SuitabookSomething Rotten
Alan Gratz
- Reading
- Try reading it alongside the broad premise of Hamlet, then compare how the modern setting turns the family tragedy into a small-town investigation.
- Themes
- A Hamlet mystery retold: Two friends investigate the poisoning of Hamilton’s father, with several people around the family treated as possible suspects. The story uses a murder mystery to recast Hamlet in a modern small-town setting.
- Pollution in the town: The paper plant and polluted river are associated with the smell that greets Horatio in Denmark. Environmental pollution is part of the setting, alongside the murder investigation.
- Worth knowing
- Poisoning and a murder investigation are central to the plot; pollution and a persistent bad smell also shape the town’s atmosphere.