This may sound like sacrilege to most fans of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter series, but I have to be honest: I don't think 'The Silence Of The Lambs' is quite as good as 'Red Dragon'. Now, don't get me wrong; it's still one of my favourite novels and Harris' writing is as masterfully precise, while still being poetic, as you could ever hope. It was the first Thomas Harris novel I read and it did the job of hooking me on the man's writing extremely well. It's tense, exciting, intelligent, horrific, disturbing, insightful, moving and even funny in places. Everything you could ever want from a psychological thriller/crime/horror novel. The reason I say it's not quite as good as 'Red Dragon' is because I honestly feel that Jame Gumb doesn't even come close to being as interesting or as scary an antagonist as Francis Dolarhyde. I also don't like Clarice Starling as much as I did Will Graham, in the protagonist stakes. Fortunately, we have a great deal more Hannibal Lecter in this novel to make up for these areas of lack. Lecter is simply the greatest literary monster of the twentieth century and I have a feeling he'll be remembered in the years to come as a villain on a par with Count Dracula himself. I also found Jack Crawford's character arc deeply moving. His deeply personal plight added a level of piquancy to this novel that I'm sure Lecter himself would have appreciated.
Now to start on the last book in the series: 'Hannibal'!
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