/child relationship, the husband/wife relationship and these relationships are shown as they grow or change overtime. The interaction of the sisters and brother was so real, so enviable that I wish I could step in and join them as they talked, laughed and ate. Ms. Kelly did not fail in creating a family that I could imagine envying myself -- so I could see why someone stuck on the outside of their dynamic would be jealous.
There is cruelty and violence in this book. It wouldn't be a good psychological thriller without that. Ms. Kelly slowly builds her villain in a believable way -- with layers of complex interactions. In the end I sympathized with the villain, but not enough to want the villain to be saved.
So who should read this novel? Readers who enjoy psychological thrillers rooted in family dynamics. Readers who enjoy books set in England and the countryside. And readers who like to be surprised. This not a detective novel and it has no Nancy Drew type character that is running around gathering clues. So why only 3.5 stars? The ending is wrapped up a little too cleanly. The villain is just a little to all knowing and things seem to happen too easily for the villain (once the villain reaches adulthood). 3.5 stars means I liked it, I enjoyed reading it and I would recommend this book to someone else. It is not a must read or a need to read before you die book, but it is good. This book would make a fantastic movie and I wonder, if Ms. Kelly had a movie screen in mind as she drafted this novel.
I am going to close out this review with some quotes from the book, like most authors of psychological thriller, Ms. Kelly has some gold nugget observations:
It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive.
Promises leave the lips like breath when there is no question of their being kept.
March 6, 2013
So you may notice that the Goodreads summary doesn't tell you much. That's actually a very good thing, and I'm not going to tell you any more about the plot. As a result, this review will be ridiculously short because I don't want to ruin anything for you. So here are two things to take away: first, it's amazing and so freaking GOOD.
And second, this book reminded me a lot of Gone Girl in that it's the kind of book where you're like, "Seriously, WHAT IS GOING ON?" And if you weren't a fan of that book's ending, you may well find this book even more satisfying. Also, like Gone Girl, it shows you the lengths that some people are willing to go to to get revenge. So, you know, there's that.
This is a fun book and one that will keep you guessing. And it's more than a little bit creepy.
Highly, highly recommended.
And second, this book reminded me a lot of Gone Girl in that it's the kind of book where you're like, "Seriously, WHAT IS GOING ON?" And if you weren't a fan of that book's ending, you may well find this book even more satisfying. Also, like Gone Girl, it shows you the lengths that some people are willing to go to to get revenge. So, you know, there's that.
This is a fun book and one that will keep you guessing. And it's more than a little bit creepy.
Highly, highly recommended.
March 25, 2013
Burning Air by Erin Kelly
The English have been doing a wonderful job bringing us psychological/suspense fiction in the last year or so like Before I Go to Sleep, What the Nanny Saw and The Lantern (although another one I loved, Gone Girl, is truly American). Now we are presented with another English psychological novel by the author of The Poison Tree and The Dark Rose. Revenge is the theme of Burning Air which is told through chapter viewpoints of a few of the characters.
The MacBride family live the quiet educated headmasters life at a prestigious public school, Saxby Cathedral School (The Cath for short). Please note that what we would call “private” school is called “public” school over there (I haven’t figured that one out yet). We are introduced to the MacBrides through the MacBride mother, Lydia, in January 2013. We know something is wrong during this short chapter as she is writing a confession in her diary and noting that she must destroy this journal after she is done. But of course she doesn’t have the chance before death comes her way. What is her confession? That is the story we are about to be led into by the MacBride family and Darcy Kellaway.
The next chapter, told through Sophia’s eyes, jumps to November 2013 where we meet the whole MacBride family at their vacation home, Far Barn, in a secluded English hamlet. We quickly learn it is so secluded that even cell phones don’t work and neighbors are miles away. They have come for the village’s Bonfire Night celebration called the Ottery St. Mary Carnival and Tar Barrel event. This is their annual ritual that normally brings the whole family together for a fun weekend. But this year it is different.
