In William Shakespeare's Macbeth, before the perfidy of Macbeth and his wife is revealed, the titular character is called "brave Macbeth." In Queen Macbeth, Val McDermid (The Vanishing Point; How the Dead Speak) turns her investigative powers toward reestablishing the good names of the historical Macbeths. Macbethad (Macbeth) and his wife, Gruoch, who actually reigned in 11th-century Scotland, are brought to vivid life in this brief and poignant novel.
The story opens as Gruoch and her three companions--a seer, a healer, and a weaver--have been on the run for four years, ever since the death of her husband. Gruoch's son sits on the throne, but his kingdom is threatened by Malcolm, who also poses a danger to Gruoch, because her name is "still a name men would rally behind." Written in a spare, poetic style, Queen Macbeth also periodically flashes back to when Gruoch and Macbeth met more than 20 years earlier.
Readers familiar with Shakespeare's drama will appreciate McDermid's attempts to look past the patriarchal ideas that have overshadowed what history suggests happened in medieval Scotland. Gruoch's companions are not cackling witches but intelligent, strong women who grew up as friends in her royal household. Lady Macbeth is not a desperate, bloody figure; instead, Gruoch is a powerful woman who strategized for peace alongside her husband as he united the kingdoms of Moray and Alba and created a "joint kingdom" called Scotland. Fascinating and all too believable, Queen Macbeth will have readers rethinking "the Scottish play" and its characters. --Jessica Howard, freelance book reviewer