Queen Macbeth
Gruoch, Macbeth’s widowed queen, lives secretly on a small isle in a lowland loch, inseparable from her three lady companions, safeguarded by monks. Her royal standing spells death if she’s discovered by pretenders to the throne. Eventually she is found but manages to flee the monastery, trekking northward with her friends across rough landscapes with minimal sustenance. Gruoch survives some brutally fatal skirmishes, then succumbs to treacherous capture, and prepares to confront her destiny.
Unsurprisingly, this short tale is the adroitest of constructs, a classic thriller. Chapter after chapter, past and present are warp and weft, alternately interweaving the compelling, violent machinations of pre-Scotland royal bloodlines with an enthralling love story. McDermid offers a no-nonsense, authentic earthiness of language, dialogue and descriptive passages, which linger beyond the ending, as might a memorable film. This fifth in The Darkland Tales series is likewise based upon the conceit of imaginative composition, filling in gaps within famous stories from Scottish history – historical facts at their fictional best. (Note to self: read them all).
One small gripe: why provide a 40-word Scottish/English glossary when some printed Scots words are excluded: e.g., dwam, skelp, clowder? Yet words most readers would know are included, e.g., auld, bonny, dugs, pottage and canny. Meaning can be gleaned from context.
