Macbeth, by Jo Nesbo

Jo Nesbo is a masterful writer of crime fiction. In his particular niche, he is superb. That said, it probably takes his level of expertise and confidence to take on William Shakespeare and write a modern interpretation of Shakespeare’s 1606 play, The Tragedy of Macbeth. It is probably best if you read Nesbo’s Macbeth without ever having read the play, because if you have, you will spend ages in a kind of suspended animation, pausing to compare the book to the play. I sometimes did not know whether I wanted to continue reading since I realized that Nesbo had kept pretty close to the details of the play, and I knew how the play ends. So it is best that you ignore Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and tackle this exactly like you would normally approach a Nesbo novel – gleefully anticipating murder, gore, and bastards with blood on their hands. (Read more…)