It really shouldn't come as any surprise that Norwegian Renaissance man Jo Nesbo has taken a stab at Shakespeare.
After all, most of his previous crime thrillers have much to do with moral decline, sometimes allied with an examination of the slow rot that accompanies a clambering for (or defence of) power.
In taking on Macbeth, Nesbo moves the set from the Oslo so loved by Harry Hole, the hero of so many of his previous works, to a shabby, rarely sunny, industrial town (there is little doubt it is Scotland, although that is never confirmed).
Indeed, this veiled landscape, so defined yet darkly ephemeral, almost serves as a sub-theme; it is a shadowland for shadow figures, and thus the perfect stage for Nesbo to choreograph his masterly reworking of prophesies and plot.
Nesbo's Macbeth centres around a police force struggling to shed an incessant drug problem. Duncan, chief of police, is idealistic and visionary, a dream leader to the townspeople but a nightmare for criminals. The drug trade is ruled by two drug lords, one of whom - a master of manipulation named Hecate - has connections with the highest in power, and plans to use them to get his way.
Hecate's plans hinge on manipulating Inspector Macbeth, the head of Swat, a man already susceptible to violent and paranoid tendencies, not helped by his addiction, firstly, to industrial-strength opiates, a need slowly yet surely replaced by the fix of power.
Yes, there is Shakespeare's dark evocation of love, guilt, ambition, betrayal and blood (lots of it), but fans of Nesbo will also recognise echoes of the deconstruction of the protagonist.
As he did in best-sellers Phantom and The Leopard, Nesbo is at his best when he inverts notions of responsibility: In The Leopard it was Harry Hole as the son, while in Phantom it is Harry as father figure.
In Macbeth, he takes a knife to the thread of friendship. The result is a central question: who can be bought or coerced?
Win a copy
The Weekend Mix has five copies of Macbeth, by Jo Nesbo, courtesy of Penguin Random House, to give away. For your chance to win a copy, email playtime@odt.co.nz with your name and postal address in the body of the email and "France" in the subject line, by Tuesday, May 29.
WINNERS
Winners of France: A History: From Gaul To De Gaulle, by John Julius Norwich, courtesy of Hachette, are Sandra Annett, of Timaru, and Deborah Murrell, of Karitane.
Shane Gilchrist is a former ODT books editor.
