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 

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An atmospheric and more historically-inclined take on the story of Macbeth with a strong beginning and middle, but which, unfortunately, didn't manage to stick the landing.

One of the things that Queen Macbeth really succeds at, is how McDermid manages to create a strong sense of the cultural and political landscape of feudal Scotland and how these affect the characters and the plot. It's clear that McDermid has done a ton of research into medieval Scottish history, because it really shines through the majority of the book.

Now, note that I say "majority". And that I chose the words "historically-inclined" rather than "historically accurate". I really loved everything about the book, and how much closer it stuck to the probable historical events, until I hit around the 75% mark.

Suddenly, the captured Gruoch and her ladies are saved by the dead Macbeth, who is apparently not dead at all and has somehow managed to stay in hiding for years. And who somehow manages to spirit away Gruoch to safety among the Viking settlers in Ireland, before they together quit the British Isles completely to retire as deposed monarchs in Rome.

Colour me surprised and confused. Also, the flashbacks were generally my favourite parts of the story, but

the final flashback was some kind of weird, long-ass recital of all the events throughout Macbeth and Gruoch's 17-year-long reign, and it was so boring and very out of place. It read as if the author had run out steam at that point and simply no longer cared to weave those parts of the history seamlessly into the rest of the story. It was quite jarring, frankly.

Maybe it's just me, but one of my favourite things about the story of Macbeth is just how tragic it is, so I find myself extremely let down by McDermid's chosen ending. It felt to me very hollow and undeserved, to the point that it ruined my whole reading experience to such a degree that I have to bump my rating down from a full 5 stars to a mere 3.5 stars.

(Audiobook) I am not at all familiar with Shakespeare's Macbeth so I probably missed a lot of nuance - I usually avoid retellings for this reason. Reconsiders Lady Macbeth's motives for war. I think the main part of what I suspect is the Shakespeare storyline was very rushed over, and suspense was built only for it to fizzle out soon after. Two timelines are used, interwoven - this was confusing at first, on the audiobook.

At sub 4 hours it feels like cheating to add this to my annual book total. 

However! Excellently read audiobook, amusing narrative, and I learnt something.

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.