I recently read Silence of the Lambs by
Thomas Harris. This is the second book in the Hannibal series, the
middle book in between Red Dragon and Hannibal. I have never seen any
of the Hannibal movies, so as far as story line goes, I had nothing
to base any expectations off of, which I generally prefer when
reading books.
Silence of the Lambs is of the mystery
genre, which, I must admit, is not my favourite genre to read. There
are so many mysteries out there that too many of them are similar.
The murderer of this story is a man that the public calls “Buffalo
Bill”, and has been killing young women and skinning them,
seemingly in a random order, as the bodies have been found all over
the place with no apparent pattern. Clarice Starling, a trainee-FBI
agent, is given the task of interviewing Hannibal Lecter, an
imprisoned psychologist-and-psychopath-in-one, who may know who
Buffalo Bill is and what his motives are.
Buffalo Bill turns out to be a
transvestite-type, who is attempting to make a skin suit out of a
woman's skin, in order to 'become' a woman. Quite disturbing and
quite interesting, and I have to say that I wasn't expecting that
one. But the real draw to this book is Starling's interviews with
Hannibal. His character intrigues me to no end. Being a former
psychologist but also a psychopath is a dangerous combination – he
knows exactly how to get into one's head and mess with them, and one
can never tell if he's being genuine or if he is telling you a
flat-out lie.
By the end of the book, Hannibal has
lead Starling and the FBI to Buffalo Bill. However, he has also
escaped, after being transferred from his high-security cell to one
where the security is less knowledgeable of his ways.
I am looking forward to reading
Hannibal. While Silence of the Lambs gave a glimpse of the mad genius
of Hannibal Lecter, Hannibal is completely focused on his character.
I will definitely do a follow-up about that novel after I read it.
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