Darkland Tales

Britain’s reigning “Queen of Crime” (The Scotsman), internationally bestselling and award-winning author Val McDermid has ensnared audiences worldwide for more than thirty years with her thrilling and masterfully plotted crime oeuvre. Now, in this radical, rip-roaring counternarrative drawing on the historical record, McDermid peels back the patriarchal prejudices of history and delivers an illuminating portrait of Shakespeare’s most famous villain, and the treacherous pursuit of ambition that made her legendary: Lady Macbeth.

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, what unfurls is 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.

Immersive and utterly riveting, Queen Macbeth is an electric reimagining of one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated tragedies and reaffirms McDermid as one of the preeminent writers of our day.

"A page-turning tale of adversity and adventure, laughter and love, death and defiance."—The Scotsman (UK)