Denise Mina’s novella, Rizzio, tells the dramatic story of the murder of David Rizzio, Mary, Queen of Scots’ private secretary. On, March 9, 1566, a team of assassins, including Lord Darnley, Mary’s husband, dragged Rizzio from a small supper of friends hosted by the Queen. He was stabbed 56 times. Mina’s novella frames the drama as a story of politics, religious fanaticism, and a power grab. And, her comments about the men responsible sound eerily familiar.

Darnley’s father, Lennox, convinced his son to side with the traitors, saying he should be on the throne instead of his wife, and that she was denying him equal status. He was the Consort rather than the king. Because she was six months pregnant, the traitors wanted her power, so they tried to convince Darnley that the baby wasn’t his, but was Rizzio’s. Even as the plot unfolded, the men, especially Darnley, hoped Mary would miscarry the baby, and she might even die.

Rizzio is a short book, set in just a couple days. It introduces a small group of major players, Rizzio and Darnley, who were once lovers, Mary, Queen of Scots who admired Rizzio’s abilities and knowledge, a dying conspirator, an ex-priest turned fanatical Calvanist. While the citizens, the men of Edinburgh, supported their Queen, “The Great Men of History” were opposed to a woman, a pregnant Catholic woman, on the throne.

The murder of Rizzio is the focus of the action, but, it’s Mina’s account of those “Great Men of History” the conspirators and murderers, that stood out and seemed so familiar to me. “The men are all landed aristocracy. They’re all white, between the ages of twenty and sixty, and literally entitled. These are the men who fill history books with their squabbles and claims and resentments. The Great Men of History.”

Rizzio is a novella. It’s a story of bloodshed and cruelty and hatred and disrespect for a woman. It takes place in just a couple days. I spent time looking up names from history, and accounts of lives. However, I could have been reading about the twenty-first century and political fanaticism, bloodshed, cruelty, and people who feel both afraid and entitled.

Denise Mina’s website is http://www.denisemina.com/

Rizzio by Denise Mina. Pegasus Crime, 2021. ISBN 9781643138459 (hardcover), 120p.

FTC Full Disclosure – Library book.