MACBETH Hogarth Shakespeare, Book 7

It’s disappointing to report that this entry in this intriguing series of Shakespeare plots rewritten by modern masters just doesn’t work, at least in this audio version. Narrator Euan Morton’s use of an aggressively glottal Scottish accent for the entire text, not just dialogue, distracts from the narrative badly. Worse, Nesbo’s strength is noir thriller plotting, and this plot is not his. He’s made Macbeth, Banquo, and the rest into police detectives jockeying for career advancement while at war with a drug lord called Hecate. The weird sisters are junkie hookers, okay fine, but can you call Macbeth’s girlfriend “Lady” without laughing? Nesbo’s tale is a murder story, but Shakespeare’s is a tragedy of a human condition, and Morton certainly doesn’t help Nesbo approach that. B.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2018]