Description
Book SynopsisThe book that began Ian Rankin''s phenomenal career.
From the No.1 bestselling author of A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES
''The themes that would come to dominate the Rebus books are already here ... the blurred boundaries between good and evil; the pull of superstition and myth; the difficulties in escaping and resolving one''s past; the emotional complexities of the male of the species; and, not least, a good mystery'' TIME OUT
Mary Miller had always been an outcast. Burnt in a chemical mix as a young girl, sympathy for her quickly faded when the young man who pushed her in died in a mining accident just two days later. From then on she was regarded with a mixture of suspicion and fascination by her God-fearing community.
Now, years later, she is a single mother, caught up in a faltering affair with a local teacher. Her son, Sandy, has fallen in love with a strange homeless girl. The search for happiness isn''t easy. Both mother and
Trade Review
The themes that would come to dominate the Rebus books are already here in embryonic form: the blurred boundaries between good and evil; the pull of superstition and myth; the difficulties in escaping and resolving one's past; the emotional complexities of the male of the species; and, not least, a good mystery * TIME OUT *
A must for lovers of Rankin * GOOD BOOK GUIDE *
Full of secrets and revelations, with an atmospheric sense of time and place, it has Rankin's signature darkness. A young man's book - and the start of something big * CHOICE *
Rankin's talent is clear ... The Flood's use of Scottish mythology is clever. The depiction of the single mother at the book's heart is often finely drawn and always sympathetic ... There is, too, a real tension to its closing chapters -- John Connolly * IRISH TIMES *
