Dr Hannibal Lecter! ’Silence of the Lambs’. But before the movie, there was the book and I dare say, the book beats the movie hands down when it comes to disturbing your nights. A psychopathic murderer is on the loose and seemingly the only person capable of providing an insight to his thoughts is behind the bars; himself an evil genius.
FBI trainee Clarice Sterling gets to interview that person and an epic battle for psychological superiority between the evil psychopathic genius and the smart and young FBI trainee provides the readers some of the most gripping accounts of power struggle ever to have come out in print. While in the first encounter, Dr Lecter seemed to have shaken the trainee up to her bones, as the time progressed Clarice bounced back to extract what she was looking for from the doc.
The main villain of the story, however, is the sinister ’Buffalo Bill’ who has his own idea about dealing with attractive women. While he went on committing one horrible crime after another, Clarice slowly but surely drove closer to her goal of catching him. But will she be in time to stop him from committing his next act of brutality? All the three characters slowly revealed themselves as the story progressed. While Clarice grew in stature with each passing incidence, ’Buffalo Bill’ evoked unmixed hatred and fear amongst the readers. And above all, of course, is Dr Hannibal Lecter - you will admire his brain but at the same time tremble at the thought of exploring its dark corners. Thomas Harris has achieved in this psychological crime thriller something which all writers crave for - the perfect balance.
He builds up his characters with care and restraint, the dialogues convey the tension without overdoing it and the narration is fast but gave readers enough time to reflect and enjoy a good line or idea when one came across one(and there are plenty of those). The way he describes the most gruesome of crimes without turning them gory shows his control over his craft. I read this book along with the likes of ’The Day of the Jackal’ and ’The Godfather’ but without slightest hesitation would award the honors to this work by Thomas Harris. Not to be missed even if you have watched the movie multiple times!