Let me first say that I read this book twice and I really did try to give it a go, but for me this was not it. Maybe I was looking for what his other character was because this just was not it. I will say I liked the opening and got the 70’s thing and the references. I understood the dark theme and was okay with that as well. But just like Shakespeare, yea I did not get the whole thing even in school. I even went back and looked at Macbeth to try to help with this book a second time and like the 70’s when I was in high school I wanted to read the Godfather start forward crime I could understand, “leave the gun take the cannoli’s”. I am not trying to make light because I know this author has put a lot of effort into writing this book and coming up with all of the characters and so once again I am blaming me and not the author for not enjoying this book, I know others will. It has plenty of action, death, murder mayhem, paranoia, sex all the makings for a great story and one I usually like but there is so much. Anyway I know others will enjoy it.

Published by Crown/Hogarth on April 10, 2018

The new police commissioner, Duncan, has vowed to sweep corruption out of the police department. Duff, the head of the Narco Unit, is on Duncan’s side. A tip encourages him to believe he can bring down the Norse Riders motorcycle gang and Sweno, its leader. He turns down help from Macbeth, who is sitting on the sideline with Banquo, Angus, and other members of the SWAT team in case Duff needs help. Also watching from the sideline is Hecate, the richest drug dealer in town and the man who tipped off the police about Sweno’s receipt of a new drug supply that the Norse Riders are about to offload from a Soviet ship.

One thing leads to another and Macbeth commits a foul deed in support of Duff, whose own deed is even more foul. Not long after that, three sisters sent by Hecate prophesy that Macbeth will be promoted to head the new Organized Crime unit. His wife, Lady, is pleased, but sees that the only path to the top for Macbeth is to kill Duncan. Lady is a cunning manipulator who owns a casino and wants Macbeth to advance so he can shut down a competing casino, but is she as cunning and manipulative as Hecate?

Duncan’s death alone will not bring Macbeth to the top; Malcolm must also go. That creates a conflict between Macbeth and loyal Banquo. Eventually Duff and Angus are also in Macbeth’s sights. No one who opposes the mad police commissioner is safe.

Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a relatively straightforward play about Macbeth’s descent into madness that accompanies (causes? is caused by?) his lust for power. Shakespeare purists might not like the liberties Jo Nesbø has taken, but given that the point of the Hogarth Shakespeare series is to draw upon the themes of Shakespeare’s plays to tell a modern story, I think most Shakespeare fans will be pleased with the way Nesbø has reimagined Macbeth as a modern crime story. Parallels to the play are evident. A drug called “brew” substitutes for witch’s brew. Three sisters brew the drug for Hecate while denying rumors that they add toads’ glands to the tank. Macbeth is haunted by the ghosts of his victims and sees dead men in traffic lights. Lady soaps her hands until they turn red. The city is at war, but it is a war between the police and two criminal gangs that also war with each other. Macbeth is sure that no man born of woman can kill him but . . . well, you know how that works out.

And of course, the parallels to the play are evident in the novel’s themes: ambition, manhood, corruption, guilt, betrayal, weakness, and in the end, justice. Nesbø uses Lennox to suggest that weakness is a natural reaction to threats made by those with power; cowardly submission to immoral commands may be shameful, but self-preservation is a powerful instinct, and it is difficult to judge people who submit to manipulation by more powerful forces rather than forfeiting their own (or their childrens') lives. Weakness is also a facet of Macbeth’s love of Lady, as described by Hecate: “The desire to be loved and the ability to love, which gives humans such strength, is also their Achilles’ heel. Give them the prospect of love and they move mountains; take it from them and a puff of wind will blow them over.”

The story mixes in modern themes, as well, including the excessive use of force as a law enforcement tool and manipulation of public opinion to support authoritarian action even when those in authority act lawlessly. Small moments of decency set ordinary people apart from powerful Macbeth and his corrupt followers, suggesting that decent but seemingly unimportant people have the power to change world. When a radio reporter urges listeners to “take to the streets and depose Macbeth,” the reader imagines that people might actually be able to empower themselves with collective action against despots and autocrats.

