This post is long over due. And for that, I'm sorry.
With all the recent Hannibal talk there's been, the new show certainly giving him new attention, I've found myself somewhat pulled down the rabbit hole, thanks to tumblr and have been curious about it. No, I've never seen the films, and no, I haven't watched the show, but I like knowing what's going by on my blog, so I gave this book a go.
I should start off by saying that Dr Lecter is not in this book. Well, when I say that, he has a few very small appearances. He's locked up in a sanatorium, and his crimes are in the past and barely mentioned, but still, we all know who he is. Who features more in this story is Will Graham, who was responsible for bringing Dr Lecter down, and still has nightmares about it.
No, the main villain of this story is the "Tooth Fairy"--excuse me, "Red Dragon", who, like all good serial killers, has an overblown sense of importance, and a tragic childhood to boot.
I've always liked books involving a good serial killer and some hero doing his (or her) best to bring him down. Ted Dekker has always been one of my favourite authors (though his novels are very hit and miss, I am very discriminatory over what I choose to read from him) who has always managed to get into the heads of killers and make them fascinating, almost inhuman, creatures. The Tooth Fairy, however, does not have that. He's normal (as normal as a man who's obsessed with murdering families and doing rather unsavoury things to their corpses can be).
The book was...surprisingly not very violent, for every image in my head I've always had of Hannibal Lecter has involved a great amount of violence. But, really, nothing worth mentioning here. Thomas Harris does a good job with his...abstract descriptions. So, if you're looking for graphic violence you are looking in the wrong place--and that goes for all graphicness. Besides a few F-bombs tossed about, this book is pretty tame.
It was a fast read, which is both good and bad, but it was also a good read, which is important. Books can be a fast read and that can often lead to bad things--as in terrible writing--but this book does not. Harris is a good writer, and that to me, is the most important thing. A book can be easily read, but if it's not well written, then it's so easy to feel one's time was wasted.
It was a satisfying story, though I would not really call it a thriller, for it wasn't, and I wouldn't call it "terrifying" as the cover says. It was a read. I wouldn't say there were any wild twists or turns, and if there was one (at the very end) it was...less than satisfying in that aspect.
But if you want to get involved with the Hannibal series, and hang out with Will Graham, his dogs, Crawford, and Hannibal writing snide letters from his padded cell, then this is a good place to start.
