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.
