Book Review – Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid

About the Book

A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three companions – a healer, a weaver and a seer. The men hunting her will kill her – because she is the only one who stands between them and their violent ambition. She is no lady: she is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king called Macbeth.

As the net closes in, we discover a tale of passion, forced marriage, bloody massacre and the harsh realities of medieval Scotland. At the heart of it is one strong, charismatic woman, who survived loss and jeopardy to outwit the endless plotting of a string of ruthless and power-hungry men. Her struggle won her a country. But now it could cost her life.

Format: Hardcover (152 pages) Publisher: Polygon
Publication date: 2nd May 2024 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Queen Macbeth, part of the Darkland Tales series, is aimed at exploring the truth behind the story – the myth, as the author would have it – Shakespeare presents in the play Macbeth. Her particular focus is the woman we know as Lady Macbeth in the play but whose real name was Gruoch and herself possessed royal blood.

The book alternates between past and present timelines, all written from the point of view of Gruoch (Helpfully, one is in italics.) The past timeline starts when Gruoch meets her husband’s cousin Macbeth for the first time. She considers him a vast improvement on her husband whose only interest in her is to get an heir, something she has been unable to provide. Macbeth offers a much more enticing prospect.

The author replaces Shakespeare’s rendition of events with historical fact, adding parts of Macbeth and Gruoch’s life together that are not mentioned in the play. For example, that they undertook a pilgrimage to Rome. Macbeth comes across as a (relatively) more benevolent and sane ruler than he does in the play, even if it was very likely he gained the throne by murdering his cousin. But then most kings of Scotland at the time gained – and lost – their thrones that way. Real life figures such as Duncan, Macduff and Malcolm feature but with more historical accuracy. Other characters from the play appear but in different roles. For example, the equivalents of the three witches are Gruoch’s waiting women, one of whom is gifted with ‘second sight’.

Little is known about Gruoch’s life after Macbeth’s death so McDermid engages her writer’s imagination to continue the story. In the present day timeline it’s four years on from Macbeth’s death and Gruoch has been in hiding from King Malcolm, to whom she poses a threat as a rallying point for rebellion. Their hiding place having been discovered, Gruoch and her faithful companions are forced to flee across the country. Unfortunately they are captured and it looks like the end of Gruoch’s story. However, the book’s blurb warned to ‘expect the unexpected’ and the author definitely delivers it at this point. In Shakespeare’s play Lady Macbeth meets a bloody end, in this one it’s more sail off into the sunset.

As you’d expect from Val McDermid, Queen Macbeth is very well written and I liked the occasional inclusion of Scottish words (there’s a helpful Glossary) and the way she sometimes incorporated into the dialogue quotations from Macbeth. (Probably a lot more of them than I noticed.) The book provides a vivid picture of medieval Scottish life in a noble household including detailed descriptions of food.

Although it was fascinating to learn about the ‘real’ Lady Macbeth, it’s fair to say quite a lot of events in the book are drawn from the author’s imagination given Gruoch simply disappears from the historical record.

In three words: Fascinating, dramatic, authentic
Try something similar: Learwife by JR Thorp

About the Author

Val McDermid grew up in Fife and played in the ruins of Macduff’s Castle as a child. She was the first state school pupil to study at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, where she read English. After a career in news journalism, culminating as Northern Bureau Chief of a national Sunday newspaper, she became a full-time writer in 1991. She has produced thirty-nine novels, two non-fiction titles, a children’s picture book, short stories and several dramas for stage and radio. Her books, translated into more than forty languages, have sold more than nineteen million copies and won many awards. She is Patron of the Scottish Book Trust, sponsor of McDermid Ladies football team and lead vocalist of the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers.

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