The Burning Air by Erin Kelly
My rating: 4/5 cats
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 View Spoiler »
also (and i mean it) View Spoiler » 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.
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