A Darker Music: A Novel by Maris Morton

A Darker Music: A Novel Reviews

• 
  Quinn

  This was a GoodReads First Reads win, with thanks to the publisher, Scribe Publications.
  
  When Mary accepts a temporary position as housekeeper at a Downe, a famous Merino stud, she expects to find a grand and gracious homestead. What she finds instead is a shabby and neglected house occupied by a handsome but taciturn and silent father and son, and the mysterious Clio - the wife and mother of whom they never speak and who never leaves her room.
  
  While Mary endeavors to turn the house back into a home, she forms an unlikely and at times uncomfortable friendship with Clio, gradually learning the family’s dark and achingly tragic secrets.
  
  The story is told in a beautifully desolate, sometimes meandering style, which mirrors and echoes the remote landscape in which Mary finds herself, and hauntingly represents the mood of the homestead.
  
  This is a slow burning novel which reveals the tragic past and hopeless future with a pervading sense of moodiness. The characters are well drawn and the details, from meal preparation to the machinations of managing the stud, sufficient to provide an excellent sense of place without bogging down the narrative.
  
  A Darker Music is above all an atmospheric novel that provides an excellent portrayal, in both words and style, of the sensation and harsh reality of living on a sheep station in remote Western Australia, and a confronting depiction of an irredeemably damaged family.
  
• 
  Shelleyrae at Book'd Out

  Mary accepts a position as the temporary housekeeper at Downe, a merino stud, set in the Western Australia bush. Instead of the gracious homestead she is expecting, Downe is a home of secrets and shadows.
  A Darker Music is a haunting and lyrical novel of quiet tragedy. The writing is elegant and evocative, the pace simmers with quiet anxiety and dread. Morton incorporates the lifestyle and minutae of the farm operations and creates a sense of place with lush descriptions of the station and its surroundings. Yet they are simply a backdrop to the finely crafted characters. The physical isolation of the merino stud mirrors the emotional isolation of the homesteads inhabitants.
  A Darker Music is really Clio's story. At first Clio is barely tolerable, until Morton skilfully reveals Clio's past and present as she takes Mary into her confidence. Once a promising musician, Clio has endured unbearable loss, and we slowly learn the truth of her heartbreaking circumstances.
  Father and son, Paul and Martin, are brooding and silent men. It is through Clio's story that we learn their true character. Their brooding presence, and absence, is cleverly exploited by Morton.
  The lesser characters provide interesting context and contrast to the main characters.
  A Darker Music is an incredible debut novel, quiet and dark, there is no happy ending. The stunning climax will haunt me for sometime yet.
  
  Just and interesting aside, A Darker Music was the winner of the inaugural Scribe Fiction Prize. Maris Morton is 72 and this is her first novel.
  
  *I won a copy of this novel from the publisher through the Goodreads FirstReads program
  
• 
  Robyn Koshel

  The only way to describe A darker music, is Australian Gothic. The sun is shining but you can still feel the darkness and oppression of isolation. It is a kind of Jane Eyre down under.
  Maris Morton paints a unique picture of an WA Australian winter, a phenomena unknown to us in the Northern Hemisphere; To most of us Australia is a dry, heat soaked desert.
  Mary starts to unravel family secrets as she sets about setting the farmstead to rights. There is a gentle unfolding of events with a strong palette of near gourmet food and classical music.
  Mary is an incomer and she acts as an observer to a family who's lives are tainted my tragedy; something Mary is very familiar with. Although there is a lot of sadness to this book, there is also a glimmer of hope for healing.
  Clio and Paul are like the walking wounded. Their relationship and lives was irreversibly shattered – and you can see them just going through the motions of everyday life. Unable to offer each other the comfort they both crave.
  There is so much in this subtle family drama: loss, mysteries, heartbreak and estrangement; That left me the feeling of a haunted abandonment that Clio felt.
  A darker music has a pace consistent to country lifestyle, and it adds an air of anticipation for what events are to come.
  What I loved about this book was that Maris Morton showed me a West Australian lifestyle, that I was able to experience through her eyes; Something I would never be able to experience on my own.
  A darker music is on par with the likes of Mary Stewart for highly enjoyable new Gothic fiction. It was a unique novel that stands out from the crowd and one not to be missed.
  
• 
  Michelle

  Some thoughts …
  Some things in our lives can eat away at us like a cancer, it’s so important to deal with our issues and move forward in life. If a writer was never allowed to write or a musician never allowed to play music. Our souls begin to die if we never feed the inner self, the very thing that gives us the most pleasure which creates joy in our lives. When this is fulfilled, abundant joy in our lives overflows and we can reach out to others.
  
  For the full review...
  http://tinyurl.com/4b8svzk
  
• 
  Jill

  A beautifully written story which captures the solitude of rural Australia and the beauty of the bush in the south west of Australia. The relationship between the two main female characters, Mary and Clio, evolves convincingly and as their friendship grows we develop an understanding of Clio's withdrawal from life. The musical interludes are also fascinating, evoking some of the descriptive passages in An Equal Music. Unfortunately, the male characters tend to be one-dimensional and the husband in particular is almost a caricature.
• 
  Chloe

  A slower paced book that I sometimes wondered in what direction it was taking. There were some wonderful pictures of rural Australia and the harsh but rewarding life on a sheep property, woven with tragic events and questionable pasts.
  
  A little twist at the end was quite good, the knowledge that life sometimes takes a different, unexpected turn.
  
  An interesting first novel by this author.
• 
  Anisa

  This was a GoodReads First Reads win.
  
  Was a very slow moving novel for me to get into and as much as would have loved to, I couldn't enjoy it enough to continue and finish it.
• 
  Julie

  I came across this book by accident, but I am glad I found it! Well written, with interesting characters, and an ending that I did not see coming.
• 
  Barbara Dawson

  Looking forward to reading this. First novel by a 72 YO author. ( hope for me yet). Set in WA wheat belt. Is supposed to be very sad but I just live her writing style and only read 2 pages.