This was excellent and I wish it was longer. I liked the agency of lady macbeth and the more accurate historical representation of the land at the time (Scotland). I also enjoyed her friends and the witchy adjacent elements 

Powerful and moving. I enjoyed McDermid’s characterisations of Macbeth and Gruoch, as well as the linguistic references/parallels to the original Scottish play. 

A thousand years ago in the Scottish landscape, a woman with her three female companions - a healer, a weaver and a seer - are on the run. Men are hunting her down, as she is the only one who stands in the way between them and the violent ambition for power. She is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king named Macbeth. 

History might have written her as a murderer conspirator to her husbands, but here, she is a woman who has loved and lost, and this might cost her everything… 

This surprised me as, at the start, we had a small foreword from Val McDermid who told us that Macbeth and his wife were actually real people. Some details in Shakespeare’s play are true, but twisted due to artistic licence. For example, Macbeth killed his cousin (King Duncan I, in battle near Elgin. Not, as Shakespeare says in his play, in his bed. 

Now, the novella. I will admit that I did find this a tad slow and kept getting muddle with names at the start. But I think my reading funk is a factor in this as, if I was reading or listening to this again, I would find the pacing just right and I would know who’s who quite easily.

We, also, have a dual timeline: one where Queen Macbeth is on the run and the other where she first meets Macbeth. Once I found my footing, I really liked jumping back and forth as it gave us a better understanding of the woman who we are following: a woman who fell in love and, because of that, suffered later in life. 

For a novella, this packs a lot in and it packs a punch. Queen Macbeth doesn’t shy away from the brutality of the Scottish clans and, while it does skim over certain dark/gory moments, you get that this is a bloody, brutal and ruthless time for people, women especially. 

Am I going to come back to this? I don’t think so, but I really liked Val McDermid’s writing and her characters so I do think I shall return to her. I have a funny little feeling I might have something of her’s on my kindle [EDIT: I just checked and I do. Past Lying, which is the seventh in the Karin Pirie series. 
Hopefully, I can dive in without needing to have read the previous…]. 

Fans of the play should know that this is more in the line with history, rather than the play. No magic, but a dark grittiness that historical fiction readers will devour in one sitting.