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EDITORIAL REVIEW: The book that began Ian Rankin's phenomenal career|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 son must face a dark secret from their past, in the growing knowledge that their small dramas are being played out against a much larger canvas, glimpsed only in symbols and flickering images - of decay and regrowth, of fire and water - of the flood.|Ian Rankin is a regular No.1 bestseller, and has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Diamond Dagger. He lives with his family in Edinburgh, and in 2003 received an OBE for his services to literature.|Reissued in the stunning new livery alongside EXIT MUSIC - new in paperback. Ian Rankin is a regular No.1 bestseller and Guardian fastseller. The Rebus TV adaptation attracted 9 million viewers. He has an incredibly high profile - he has had his own TV series, received an OBE and is a regular on TV and radio. He has won numerous awards, including the CWA Gold Dagger and the Edgar Award. Ian Rankin makes up more than 10% of all UK crime sales. He also constantly gets excellent reviews: '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 'As always, Rankin proves himself the master of his own milieu ... There cannot be a better crime novelist writing' Daily Mail 'No one writes more gripping stories than Rankin' TLS SUMMARY: In 1986, a small Scottish publishing firm released a first novel by a talented young writer. Only a few hundred copies were printed but it was a literary milestone nonetheless. The book was THE FLOOD. The author was Ian Rankin...Mary Miller had always been an outcast. As a young girl she had fallen into the hot burn - a torrent of warm chemical run-off from the local coal mine. Fished out white-haired and half-dead, 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 hardly less alone. She is the mother of a bastard son, Sandy, and caught up in a faltering affair with a local teacher. Sandy, meanwhile, has fallen in love with a strange homeless girl. The search for happiness isn't easy. Both mother and son must face a dark secret from their past, in the growing knowledge that their small dramas are being played out against a much larger canvas, glimpsed only in symbols and flickering images - of decay and regrowth, of fire and water - of the flood.THE FLOOD is both a coming-of-age novel and an amazing portrait of a time and place. Proto-Rankin as it is, it's dark, atmospheric and powerful - a remarkable debut from a remarkable author.