The Lost Love Song

With this sweeping romance, Darke (Star-Crossed) spins a tender tribute to the healing powers of love and music. For seven years, gentle Australian computer whiz Arie Johnson and fiery concert pianist and composer Diana Clare have been each other’s “Amen.” While away on a concert tour, Diana finally finds the perfect closing sequence to a love song she’s been writing when she decides to accept Arie’s marriage proposal—only to die in a plane crash on her way back to Australia. Darke traces Diana’s final song as it makes its way around the world helping strangers heal their heartaches over the next two years: businessman and pianist Bene Romero heard Diana play just before she died and takes the melody home to London, where he plays it to his fractious teenager, Beatrix. Beatrix then performs it with her first love, Felix Carter, in an Edinburgh train station. After hearing them in passing, Tasmanian poet Evie Greenlees brings the song full circle when she returns to Australia and meets the still grieving Arie. Darke’s accomplished plotting, colorful settings, and keen insights into love and loss make for an outstanding romantic panorama. Readers will be wowed. Agent: Dan Lazar, Writer’s House. (Oct.)