Rowan, the father (and now retired headmaster) has come with his wife’s ashes to quietly mourn. We learn that Rowan was a beloved headmaster and Lydia was a respected Magistrate besides loving mother. Sophie, the oldest daughter, arrives with her husband Will and their three young children Toby, Leo and Charlie plus their new baby Eddie. Sophie and Will are living a strained existence together after Sophie was anonymously sent incriminating photos of Will just about the time her mother was dying and Eddie was due. Sophie hasn’t recovered from the shock of those events nor forgiven Will for his mistake.
Tara, the middle child, arrives with her long-time boyfriend Matt and her teen-aged son Jake from a previous boyfriend. Jake is a mixed-race child who had previously been in trouble with the authorities due to running with the wrong crowd in the city school system. Tara recently moved him to The Cath for schooling where he has settled down. Felix, the youngest and only son, appears at a late hour with a strange woman named Kerry who doesn’t speak a word. Felix is considered by the family as “damaged goods” – a fight many years ago left his face a mess with one eye gone and scars where it had been. So the family is both shocked and happy that someone as gorgeous though mysterious as Kerry would love him.
Tensions at Far Barn increase over the weekend with Sophie seeming to be on the verge of a mental breakdown. Then on the night of the carnival Kerry and Eddie go missing from Far Barn while the rest are out celebrating. Panic ensues as the family tries to grasp what has happened.
We then jump to Darcy’s story which starts in December 1996 and moves towards the weekend at Far Barn. Darcy is a young lonely boy who lives with his mother on the dole in a small apartment by The Cath. Thin, awkward and with terrible teeth Darcy has no one but his mother. She had a good life but a series of mental problems intervened to the point that she can no longer leave the apartment. She home schools Darcy with the plan that he will win the one Cath scholarship offered each year to a deserving child. Darcy seems intellectually primed for that scholarship but when Darcy is not granted the scholarship a chance meeting leads the two to believe that Rowan MacBride stole the scholarship to give to his son Felix. This aggravates the mother’s health and Darcy ends up becoming her caregiver. When his mother dies Darcy believes it was the MacBrides fault and all that is left for Darcy is revenge.
How do these two stories come together in November 2013? That is the crux of this psychological suspense story that matches the love of a family against the brilliant and long-range plan of vengeance from someone that they don’t even know exists. This celebration weekend at Far Barn will lead the MacBrides to discover that family and friends have secrets that are life shattering.
Erin Kelly has written a novel that will slowly draw you in, especially Darcy’s story. The suspense happens early on in Sophie’s part of the novel while the ending told through Rowan’s viewpoint is more of an action thriller. The only negative aspect of this novel is that at times there was a suspension of believability but I did enjoy the story.
London based Erin is a freelance journalist for The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph as well as the British Glamour and Elle magazines. As mentioned before this is her third novel.
The English have been doing a wonderful job bringing us psychological/suspense fiction in the last year or so like Before I Go to Sleep, What the Nanny Saw and The Lantern (although another one I loved, Gone Girl, is truly American). Now we are presented with another English psychological novel by the author of The Poison Tree and The Dark Rose. Revenge is the theme of Burning Air which is told through chapter viewpoints of a few of the characters.
The MacBride family live the quiet educated headmasters life at a prestigious public school, Saxby Cathedral School (The Cath for short). Please note that what we would call “private” school is called “public” school over there (I haven’t figured that one out yet). We are introduced to the MacBrides through the MacBride mother, Lydia, in January 2013. We know something is wrong during this short chapter as she is writing a confession in her diary and noting that she must destroy this journal after she is done. But of course she doesn’t have the chance before death comes her way. What is her confession? That is the story we are about to be led into by the MacBride family and Darcy Kellaway.
The next chapter, told through Sophia’s eyes, jumps to November 2013 where we meet the whole MacBride family at their vacation home, Far Barn, in a secluded English hamlet. We quickly learn it is so secluded that even cell phones don’t work and neighbors are miles away. They have come for the village’s Bonfire Night celebration called the Ottery St. Mary Carnival and Tar Barrel event. This is their annual ritual that normally brings the whole family together for a fun weekend. But this year it is different.
