Set in the 1970s in a run-down, rainy industrial town, Jo Nesbø's adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth centers around idealistic chief of police Duncan, head of the SWAT team. His nemesis is the manipulative drug lord Hecate, who has powerful political connections and plans to use them to get his way. Hecate's plot hinges on steadily, insidiously manipulating Inspector Macbeth, a man already susceptible to violent and paranoid tendencies. Featuring the same gritty detail and taut plotting found in his Harry Hole novels, Nesbø's tale looks into the dark corners of cops and crooks alike, and chronicles the resulting chaos of the town's drug war.

"Inventive and deeply satisfying.... [Nesbø] offers a dark but ultimately hopeful Macbeth, one suited to our troubled times."—NYTBR