Dark Music
a novel by
Robert Froese
2006, paperback, 224pp
ISBN 0-9715382-2-0
$15.00 Order Dark Music
Members of an archaeological dig in southern New Mexico are stunned when nearby construction unearths the remains of a girl dating several millennia before the earliest known inhabitants of North America. The discovery touches the lives of Will Stanton, a withdrawn graduate research assistant who is profoundly attracted to the prehistoric cultures he studies, and Emily Franklin, a plucky undergraduate new to archaeology and freshly arrived from New York. Steeped in the setting of the northern Chihuahuan Desert, A DARK MUSIC is an unusual and magical love story.
"It's about reaching through into the meganatural realm. Froese's
words breathe and pull the reader into that"somewhere". All
of his books are like this, intellect and feeling whisked together
so that every line causes you to lose a heartbeat and gain a little
magnificent disorientation, while a solid story unfolds like a
perfectly natural flower . . . all this, yes, in "every
line"."
---Carolyn Chute, author of The Beans of Egypt, Maine
"Froese has brought the archeological dig to life on many
levels. Landscape, the traces of buried millennia, vision, and the
demanding, patient work come together to evoke the mystery of
time. The contemporary world and the prehistoric world engage in a
dance that is beautiful, harrowing and moving."
--Baron Wormser, Poet Laureate of Maine
"A fascinating read that's hard to put down, A DARK MUSIC succeeds
brilliantly on two levels. First, there's Froese's suspenseful
story set in the brooding desert atmosphere of the American
Southwest. Throw in sudden storms, a potential rapist, and a
prowling mountain lion, and you have a page-turner from start to
finish."
--Maine Sunday Telegram
". . . in this arresting novel, something big is unearthed, a mummy
from perhaps 23,000 years ago, maybe the archaeological find of the
century."
--Bangor Daily News
"Written in a haunting, minor key, with a grave, compassionate bass
note--the dark music of Froese's prose evokes a dimension that in
the moment seems not only real, but absolute."
--Downeast Coastal Press
To order a copy of Dark Music
send a check for $15.00,
and made out to Flat Bay Press, to
Dark Music
c/o Flat Bay Press
PO Box 217
Harrington, Maine 04643
Please specify if you would like an autographed copy