Rowan, the father (and now retired headmaster) has come with his wife’s ashes to quietly mourn. We learn that Rowan was a beloved headmaster and Lydia was a respected Magistrate besides loving mother. Sophie, the oldest daughter, arrives with her husband Will and their three young children Toby, Leo and Charlie plus their new baby Eddie. Sophie and Will are living a strained existence together after Sophie was anonymously sent incriminating photos of Will just about the time her mother was dying and Eddie was due. Sophie hasn’t recovered from the shock of those events nor forgiven Will for his mistake.
Tara, the middle child, arrives with her long-time boyfriend Matt and her teen-aged son Jake from a previous boyfriend. Jake is a mixed-race child who had previously been in trouble with the authorities due to running with the wrong crowd in the city school system. Tara recently moved him to The Cath for schooling where he has settled down. Felix, the youngest and only son, appears at a late hour with a strange woman named Kerry who doesn’t speak a word. Felix is considered by the family as “damaged goods” – a fight many years ago left his face a mess with one eye gone and scars where it had been. So the family is both shocked and happy that someone as gorgeous though mysterious as Kerry would love him.
Tensions at Far Barn increase over the weekend with Sophie seeming to be on the verge of a mental breakdown. Then on the night of the carnival Kerry and Eddie go missing from Far Barn while the rest are out celebrating. Panic ensues as the family tries to grasp what has happened.
We then jump to Darcy’s story which starts in December 1996 and moves towards the weekend at Far Barn. Darcy is a young lonely boy who lives with his mother on the dole in a small apartment by The Cath. Thin, awkward and with terrible teeth Darcy has no one but his mother. She had a good life but a series of mental problems intervened to the point that she can no longer leave the apartment. She home schools Darcy with the plan that he will win the one Cath scholarship offered each year to a deserving child. Darcy seems intellectually primed for that scholarship but when Darcy is not granted the scholarship a chance meeting leads the two to believe that Rowan MacBride stole the scholarship to give to his son Felix. This aggravates the mother’s health and Darcy ends up becoming her caregiver. When his mother dies Darcy believes it was the MacBrides fault and all that is left for Darcy is revenge.
How do these two stories come together in November 2013? That is the crux of this psychological suspense story that matches the love of a family against the brilliant and long-range plan of vengeance from someone that they don’t even know exists. This celebration weekend at Far Barn will lead the MacBrides to discover that family and friends have secrets that are life shattering.
Erin Kelly has written a novel that will slowly draw you in, especially Darcy’s story. The suspense happens early on in Sophie’s part of the novel while the ending told through Rowan’s viewpoint is more of an action thriller. The only negative aspect of this novel is that at times there was a suspension of believability but I did enjoy the story.
London based Erin is a freelance journalist for The Sunday Times and The Sunday Telegraph as well as the British Glamour and Elle magazines. As mentioned before this is her third novel.
February 4, 2019
A slight from one powerful family leads to a lifetime of planning revenge.
April 20, 2018
Its a 2.5 star novel.
The style of writing didn't sit right with me. The beginning was most confusing part. Yeah it's a mystery novel but seriously you need to be coherent, I could get easily what the writer was trying initially. The character Darcy was confusing, for a long time I couldn't get the gender. I was not the only one it seems who had the problem. Then there were lots of details of the place, the house , the road lots of details that didn't have any weight on the story itself, what was the point of all those details?
The next thing that pulled down it's worth was MacBride family. They painted out as the victims. Sure they go through a lot because of unhinged behaviour of Darcy but they come out as entitled and privileged people with clanish mentality. Everyone is shielded from the dark deeds that the matriach has done. It may not seem big but really I couldn't see what was stopping Rowan from trying to help that little boy, not a scholarship but a medical treatment or some sort of support system, afterall he went through his file and just left it at that, he was in a position to help, but he didn't. Even in the end, the cowardly way he handles everything, so much for hollow values. The law is again portrayed in a dismal way, prejudiced and breakable.
