HANNIBAL
by Thomas Harris
I wish I’d written this ...
... because it’s even better than THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.
The first two novels in the Lecter sequence were similar in theme and structure. HANNIBAL benefits from being different. The plot begins with Clarice Starling in America, then spends time with Lecter in Italy before bringing them both together back in the U.S. Throughout the novel, gruesome murders are planned and committed, and these savage acts achieve a gut-wrenching impact by virtue of their contrast to Lecter’s refined tastes and appreciation of art, cuisine and culture. The highs are fragrantly high, the lows are hellishly low. And Harris’s writing is exquisite. Really, I can’t fault him, his sense of pacing, his craftsmanship, his ability to draw out your emotions … he has to be one of the top five thriller writers. And then the denouement. Wow, the final chapters of this novel are just incredible. They will stick in my memory for years to come, I’m certain. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!
From the publisher
Years after his escape, posing as scholarly Dr. Fell, curator of a grand family's palazzo, Hannibal lives the good life in Florence, playing lovely tunes by serial killer/composer Henry VIII and killing hardly anyone himself. Clarice is unluckier: in the novel's action-film-like opening scene, she survives an FBI shootout gone wrong, and her nemesis, Paul Krendler, makes her the fall guy. Clarice is suspended, so, unfortunately, the first cop who stumbles on Hannibal is an Italian named Pazzi, who takes after his ancestors, greedy betrayers depicted in Dante's Inferno. Pazzi is on the take from a character as scary as Hannibal: Mason Verger. When Verger was a young man busted for raping children, his vast wealth saved him from jail. All he needed was psychotherapy—with Dr. Lecter. Thanks to the treatment, Verger is now on a respirator, paralysed except for one crablike hand, watching his enormous, brutal moray eel swim figure eights and devour fish. His obsession is to feed Lecter to some other brutal pets.
