Queen Bee is the ninth novel by best-selling Irish author, Ciara Geraghty. At nearly fifty, and with both her twenty-fifth wedding anniversary and the deadline for the first draft of her sixteenth novel fast approaching, Agatha Doyle wonders if she wouldn’t rather an empty nest than the one she’s got: her elder son, Colm is trying to heal his broken heart by hiding under the duvet; his younger brother, Aidan has dropped out of Uni to keep bees and grow organic vegetables in Agatha’s backyard (a chicken coop also threatens); her husband, Luke is stressing over his failing café with its leaky roof and his twin brother’s demand for his half share.

Meanwhile, Agatha’s widowed-ten-months Dad is in the spare room while his house is being renovated; and his new girlfriend Leonora’s dog, LuLaBelle is in a fancy kennel in the backyard while her mistress is in the hospital getting a new pair of hips: a temporary dog-sitting that may extend when the couple goes salsa dancing in Cuba. Agatha lacks anyone to moan to as her best friend since school has moved to LA to work.

And maybe Agatha can use those distractions as excuses for the fact that she hasn’t written a word of her historical novel featuring a pair of witches (the advance for which would really help with that leaky roof), but the truth is that, unbeknown to her agent and editor, she has writers’ block, and the constellation of menopausal symptoms she’s been trying to ignore aren’t helping. She’s not telling anyone about the menopause, sure “I’ll be treated differently. I’ll be othered. I’ll be diminished. Over the hill. That’s what people will say. Over the hill and far, far away.”

Is it any wonder she has a meltdown at a writers’ festival? Her diatribe about being menopausal is posted on TikTok under “Menopause: the movie”. Agatha becomes an instant internet sensation: “Invitations to speak on panels, radio and TV interviews, articles you’ve been asked to write. Everybody wants a piece of pin-up girl for menopausal women everywhere.” The fact that they’re paying gigs (not many of those around for a menopausal writer with writer’s block) can’t hurt, and the presenter on her first interview remarks about the listeners’ responses “You seem to have touched a national nerve there, Agatha”

An unexpected side effect of this fame is the half-her-age radio producer who “found me attractive and interesting and funny in no particular order.” Does that help with the feeling that Luke is neglecting her in favour of his new, young, attractive waitress, Fernanda from Brazil?

Her agent wants her to come up with “a pithy soundbite solution for menopause and we’re golden. Simples! Oh, and if you could put a bit more of yourself in your content: a map of your emotional landscape”, all a bit too personal for Agatha, but messages from other menopausal women assure her that she is not alone. It’s heartening to hear “Agatha’s taken the sting of stigma out of the equation. We should have done that a long time ago. In fact, it never should have been stigmatised in the first place.”

Geraghty tells Agatha’s tale as a series of entries in a menopause diary (as recommended by Dr Lennon-call-me-‘Susie’), and the dialogue, which includes exchanges with her dead Mam, is presented in the format of a movie script. While her protagonist does jump to a somewhat predictable conclusion, we might attribute that to her hormonal state. As well as being topical and thought-provoking, Geraghty’s latest is very entertaining.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Harper Collins UK.