Red Dragon

Lying on a cot in his cell with Alexandre Dumass?ÿLe Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine?ÿopen on his chest, Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter makes his debut in this legendary horror novel, which is even better than its sequel,?ÿThe Silence of the Lambs. As in?ÿSilence, the pulse-pounding suspense plot involves a hypersensitive FBI sleuth who consults psycho psychiatrist Lecter for clues to catching a killer on the loose.
The sleuth, Will Graham, actually quit the FBI after nearly getting killed by Lecter while nabbing him, but fear isnt what bugs him about crime busting. Its just too creepy to get inside a killers twisted mind. But he comes back to stop a madman whos been butchering entire families. The FBI needs Grahams insight, and Graham needs Lecters genius. But Lecter is a clever fiend, and he manipulates both Graham and the killer at large from his cell.
That killer, Francis Dolarhyde, works in a film lab, where he picks his victims by studying their home movies. Hes obsessed with William Blakes bizarre painting?ÿThe Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun, believing theres a red dragon within him, the personification of his demonic drives. Flashbacks to Dolarhydes terrifying childhood and superb stream-of-consciousness prose get us right there inside his head. When Dolarhyde does weird things, we understand why. We?ÿsympathize?ÿwhen the voice of the cruel dead grandma who raised and crazed him urges him to mayhem–shes way scarier than that old bat in?ÿPsycho. When he falls in love with a blind girl at the lab, we hope he doesnt give in to Grandmas violent advice.
This book is awesomely detailed, ingeniously plotted, judiciously gory, and fantastically imagined. If you havent read it, youve never had the creeps.?ÿ–Tim Appelo