Nesbø illuminates the complexity of Macbeth’s character: villainous at times but troubled by a conscience; merciful at times, but not when mercy would stand in the way of ambition; a murderer, but as Duff points out (perhaps too charitably), reluctant to kill the innocent. He is driven more by his need to please Lady than by power for its own sake.

The Hogarth Shakespeare novels supposedly “retell” Shakespeare’s plays. The entries I’ve read have been good, but this is the only one I’ve seen that is penned by a crime novelist. Nesbø was a fitting choice to write about the murderous Macbeth. His choices are sound and his use of imagery is stunning. More importantly, Nesbø does justice to a play about justice.

RECOMMENDED

I really wanted to love this book. Macbeth is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, and having never read anything by Nesbo I was excited to see what all the fuss was about.
While an interesting take on the story, Nesbo's Macbeth sometimes feels wordy and too heavy. The subject matter is dark enough, the reader doesn't need ten pages of exposition on Macbeth's exact feelings on the matter.

Jo Nesbo's Macbeth is a real bloodbath. A creative retelling full of double-crossing, powerful men of a fictional police force in a run-down noir town which I'll call Glasgow. My mind made me envision a rainy, dreary town where the inhabitants search for meaning through chemicals and gambling. I was reminded of Trainspotting. I'm not going to lie. Parts of the Shakespearean story of Macbeth were way in the recesses of my brain. I remember the hags and their prophesy-telling, Lady Macbeth and her manipulation and trying to get that spot out, and murder. Most of all, I remember ambition for power.
Nesbo incorporates all of these things in such an interesting way. I especially love the use of skanky prostitute minions of Hecate to tell their prophesy. These "hags" appear as Macbeth is on the preciface of remaining honest and doing wrong. These hags play a more minor role in Nesbo's tale than Shakespeare's and it works well. I pictured his role models on one shoulder and the hags on the other, arguing for his next move. A real moment of no-turning back. And Macbeth surely does not turn back. He gets more driven, nasty, and creepier as the story unfolds.
The bulk of this book is the relationship of lawmen vs the outlaws. I was uncertain about the use of a true motorcycle street gang; however, having a specific criminal group to fight against seems the only option, in hindsight. The alliances change so quickly that readers have to pay close attention to all of the players. That Macbeth is pretty persuasive. He seems to be able to talk most of his comrades into anything involving a Gatling gun and a dagger.
The most compelling relationship; however, is that of Lady and Macbeth. Lady is such an interesting character: a former "lady" of the night (more of a Madam) who now is the owner of the Inverness Casino, the classier of the 2 casinos in town. And Lady, surprise, brings a little baggage to her relationship with the younger Macbeth. Macbeth will do anything for love; and therefore, anything for power. And Lady wouldn't have it any other way.
Macbeth is nearly 500 pages long. Honestly, it didn't lag much throughout that length. Things ratchet up just when you think they can't ratchet up anymore. This is probably going to become a movie. <sigh>
I don't want it to. But, if that happens, but Colin Farrell in it.

I can't imagine anyone better to rewrite the dark tale of Macbeth. Nesbo does this with his typical style. The drugs, gambling, violence and power struggles all fit perfectly.

DNF. Maybe it was just a poor choice for me. I am not a huge Shakespeare fan and this book dragged. I see that most readers really enjoyed the book so I will assume it just wasn’t a good fit.

Pretentious retelling of Shakespeare’s MacBeth, combined with the style of Dashiell Hammett.

So....a Norwegian steeped in crime procedurals is tasked with doing his thing with the Scottish Play. Let me just say that his Macbeth is no Harry Hole. As a book on its on merits, it has some but not enough to merit anything close to must-read status. As a variation on a theme and a test of the author's creative prowess, well let's give Nesbo his due. It's a different title to the kilt, a kind of Shakespeare-noir. Maybe I'm a purist, but enough of this stuff, Macduff!

