Macbeth (Hogarth Press)

I'd fallen behind on the Hogarth Shakespeare series, in which esteemed authors write novels based on the Bard's plays. But since this is the summer of Macbeth, I jumped at the chance to read Macbeth (no title change here) by Swedish crime writer Jo Nesbo. It is pretty great.

Nesbo writes bleak crime novels, some featuring his detective Harry Hole (I've read The Snowman). So he seems a good choice to tackle one of the more depressing of Shakespeare's plays. He has set in a nameless city in a nameless country, but it is very Scottish. Instead of Macbeth wanting to be king, he wants to be police commissioner.

The Macbeth in Nesbo's novel is an orphan, a knife-thrower in the circus who ends up as a policeman. Along with his partner, Banquo, and his childhood friend, Duff, they try to keep the peace in a city rife with corruption. Drug lords such as Hecate run the town.

But, fueled by his wife's ambition (she is called Lady) he kills police commissioner Duncan. The deputy commissioner, Malcolm, is suspected, and he has disappeared. The rest you may know.

Nesbo has taken the bare bones of the plot, minus the supernatural (there is a character called La Strega, who makes prophesies, but she is not a real witch). He has expanded the roster of characters, as those just mentioned in the play, like the Norwegian king Sweno, are flesh and blood. He also kills off many of those that Shakespeare allows to live.

As with the play, the most interesting character is Lady, who is here the owner and operator of a casino called Inverness. She is also an orphan, and it is revealed that she bore a child to her father, which haunts her. When a dead baby ends up in her possession (long story) she unravels. Another layer added to the plot is that Duff is having an affair with a colleague (who is not in the play), thus giving his discovery of the murder of his wife and children a different kind of spin.

The novel is set in 1970, and at times seems removed from the real world except when something from outside that world is mentioned, like a musician (Todd Rundgren, for example). The book goes on a bit too long, and at times there's a "get on with it, already" sense, but for the most part the book is fabulously dripping in fear and loathing. I think Shakespeare would have liked it.