Darcy is a character burning in revenge but with no clear sense.All the other characters felt shallow.At one point Darcy comments on how MacBride children had no value for their scholarship and had taken some of their life for granted and Darcy didn't sound wrong; Yeah when you see reason in such unhinged character point of view you realise the book is a disappointment.
Kerry is another character that had some potential but the writer mainly used her as an eye candy and a person to bear MacBride families collective glare. It's only in the end that we get to see her thoughts. I didn't feel much at that point of time, the conflict she felt should have been narrated in the middle portion, not after the danger is out of the way.
The ending was a complete disappointment.
The one thing that kept going for this novel was the pace and the big reveal in the end.That was not very shocking. The only shock I got was when who is Darcy is revealed, that was good but again the timing is wrong, we come to know that too early, if it had been held back and revealed towards the end it would have more punch and some tension in the narrative.
Overall ok read.
The style of writing didn't sit right with me. The beginning was most confusing part. Yeah it's a mystery novel but seriously you need to be coherent, I could get easily what the writer was trying initially. The character Darcy was confusing, for a long time I couldn't get the gender. I was not the only one it seems who had the problem. Then there were lots of details of the place, the house , the road lots of details that didn't have any weight on the story itself, what was the point of all those details?
The next thing that pulled down it's worth was MacBride family. They painted out as the victims. Sure they go through a lot because of unhinged behaviour of Darcy but they come out as entitled and privileged people with clanish mentality. Everyone is shielded from the dark deeds that the matriach has done. It may not seem big but really I couldn't see what was stopping Rowan from trying to help that little boy, not a scholarship but a medical treatment or some sort of support system, afterall he went through his file and just left it at that, he was in a position to help, but he didn't. Even in the end, the cowardly way he handles everything, so much for hollow values. The law is again portrayed in a dismal way, prejudiced and breakable.
Darcy is a character burning in revenge but with no clear sense.All the other characters felt shallow.At one point Darcy comments on how MacBride children had no value for their scholarship and had taken some of their life for granted and Darcy didn't sound wrong; Yeah when you see reason in such unhinged character point of view you realise the book is a disappointment.
Kerry is another character that had some potential but the writer mainly used her as an eye candy and a person to bear MacBride families collective glare. It's only in the end that we get to see her thoughts. I didn't feel much at that point of time, the conflict she felt should have been narrated in the middle portion, not after the danger is out of the way.
The ending was a complete disappointment.
The one thing that kept going for this novel was the pace and the big reveal in the end.That was not very shocking. The only shock I got was when who is Darcy is revealed, that was good but again the timing is wrong, we come to know that too early, if it had been held back and revealed towards the end it would have more punch and some tension in the narrative.
Overall ok read.
April 24, 2013
Goodreads Description- Of course it was love for my children, love for my son, that caused me to act as I did. It was a lapse of judgement. If I could have foreseen the rippling aftershocks that followed I would have acted differently, but by the time I realised the extent of the consequences, it was too late.
The MacBrides have always gone to Far Barn in Devon for Bonfire Night, but this year everything is different. Lydia, the matriarch, is dead; Sophie, the eldest daughter, is desperately trying to repair a crumbling marriage; and Felix, the youngest of the family, has brought a girlfriend with him for the first time.
The girl, Kerry, seems odd in a way nobody can quite put their finger on - but when they leave her looking after Sophie's baby daughter, and return to find both Kerry and the baby gone, they are forced to ask themselves if they have allowed a cuckoo into their nest...
Gripping and chilling, with a killer twist, The Burning Air reaffirms Erin Kelly as one of Britain's foremost psychological thriller writers.
This was the first novel of Erin Kelly's that I have read and all I can say is that I am stunned at her brilliance! This book was like a ticking time bomb that at first you don't even know is there and then you begin racing through the pages, dodging everything the author is throwing at you and wondering what the heck could possible happen next. The book starts off slowly as a seemingly harmless family grieves the loss of the family matriarch, but Kelly plants the seed early that not everything is the way it looks. The story is told from at least 5 POV's, each character revealing startling pieces that begin to link together to form this giant bomb that you know is just going to explode and destroy everything. I can say that I haven't read such a extraordinary novel in quite a long time! If the author's other works are nearly as good as this, Erin Kelly will be keeping me a happy reader for quite a long time! This author has a brilliant writing style that has left me shivering long after I finished the book. This will be a book that will haunt me for days. 5 stars to this incredible author! I HIGHLY recommend this book!