I jumped at the opportunity to request this book via Net Galley as I am a fan of Jo Nesbø. Macbeth did not disappoint at all, despite a bit of a slow start. And, I don't mean slow in what is going on in the story, slow in my reading as there is lots going on and lots of characters to remember!

This is part of the Hogarth Shakespeare series (http://hogarthshakespeare.com/) and Nesbø hits a home run with his adaptation of Macbeth. Throughout the book, as the characters unfold, I questioned whether power corrupts or does a corrupt person take advantage of power. All the characters are flawed, yet some rise above their flaws and find the inner strength to make the right decisions. Some of the characters pay for their crimes and some are never even discovered - which makes this book very realistic, in my opinion.

If you are a fan of Nesbø, Macbeth will not disappoint! I highly recommend this book!

I would like to thank Net Galley, Crown Publishing, and Hogarth for the ARC of this book.

Macbeth was the first play by William Shakespeare that I read without looking like a deer in headlights. So when I learned the Jo Nesbo had written a modern retelling of the classic, I was sold. Now imagine Macbeth as a SWAT team leader and Lady as an owner of a fancy hotel in the a drug-infested city in the 70s. Sounds great, right? And it was. While I admit that my original memory of Macbeth is a bit shaky, it overall felt true to the original without being restrained by it and yet not offending purists either. Whether you're a fan of the original Macbeth, this modern retelling remains a powerful tale of greed and power and corruption.

There are few things that I more eagerly anticipate as a reader than the imminent arrival of the latest installment in the Hogarth Shakespeare series of books. These reimaginings of Shakespeare’s works by contemporary novelists have been among the most consistently innovative and engaging books of the past decade. My loves for both the Bard and for new fiction are sated simultaneously, thanks to Hogarth’s grand plan.

The latest offering – the seventh in the series – is “Macbeth” (Hogarth Shakespeare, $27), a take on the tragedy by Norwegian noir superstar Jo Nesbo and one more in a lengthy line of successes from the series.

(For the record, the previous six are as follows: “A Winter’s Tale” (“The Gap of Time” by Jeanette Winterson), “The Merchant of Venice” (“My Name is Shylock” by Howard Jacobson), “The Taming of the Shrew” (“Vinegar Girl” by Anne Tyler), “The Tempest” (“Hag-Seed” by Margaret Atwood), “Othello” (“New Boy” by Tracy Chevalier) and “King Lear” (“Dunbar” by Edward St. Aubyn).)

He moves the palace intrigue from an 11th-century Scottish castle to a police department in a crumbling industrial city in the 1970s; he also moves the bubbling rage, ceaseless paranoia and intricate machinations to the more modern setting. Far from undermining the foundational narratives of power and anger, that modernity serves only to enhance them.

Macbeth works for the police department in a run-down, rainy industrial town. He’s considered to be one of the best on the force, even though he doesn’t necessarily have the class advantages of some of his compatriots. His friend and rival (more rival than friend, really) is Duff, a fellow officer who has most of Macbeth’s policing talent and exponentially more ambition.

New police chief Duncan is trying desperately to clean up both the town and the department; the previous administration had some noteworthy incidents of corruption that the force would like people to forget.

The primary criminal target for Macbeth, Duff and the rest of the force – Banquo, Angus, Malcolm and so on – is the drug trade. Two entities control much of the drug trade, bringing substances both familiar and brand-new to the streets. There’s drug lord Hecate and the biker gang known as the Norse Riders – they are the dual enemies that Macbeth seeks to defeat.

But when things start to change, beginning with an administrative shake-up, Macbeth – with the encouragement of his lover, the Inverness Casino owner known only as Lady – begins to develop an itch for advancement. Macbeth is steered into using his vast array of skills and general empathetic disconnect however necessary to achieve his goals – the ends justify the means.

Shakespeare has endured for centuries not least because there’s a universality to his themes that can translate across a broad spectrum of settings. Setting Shakespeare in alternate times and spaces happens so often as to have become almost a cliché. So it should come as no surprise that “Macbeth” transitions easily.

