Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter, Book Three): Thomas Harris

"Before The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, there was Red Dragon, the book that introduced Hannibal Lecter to the world.  Hailed on its arrival by The Washington Post Book World as "the scariest book of the season" and by Newsday as "crime novel of the year," Red Dragon is for all time "and unforgettable thriller with equal parts of horror and suspense" (New York Daily News). In Red Dragon, Thomas Harris leads you on a journey into a madman's mind:  a reverberating torture chamber where Francis Dolarhyde is both monster and victim; a furnace of devouring memory where man and dragon can coexist only by constant vigilance and blood sacrifice."

I thought I'd reviewed this book months ago and was just writing my review for another book when I saw that I somehow forgot to do this one!

Anyone who read my review for Hannibal Rising knows how much I enjoy the Hannibal series.  I was so excited to pick up one of Harris' books again.  I saw the film adaptation of this book many times before I read the hard copy, so my expectations were high.  Harris did not disappoint.  The characters were strong and complex.  The plot was dramatic and dark without crossing the line into cliche.  Dolarhyde was frighteningly real and his crimes were unbelievably heinous.  The little snippets of Hannibal Lecter's input were a tantalizing taste of the sinister genius that I love (in a twisted literary way) from the previous stories.  Though I do give this book a good review and I definitely recommend it, I did not love it quite as much as I loved reading Hannibal Rising.  To be honest, I believe this is only because there was not as much Lecter and not because there was something lacking from the story itself.  I think I'm forever wrecked because of the truly haunting story that was told in Rising.

As for those of you who are wondering how similar this book was to the film, I'll only say that I am happy with some of the changes Hollywood made and others were much better conveyed in the story.  I won't give away anymore spoilers, so you'll have to go pick it up for yourself.  (Sorry!  I know I usually provide more of a book-to-film analysis for something like this, but the movie adaptations of Harris' works really need to be witnessed first-hand.)