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 ( )