It’s actually pretty remarkable how well Nesbo’s hard-boiled, bleak crime thriller style fits the story told by “Macbeth.” There’s a spare muscularity to his prose that suits the undergirding alpha-maleness of these characters while also putting power madness and moral erosion on full display. He really captures the toxic masculinity that permeates the play and translates it beautifully, exploring the complexity of the assorted relationship dynamics along the way.

Grounding “Macbeth,” which has its share of supernatural moments, completely in reality could have been tricky, but Nesbo clears that hurdle with aplomb. Witches become drugmakers, ghosts become hallucinations … and it all works, staying true to the spirit of the story while still allowing it to exist in a real world.

Actually, Nesbo’s great across the board in that respect. He fiddles with a few aspects of the play, but only to allow a cleaner fit for his own choices and his own themes. Even then, his ideas exist in service to those of Shakespeare, rather than in opposition.

Jo Nesbo might not be the first name that springs to mind for a project such as this, but it turned out to be an exquisite marriage. “Macbeth” is the noir take on the Scottish play that you’ve always wanted … even if you didn’t know it yet.

It has been quite some time since I read Shakespeare’s Macbeth; I think it must be at least a dozen years, as my wife laughs, telling me to double that…and then some. I don’t consider myself to be a Shakespeare expert, but I’ve read a handful of his plays and enjoyed most of them. Macbeth is by far my favorite.

Jo Nesbo has done a bang-up job of recreating the feeling that I had when I read Shakespeare’s play of the same name: the darkness, the cold-heartedness, the haunting regret. Nesbo has taken the original and brought it into the twenty-first century. For that part, I loved the book.

As I got further into the story, I struggled. I don’t know if it was timing, the story or what, but at about seventy percent I was ready for the story to be over. I was reading, not because I wanted to know what would happen (it’s based on a tragedy, we all know how they end), I was reading to get this story over with so that I could move on to my next book. Not really the way I want to finish a book.

In a strange sort of way, Macbeth got me thinking about Weird Al Yankovic’s song “Eat It.” I loved that song, but if it had been an original song and not a reworking of such a brilliant hit, would it have shone quite as strong? In the same way, if it weren’t for the feeling that this Macbeth brought back, would I have enjoyed it as much? That is the million dollar question.

I’m not one to back off of or get intimidated by a large book, but I found Macbeth to be a bit more of a commitment than a joy. I appreciate what Nesbo did in recreating a story I loved in my youth.

*4 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of the ebook for review.

Nesbo's Macbeth takes place in a gloomy Scottish town, ravaged by changes in industry in the 1970s. Macbeth is head of the SWAT team, in a police department that has been run by a corrupt cop for ages.

I think Shakespeare's themes lend themselves to re-imaginings more freely than most other classics and this setting was an excellent match for the overall gloom of Macbeth. The re-telling is fairly beat for beat with the play, but does explore the backstory of Duff, Lady, Banquo, and Macbeth - making their motivations and past scars and failings more clear to the reader. I had a few issues with the branding of the drugs sold by Hecate, "power" and "brew" - I personally can't take an addiction to "brew" seriously and "power" is a bit on the nose. Those are just small issues within an overall enjoyable read. This addition to the Hogarth Shakespeare series could be enjoyed by both fans of Shakespeare or fans of the hard-boiled detective genre.

So, I'm not exactly sure where to begin with this other thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read Nesbo's retelling of Shakespeare's Macbeth. I was really excited when I heard that Nesbo would be writing Macbeth. I thought a perfect fit. Sadly, I was disappointed in this novel. As a Nesbo fan and lover of Harry Hole and the Olav Johansen series this retelling really tanked for me and quickly. It took me over a week to get halfway through and at that point I decided to give it up.

I found it to be excruciatingly verbose. By the time I had gotten to the part where Lady tells Macbeth that he has to kill Duncan, I felt like the novel should be coming to a close, but alas I was only at 21% (eBook, Kindle) or chapter 6 and thought oh my gosh I still have 79% or or 36 more chapters or over 300 pages to go.

