Many novels deal with unhappy families. But happy families are relatively rare, especially in crime fiction, which is one of the many interesting features of Erin Kelly’s third book, The Burning Air (Hodder & Stoughton, £14.99). The MacBrides have always been close. Rowan has recently retired from the headmastership of a major public school. He is devastated by the death from cancer of his wife, Lydia, the much-loved matriarch; but his children and grandchildren console him. The clan gathers for the annual bonfire weekend at their Devon holiday home. It all goes horribly wrong when baby Edie, the youngest grandchild and apple of everyone’s eye, vanishes one evening, along with the newly acquired girlfriend of Rowan’s only son. Happiness, in this case, comes at a price.
It’s true that the underlying dynamic of the plot sometimes seems contrived, depending as it does on long-term malevolence supercharged to the point of mania. But Kelly has a talent for manipulating her readers’ assumptions that amounts to devilry. Her narrative choreographs a succession of hints, twists and revelations with elegance and precision. The novel is beautifully written and the characters have a dreadful plausibility about them that engulfs you in their untidy lives. Like all the best psychological thrillers, this one leaves the reader feeling mildly traumatised — and hungry for the author’s next book.
With Close to the Bone (HarperCollins, £16.99), Stuart MacBride returns to his police procedural series set in Aberdeen. Logan McRae, now an acting detective inspector but still trying to cope with the unreasonable demands of his foul-mouthed superior, has a typically varied workload: it includes a man who has been strangled, stabbed and necklaced with a burning tyre; the elopement of two teenage lovers; two drug gangs engaged in a civil war; too much paperwork; and a new sergeant who is far too enthusiastic for anyone’s good.
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