In the realm of psychological suspense, Thomas Harris stands alone. exploring both the nature of human evil and the nerve-racking anatomy of forensic investigation, Harris unleashes a frightening vision of the dark side of our well-lighted world. In this extraordinary tale -- which preceded The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, Harris introduced the unforgettable character Dr. Hannibal Lecter. And in it, Will Graham -- the FBI man who hunted Lecter down -- risks his sanity and his life to duel a killer called...The Red ...
Read More
In the realm of psychological suspense, Thomas Harris stands alone. exploring both the nature of human evil and the nerve-racking anatomy of forensic investigation, Harris unleashes a frightening vision of the dark side of our well-lighted world. In this extraordinary tale -- which preceded The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, Harris introduced the unforgettable character Dr. Hannibal Lecter. And in it, Will Graham -- the FBI man who hunted Lecter down -- risks his sanity and his life to duel a killer called...The Red DragonA quiet summer night...a neat suburban house...and another happy family is shattered -- the latest victims of a grisly series of hideous sacrificial killings that no one understands, and no one can stop. Nobody lives to tell of the unimaginable carnage. Only the blood-stained walls bear witness.All hope rests on the Special Agent Will Graham, who must peer inside the killer's tortured soul to understand his rage, to anticipate and prevent his next vicious crime. Desperate for help, Graham finds himself locked in a deadly alliance with the brilliant Dr. Hannibal Lecter -- the infamous mass murderer who Graham put in prison years ago. As the imprisoned Lecter tightens the reins of revenge, Graham's feverish pursuit of the Red Dragon draws him inside the warped mind of a psychopath, into an unforgettable world of demonic ritual and violence, beyond the limits of human terror.
Read Less
Most people that know anything about this book know that it is the book that introduced Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs, but in my opinion this book is one of greatest books in modern American fiction. I first read it over twenty years ago, and purchased this copy for my sixteen year old daughter. She devoured it and gave it rave reviews. Probably not for the squeamish, but if you enjoy a good thriller this is a must-have book.
LutherTeach
Mar 6, 2008
Amazing!
I absolutely loved this book!! It is so different from the movie! (Which I loved!!) There were so many twists and turns and sooo much suspense!! Definitely worth the read!
James6
Feb 15, 2008
The Dark Side of Hell
First off I have to say I?ve read the Hannibal cannon since I was a teen (Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal- Hannibal Rising doesn?t count) and Red Dragon is one of the best of the trilogy. A truly, disturbing, nightmarish gaze into the twisted mind of a serial killer. Even after finishing Silence, Hannibal it was Dragon that festered in my mind, not Silence or Hannibal. In fact it?s never really left. And it never will. The novel itself is a deeply understated work of art. Yes, Hannibal was a literary novel, but Red Dragon to me is a crisp, sharper version of Harris?s musing prose in its successors. Full of sickening descents, like a disappearing black sun running ever downward with Harris. (You may have heard that the forensic steeped middle is a bit lengthy, but keep in mind this is a 1980?s novel. Jeffrey Deaver and Patricia Cornwell weren?t NY bestsellers yet.) Red Dragon?s plot is fairly simple, but deeply distorted in a chilling way. The only way to describe it would be like stepping into a dark, decaying, roach infested basement naked, blindfolded, with the unmistakable sound of knives being drawn across each other and the demented howling of the damned rushing in your straining ears. Will Graham is a retired FBI profiler burnt out by the countless horrors he has seen is called back into the hell he swore he left behind him to track down a deranged slayer of families called The Tooth Fairy. A frightening creature with a fetish for biting and broken glass, a tormented man who was once a horribly abused child, a demi-god of death with a fearsome friend of chaos, The Devil. Harris layers on the terror of the increasingly bizarre case in the placid land of California, where the sun shines golden on darkened, bloodstained houses, where closed door muffle the sound of dying screams. And the Red Dragon runs rampant. The pages will flying, specks of gore on your sweaty face, as you walk in Graham?s haunted shadow as he tries in vain to shelter his new family from the shroud of dead his job brings, worming into the Tooth Fairy?s mind with eyes wide open. Falling, falling, falling into the darkness? As the case becomes more convoluted, Graham turns to the only person he can. Dr. Hannibal Lector. My dear reader, Make no mistake, you won?t forget Red Dragon, as a dark crime novelist myself I can say I haven?t yet seen a horror/crime novel top it. Not even Hannibal. Happy screaming, I?ll meet you in the dark side of hell.
Selina
Sep 17, 2007
Harris rules
Harris is probably one of the greatest writers alive today and Red Dragon is proof of it. This is a very scary serial killer tale, which introduces the world to Dr. Lector. Graham is a smart foil for Lector. Lector also appears smarter in this novel than in the later ones. The narritive is also well done.