Well, I kept plugging along and have to say it didn't get much better and I really tapped out after Duncan was killed (Chapter 9). I think this could have been a 150 pages or more shorter. It seemed entirely to long for Duncan to killed in the first part and with no real lead up to the murder. The murder seemed to be hastily and sloppily done.

I'm giving this 2 stars instead of 1 because I did like the visual details Nesbo provided. Unfortunately, I DNF'd this book.

I really wanted to like this book but in the end it fell short. The characters were well developed, the setting dark and unpredictable, but the retelling was just too long. I found myself putting the book down for a few days hoping to get back into it. Then I resorted to reading dialogue and skimming the rest.
2.5 stars

Jo Nesbo is one of my all time favorite authors. His Harry Hole series, along with The Headhunter, are among my most often recommended books. Macbeth is one of few Shakespearean plays that I have read, re-read and even acted in on stage. Therefore, you can imagine my dismay when I found myself not enjoying Nesbo's retelling of Macbeth. In fact, I was so angry with myself that I re-read it again after a month just to ensure that I wasn't in a bad state or that my illness was not affecting my humor. It was all to no avail. Sadly, this retelling for the Hogarth series, is too slow, too dark, too noir. There is action, yes, but it feels contrived. There is the noir for which Nesbo is famous, but it is just depressing, not dark and gritty. At the end of the book you are left feeling dirty and unsatisfied rather than feeling the need for self-reflection which is the point of Macbeth.
I give this two stars because I know Nesbo is capable of so much more. Others may rate it higher because it is, after all, Macbeth.

Moving Macbeth to a squalid city with corrupt cops is a good idea. Lots of guns and criminals to kill because, of course, there are a ton of people to kill in the original. And we can't skip a single death. Unfortunately even with all the killing there isn't much tension. People change their minds helter skelter and kill accordingly and then regret it and kill somebody else, or don't regret it and kill somebody else. Interesting, but not very compelling.

There is a town without a name. It's a grey town divided by train tracks. It's a town where there are no more jobs. There are no more trains. There is just an incessant rain that beats people down, that and the incessant drug trade, which is also divided in two. There is a motorcycle gang, Norse Riders, who run synthetic drugs from out of town. And then there is Hecate, whose team cooks up a homemade brew that is stronger and more addictive than anyone has ever seen before. 

When the head of the Narcotics Unit, Inspector Duff, gets a tip that the Norse Riders are bringing a truckload of drugs to town, he shows up with his team to stop them. But he wasn't the only one who was tipped off. Without Duff knowing, Macbeth and a couple members of his SWAT team also got the tip and are watching to see what happens. When the Riders show up with more men than Duff expected, it is only with Macbeth's help that he escapes alive. Where Duff is an old school policeman, slowly working his way up and keeping an eye on the politics of the day, Macbeth is a natural officer and leader. He doesn't care about politics. He just wants to do the right thing. And when this incident turns into a promotion for Macbeth over Duff, you know that there will be hell to pay. 

As these men, and the rest of the police force, battle against the drugs that are infiltrating their town, they will also find themselves fighting against corruption and political machinations, against jealousy and resentment, against the worst that humanity has to offer as well as the beast of addiction. It will take everything these men have to figure out right from wrong and to find their way to their ultimate destiny. 

Jo Nesbo, author of the popular Detective Harry Hole series (that the film Snowman was based on), has taken on Shakespeare's Macbeth in the latest in the Hogarth series where some of today's most brilliant novelists retell classic plays through their personal points of view. So master of crime noir Nesbo took Macbeth and reinvented the Scottish play as a drama of crime and politics in a dark, post-industrial town. 

I've always loved the play Macbeth, and I love this novel version too. It's dark and complicated with layers of complexity in the relationships, which means the layers of betrayal cut so deeply. This book isn't for everyone, because of the exquisite noir, the darkness and the blood, but the original play isn't exactly filled with puppies and rainbows either. I recommend this one, but realize that it is long, which makes the constant darkness of the story even more difficult to deal with. It's excellent, but it's a lot to process. Make sure you have the mental and emotional room for it, and then take an amazing, phenomenal, luminescent ride through the worst and best of humanity with master craftsman Jo Nesbo. 