The MacBrides have always gone to Far Barn in Devon for Bonfire Night, but this year everything is different. Lydia, the matriarch, is dead; Sophie, the eldest daughter, is desperately trying to repair a crumbling marriage; and Felix, the youngest of the family, has brought a girlfriend with him for the first time.
The girl, Kerry, seems odd in a way nobody can quite put their finger on - but when they leave her looking after Sophie's baby daughter, and return to find both Kerry and the baby gone, they are forced to ask themselves if they have allowed a cuckoo into their nest...
Gripping and chilling, with a killer twist, The Burning Air reaffirms Erin Kelly as one of Britain's foremost psychological thriller writers.
This was the first novel of Erin Kelly's that I have read and all I can say is that I am stunned at her brilliance! This book was like a ticking time bomb that at first you don't even know is there and then you begin racing through the pages, dodging everything the author is throwing at you and wondering what the heck could possible happen next. The book starts off slowly as a seemingly harmless family grieves the loss of the family matriarch, but Kelly plants the seed early that not everything is the way it looks. The story is told from at least 5 POV's, each character revealing startling pieces that begin to link together to form this giant bomb that you know is just going to explode and destroy everything. I can say that I haven't read such a extraordinary novel in quite a long time! If the author's other works are nearly as good as this, Erin Kelly will be keeping me a happy reader for quite a long time! This author has a brilliant writing style that has left me shivering long after I finished the book. This will be a book that will haunt me for days. 5 stars to this incredible author! I HIGHLY recommend this book!
July 19, 2013
“A good mother loves fiercely but ultimately brings up her children to thrive without her. They must be the most important thing in her life, but if she is the most important thing in theirs, she has failed.”
When I first read those lines at the end of Chapter One, I thought, “Oh, that’s a good quote.” BUT, after finishing the book and thinking about what I just read, now I have to say that it’s a FANTASTIC and very fitting quote for this twisted tale of dark family secrets, revenge, kidnapping, and murder.
Everyone is wronged and holds a grudge at some point, but THE BURNING AIR reveals what happens when a grudge turns into a poisonous obsession for revenge. And, the MacBride family, the target of the villain’s wrath, has no idea what’s going on until it’s too late. Wow, it’s amazing what kind of diabolical plan a mad person can carry out! This was a fast-paced, suspenseful tale with many shocking revelations throughout. As the details unfolded, I kept questioning if there was a clear-cut villain, and I was very surprised by the ending. Such a sad, tragic secret!
I loved the dark, eerie atmosphere of this story. It’s set around Bonfire Night in early November at a remote barn that’s been turned into the MacBride’s weekend home. I could easily picture myself there, feel the family’s isolation and desperation as their world came apart, smell the burning air…
I am so glad I chose to listen to the audiobook of THE BURNING AIR. So good! The book is divided into sections, and each one is told in the point of view of a different main character. Patricia Conolly, Saskia Maarleveld, Samuel Roukin, and Robert Ian Mackenzie performed the parts, and they did an outstanding job capturing the emotions of the characters. I could have listened to their amazing voices all day.
Rating: 4½ Stars
When I first read those lines at the end of Chapter One, I thought, “Oh, that’s a good quote.” BUT, after finishing the book and thinking about what I just read, now I have to say that it’s a FANTASTIC and very fitting quote for this twisted tale of dark family secrets, revenge, kidnapping, and murder.
Everyone is wronged and holds a grudge at some point, but THE BURNING AIR reveals what happens when a grudge turns into a poisonous obsession for revenge. And, the MacBride family, the target of the villain’s wrath, has no idea what’s going on until it’s too late. Wow, it’s amazing what kind of diabolical plan a mad person can carry out! This was a fast-paced, suspenseful tale with many shocking revelations throughout. As the details unfolded, I kept questioning if there was a clear-cut villain, and I was very surprised by the ending. Such a sad, tragic secret!
