Category: Jo Nesbø

Jo Nesbø Mark Bailey

Review: Macbeth by Jo Nesbo (2018)

Post author By Mark Bailey
Post date 11 July 2018
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Macbeth by Jo Nesbo

Hardback: 512 pages

Published 5^th April 2018

Publisher: Hogarth

ISBN: 978- 1781090251

Jo Nesbo’s Macbeth is his contribution to the Hogarth Shakespeare Project which invites current writers to update Shakespeare’s plays, setting them in modern times with modern characters.

Nesbø’s retelling sets it in the early 1970’s with the police department of a downtrodden European city taking the place of the Scottish royal court. Macbeth is the head of a SWAT team who is eager for promotion and, persuaded by his girlfriend, murders the police department’s Chief Commissioner to take over his position. He then engineers the death of anyone who suspects him of murder or endangers his position as Macbeth has no loyalty and no conscience.

Nesbø’s book (more or less) faithfully follows the trajectory of the original play, so if you’re familiar with that then you will have an idea of what happens (which may be a problem for some readers, it was for me).

This wasn’t my favourite Jo Nesbø novel as I found it very hard to get into – Shakespeare in a modern milieu can work (Baz Luhrmans Romeo + Juliet is a good example which does get around the language issues as swords and daggers are now a brand of guns). The main issue (apart from finding it somewhat too long – the play Macbeth is less than 20,000 words whilst this is over 150,000 words) is that characters who in Shakespeare you dislike but are intrigued by become rather more psychotically vicious here.

Year-End Review: 2012

Of the new releases in 2012 (either in paperback or hardback), I would strongly recommend (in alphabetical order by author as I don’t want to choose an order)

Fowler, Christopher – BRYANT & MAY AND THE INVISIBLE CODE (10^th novel about Arthur Bryant, John May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit – another strong Bryant & May novel with a very intricate plot with lots of twists and turns; some new characters (some of which are almost fantastical) are introduced to set up for the future which he has got a 2 book deal for starting with BRYANT & MAY AND THE BLEEDING HEART).
James, Peter – NOT DEAD YET (8^th Detective Superintendent Roy Grace novel)
Nesbo, Jo – THE BAT (the 1^st Harry Hole novel chronologically – it was nice to see the back plot to the later novels explored in more depth)
Rankin, Ian – STANDING IN ANOTHER MAN’S GRAVE (Rebus is back – I read it in a day and loved it)
Robinson, Peter – BEFORE THE POISON (not a DCI Banks book but it takes the well-used idea of somebody becoming obsessed with solving a decades-old murder and executes it very well)

Other 2012 releases that had good points were

McKinty, Adrian – THE COLD COLD GROUND (the 1^st Sean Duffy novel set in 1980s Northern Ireland; yes I am biased as I go past most of the places in this novel on my train to work every day but this is an assured police procedural in the main – the next book (I HEAR THE SIRENS IN THE STREET) is just out as I write and if it is just a tad better then that is one of my 2013 best reads sorted)
Staincliffe, Cath – DEAD TO ME (the 1st Scott and Bailey tie-in novel by Cath Staincliffe; yes this is a tv tie-on but it captures the characters and is compellingly written)
Tursten, Helene – NIGHT ROUNDS (the 4th Irene Huss novel; this is a good novel but I have seen the first 6 Swedish TV movie adaptions so I spoilt it for myself).
Wanner, Len – THE CRIME INTERVIEWS VOLUMES ONE AND TWO (These are available most easily for Kindles but if you like tartan noir, they are a good insight into how authors minds work as they have interviews with 19 crime writers between the two volumes)

‘Blasts from the past’ series reread or read for the first time in 2012 are

Crispin, Edmund – the Gervase Fen series (I re-read these in the Summer. They are whodunit novels with complex plots written in a humorous, literary style with references to English literature, poetry, and music; my favourites are THE MOVING TOYSHOP (1946) and FREQUENT HEARSES (1950) – it is a crying shame that Crispin went 25 years between the penultimate and the last novel in the series).
Burley, W J – the Wycliffe series (I remember the tv series with Jack Shepherd well and recently bought them on DVD but had never read the books; yes they are dated and even the later ones read like those written in the 1970s (they were 22 written from 1968 to 2000) but they are also tightly plotted concisely written books with a great sense of place and a complex main character)
Edwards, Martin – the Lake District Mystery series (these were a new read for me and as said elsewhere on the website these are very classy page turners with a good sense of history and the area it is set in – the English Lake District)
Harvey. John – the Charlie Resnick series (I am just over halfway through re-reading this quality police procedural series set in Nottingham in the late 1980s and 1990s in the main – the last one was published a decade later in 2008)

Again, they reflect in the main my liking for police procedurals.

Adrian McKinty Crime Fiction Euro Crime Helene Tursten Ian Rankin Jo Nesbø Reviews Simon Brett Year-End Review

Year-End Review: 2013

Of the new releases in 2013, I would strongly recommend (in alphabetical order by author as I don’t want to choose an order)

Brett, Simon – A DECENT INTERVAL (the 18th of the Charles Paris novels by Simon Brett and the first to be published for 16 years; somewhat darker than before but still a good read)
McKinty, Adrian – I HEAR THE SIRENS IN THE STREET (the 2^nd Sean Duffy novel set in 1980s Northern Ireland; yes I am biased as I go past most of the places in this novel on my train to work every day and part of this one is set in my village but this is a very assured police procedural with just one more in the series (AND IN THE MORNING I’LL BE GONE) to be published in January 2014)
Nesbø, Jo – POLICE & COCKROACHES (both tr. Don Bartlett) (the 10^th& 2^ndHarry Hole novels chronologically – POLICE carries on from PHANTOM and with COCKROACHES it was once again nice to see the back plot to the later novels explored in more depth)
Rankin, Ian – SAINTS OF THE SHADOW BIBLE (Rebus is back on the force, older but not wiser – demoted back to his 1987 rank so he could return with Siobhan Clarke as his boss)
Tursten, Helene – THE GOLDEN CALF (tr. Laura A. Wideburg) (the 5th Irene Huss novel in the series and to be translated into English; a fairly conventional police procedural with a likeable main character, well plotted with a good core idea and excellently realised characters who interact with one another realistically and are likeable).