Galleys for Macbeth were provided by Hogarth through NetGalley, with many thanks.

Ever since reading and enjoying Hag-seed, Margaret Atwood's splendid re-imagining of Shakespeare's Tempest, I've faithfully kept track of the other installments in Hogarth Publishing's ambitious Shakespeare project. The more recent efforts have been somewhat lacking, but I've still been eagerly awaiting Jo Nesbo's take on Macbeth. I enjoyed reading many of Nesbo's Harry Hole novels years ago, so I was excited to see the master of dark, Norwegian crime novels take on Shakespeare's darker work.

True to his bare-bones approach to writing his bestselling novels, Nesbo wisely stays close to the source with his retelling. His Macbeth is set in the middle of a 1970's drug war. Chief of Police Duncan battles notorious drug lord Hecate. Hecate plans to use SWAT officer Macbeth to see his own agenda advanced. Macbeth has always strayed into the gray area of the law and has no problem falling into a path of lawlessness.

Nesbo has a penchant for writing darkly persuaded characters with a depth and empathy that is second to none. I couldn't help but compare his Macbeth to Harry Hole. Fair or not, Nesbo's Macbeth never reached the fully drawn level that I've come to expect from him. Consequently, it was rather difficult to root for this protagonist. Still, Nesbo is a pro and managed to give his story a suspense that I've never felt in the play.

Despite a few gripes, I found myself enjoying this retelling and constantly reveling in the connections to the original work. Jo Nesbo has a signature authorial style that transcends his novels. Fortunately, this unique voice found itself front a center of this version of Shakespeare's classic. While I still think Atwood's retelling was more satisfying, Nesbo's Macbeth comes in a close second. We have a few years now until Hogarth releases their final announced novel in the collection. With a strong effort from Nesbo, I'm eagerly awaiting Gillian Flynn's take on Hamlet in 2021.

“Macbeth” by Jo Nesbó is, as one would expect, a modern rendition of Shakespeare’s classic play. I will not infuriate teachers of English Literature everywhere by comparing the two versions except to say that all the elements of the classic are found in Nesbó’s version, the people, the drama, the conflict, the tragedy. What is to be discovered is how all that tragedy is translated into modern Scandinavia.
The opening line sets the stage for the vivid descriptions in the rest of the book.
“The shiny raindrop fell from the sky, through the darkness, towards the shivering lights of the port below. Cold gusting north-westerlies drove the raindrop over the dried-up riverbed that divided the town lengthwise and the disused railway line that divided it diagonally.”
The city is in crisis; corruption abounds; crime is rampant, and the city’s inhabitants get rich with casinos, drugs and politics. Unemployment six times higher than average; the number of drug users ten times greater, and the risk of being robbed was six times higher here than in Capitol,
Extensive descriptive backgrounds make Nesbó’s characters real and relatable. We almost want a different ending for them all, but alas, we know the plot, and we know how it ends.
“It’s just one of those self-fulfilling things. You’ve always known, all your life, you’re doomed to lose in the end. That certainty is and always has been you, Macbeth.”
Macbeth is a man of few words, but then no one expects the head of SWAT to be a wordsmith. He is haunted by his deeds, and sees them everywhere.
“Macbeth saw the light for pedestrians had changed from a green man to red. A human body covered with blood from head to toe. Macbeth shuddered.”
Descriptions are without a match when we first meet “her.”
“Macbeth walked into the light by the entrance to the casino, from which a tall woman with flowing flame-red hair in a long red dress emerged and hugged him, as though a phantom had warned her that her beloved was on his way. Lady.”
I received a copy of “Macbeth” from Jo Nesbó, Crown Publishing, and NetGalley. It is certainly more gritty and bloody than the original, but even without the classic connection, it is a psychological thriller full of power-hungry madness. Every page is packed with action, conflict, guilt, betrayal, and loyalty.