I loved the dark, eerie atmosphere of this story. It’s set around Bonfire Night in early November at a remote barn that’s been turned into the MacBride’s weekend home. I could easily picture myself there, feel the family’s isolation and desperation as their world came apart, smell the burning air…
I am so glad I chose to listen to the audiobook of THE BURNING AIR. So good! The book is divided into sections, and each one is told in the point of view of a different main character. Patricia Conolly, Saskia Maarleveld, Samuel Roukin, and Robert Ian Mackenzie performed the parts, and they did an outstanding job capturing the emotions of the characters. I could have listened to their amazing voices all day.
Rating: 4½ Stars
February 12, 2013
To be honest, this book didn't grab me from the first page, or even the first chapter. What I did instead, was settle into it a little at a time and began to really enjoy it after the third chapter.
This author has a unique voice when she writes and it pleased me as a reader. I particularly liked the way she built suspense without revealing too much of what was yet to come. The way the characters are doing battle with their own lives, histories and also trying to solve a mystery was a great way to present a psychological thriller.
The descriptions were well-crafted and helped set the tone for story. I found it appealing that the author didn't waste pages of space telling about her characters physical appearance, but managed to work the descriptions into the story so that they felt much more natural.
plot-wise, this book has plenty of unexpected twists and turns, and although not all of them were totally believable, it made a great build up for a strong finish.
This is the first book I have read by this author and I would gladly read another. If you are looking for something edgy, a little scary and complex this would be the perfect book.
This review is based on a digital review copy from the publisher.
This author has a unique voice when she writes and it pleased me as a reader. I particularly liked the way she built suspense without revealing too much of what was yet to come. The way the characters are doing battle with their own lives, histories and also trying to solve a mystery was a great way to present a psychological thriller.
The descriptions were well-crafted and helped set the tone for story. I found it appealing that the author didn't waste pages of space telling about her characters physical appearance, but managed to work the descriptions into the story so that they felt much more natural.
plot-wise, this book has plenty of unexpected twists and turns, and although not all of them were totally believable, it made a great build up for a strong finish.
This is the first book I have read by this author and I would gladly read another. If you are looking for something edgy, a little scary and complex this would be the perfect book.
This review is based on a digital review copy from the publisher.
April 10, 2013
It amazes me that a story so dark can be so beautiful at the same time. The Burning Air centers around a seemingly perfect family, the MacBrides. But as is often the case, "perfection" is only surface deep and dark secrets are well-kept.
The story jumps between different points of view, a brief teaser of these secrets revealed in the opening chapter by matriarch Lydia, then jumping to oldest child Sophie. And just as the reader is lulled into a lovely story about family, tragedy strikes and the point-of-view switches to Darcy, an outsider to the family but one with close-ties. It is through Darcy's eyes that we see a different face of the MacBrides, especially Lydia.
A sign of a wonderfully written, character-driven story, the reader instantly feels connected to each character as he or she tells the story - admiring the closeness and family in Sophie's chapters, but then imagining revenge against that same family while immersed in Darcy's story.
The Burning Air is tense and heart-wrenching, beautifully written, and filled with characters to love or love-to-hate.
The story jumps between different points of view, a brief teaser of these secrets revealed in the opening chapter by matriarch Lydia, then jumping to oldest child Sophie. And just as the reader is lulled into a lovely story about family, tragedy strikes and the point-of-view switches to Darcy, an outsider to the family but one with close-ties. It is through Darcy's eyes that we see a different face of the MacBrides, especially Lydia.
A sign of a wonderfully written, character-driven story, the reader instantly feels connected to each character as he or she tells the story - admiring the closeness and family in Sophie's chapters, but then imagining revenge against that same family while immersed in Darcy's story.
The Burning Air is tense and heart-wrenching, beautifully written, and filled with characters to love or love-to-hate.
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