Hannibal
Luckily for us, seven years is all the R and R creator Thomas Harris
allowed his brilliant, mad, and strangely charming Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
Yes, the better part of a decade elapsed after then-FBI trainee Clarice
Starling exposed her haunting childhood memory to the fascinated
Lecter. Though Lecter assured Starling, at the end of The Silence of
the Lambs, that he believed the world a better place with her in it, all
that may change in Hannibal, as the doctor reawakens Starling's
nightmare.
From the Publisher
Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the serial killer from The Silence of the Lambs
whose portrayal on film earned Anthony Hopkins an Academy Award,
and who for many, is the ultimate villain in modern fiction, is back with
a vengeance. “Hannibal the Cannibal” is at the center of the first novel
in more than a decade by his creator, Thomas Harris.
Hannibal also features the reappearance from The Silence of the
Lambs of FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling, portrayed in the movie
by Jodie Foster, who also won an Oscar for her performance. The
new novel opens seven years after Dr. Lecter’s stunning escape from
the authorities, the climax of the earlier book, as one of his earlier
victims uses Agent Starling as bait to draw the doctor into an intricate
and unspeakable design for revenge.
Synopsis
Seven years after Dr. Hannibal Lecter's escape from the authorities, the
climax of Silence of the Lambs, one of his earlier victims uses Agent
Starling as bait to draw the doctor into an intricate and unspeakable
design for revenge.
From The Critics
Christopher Lehmann-Haupt - The New York Times
...[G]reat is the fund of fascination with Lecter built up in Mr. Harris's
previous novels — for his being a superman embodying absolute yet
comprehensible evil...that almost nothing can dissipate his malign
attraction....Hannibal remains full of wonderful touches, typical of Mr.
Harris's grasp of arcane detail.
Publisher's Weekly
Hannibal the cannibal is back again, and in this special audio version,
listeners are treated to the author's unique and riveting interpretation of
his characters' voices and personalities. Having escaped captivity in
The Silence of the Lambs, Dr. Hannibal Lecter has been living on the
sly in Europe, leading the life of a sophisticated, academic gentleman.
But Hannibal has left behind one sloppy mistake: a victim named
Mason Verger, who was accused of molesting his own children but
managed to avoid jail provided he sought psychiatric treatment with Dr.
Lecter. Hannibal has left Verger barely alive, and, bent on revenge, this
man who is as much a monster as Hannibal buys off a cadre of corrupt
government agents to find his nemesis. (As an interesting aside for
listeners, Hannibal has left Verger lipless, and Harris's vocal rendition
of this character is particularly eerie.) Simultaneously, Clarice Starling,
the FBI agent who sought Dr. Lecter's assistance in finding another
killer in The Silence of the Lambs, is also on his trail, while, in turn,
Hannibal is seeking Clarice, for whom he shows a curious affection. As
the two eventually find each other, the listener is treated to an incredibly
disturbing and shocking conclusion. (Feb.) Copyright 2001 Cahners
Business Information.
Library Journal
Hannibal is, of course, Harris's long-awaited sequel to The Silence of
the Lambs, which so thoroughly propelled the brilliant psychiatrist-
cannibal into the popular imagination. We catch up with Lecter in
Florence where he is living a scholarly life and rarely murders anyone
but is still obsessed with FBI special agent Clarice Starling. He is nearly
captured in Florence, after which the FBI and Starling are back on his
trail. Also tracking Lecter is another monster, Mason Verger, his only
surviving victim. Verger is mutilated, paralyzed, and on a respirator but
has resources enough at his disposal to co-opt and manipulate the
FBI's investigation in his quest for vengeance. The strong and likable
Starling is doubly betrayed, first by the FBI and then by Harris himself,
as the novel stumbles to its bizarre and unlikely conclusion. The author
reads his own work with remarkable skill and precision--an ironic but
welcome asset to this program, which is an adequate abridgment.--
Kristen L. Smith, Loras Coll. Lib., Dubuque, IA Copyright 2000
Cahners Business Information.
AudioFile - Elizabeth K. Dodge
Hannibal Lecter, the gruesome serial killer who escaped at the end of
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, is living high off the hog in Florence
when he discovers (through nefarious channels) that his FBI nemesis,
Clarice Starling, is in the midst of a career crisis. Falling prey to his
obsession with her, he inadvertently sets himself up to be captured, not
by the FBI, but by a mortal enemy who intends to feed him alive to
wild boars. Reader Thomas Harris has plumbed the inner depths of the
monstrous Lecter–after all, he created him–and his familiarity, not
surprisingly, informs his energetic reading. The surprise is his portrayal
of Clarice Starling, who is utterly credible as the young victim of class
and gender distinctions in the FBI. In tones that reveal both femininity
and determination, Harris's voice embodies the personal history that
makes her so vulnerable and so ambitious. Smatterings of precise
Italian also makes perfectly believable Lecter's Florentine pursuers. E.
K.D. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
Stephen King - The New York Times Book Review
It is...one of the two most frightening popular novels of our time, the
other being The Exorcist....[A] novel full of rough bumps and little
insights....[An] authentic witch's brew, eye of newt and haunch of
redneck....[N]ovels that so bravely and cleverly erase the line between
popular fiction and literature are very much to be prized.
Aspiring Writers