Queen Macbeth

Scottish crime writer McDermid (the Karen Pirie series) provides a middling origin story for Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, who was inspired by real-life medieval Scottish queen Gruoch. Following Macbeth’s slaying of King Duncan in battle, rival armies rampage across the countryside. Meanwhile, Gruoch hides behind enemy lines with her three handmaidens. The women, aided by a soldier, drug a monk and frame him for murder before making their escape, which is cut short when they fall into the clutches of rival thane Macduff. As Gruoch draws upon her wits to save the lives of her loyalists, McDermid intercuts the action with flashbacks to Gruoch’s first encounter with Macbeth, when she was the wife of a ruling chieftain and recognized in Macbeth her equal in treachery. McDermid hews close to the historical record, but the numb dialogue and melodramatic love affairs never threaten to touch Shakespeare’s version of the story. As one of the handmaidens flatly observes, “It’s not just the act that matters, it’s the atmosphere.” This falls short. Agent: Lizzy Kremer, David Higham Assoc. (Sept.)