Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780099111511
ISBN number: 0099111519
Label: Arrow Books Ltd
Manufacturer: Arrow Books Ltd
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: March 04, 1993
Publishing house: Arrow Books Ltd
Studio: Arrow Books Ltd
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Sexual hunger; demonic violence; sinister logic - the lethal components of a deadly formula driving a psychopath in the grip of an unimaginable delusion; a boastful killer who sends the police tormenting notes; a tortured, torturing monster who finds ultimate pleasure in viciously murdering happy families, and calls himself...The Red Dragon. Special agent Will Graham has been assigned to similar cases before, cases where he was able to see and feel WITH the madmen, anticipate their moves and, most terrifying of all, be vulnerable to their horrifying brutality. Now Graham is reluctantly lured out of retirement, to find an opening to the evil mind of the Red Dragon. 'Red Dragon' is quite probably the most suspenseful, utterly compelling thriller ever written.
Amazon.com Review:
Lying on a cot in his cell with Alexandre Dumas's Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine open on his chest, Hannibal 'The Cannibal' Lecter makes his debut in this legendary horror novel, which is even better than its sequel, The Silence of the Lambs. As in Silence, the pulse-pounding suspense plot involves a hypersensitive FBI sleuth who consults psycho psychiatrist Lecter for clues to catching a killer on the loose.
The sleuth, Will Graham, actually quit the FBI after nearly getting killed by Lecter while nabbing him, but fear isn't what bugs him about crime busting. It's just too creepy to get inside a killer's twisted mind. But he comes back to stop a madman who's been butchering entire families. The FBI needs Graham's insight, and Graham needs Lecter's genius. But Lecter is a clever fiend, and he manipulates both Graham and the killer at large from his cell.
That killer, Francis Dolarhyde, works in a film lab, where he picks his victims by studying their home movies. He's obsessed with William Blake's bizarre painting The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun, believing there's a blue dragon within him, the personification of his demonic drives. Flashbacks to Dolarhyde's terrifying childhood and superb stream-of-consciousness prose get us right there inside his head. When Dolarhyde does weird things, we understand why. We sympathize when the voice of the cruel dead grandma who raised and crazed him urges him to mayhem--she's way scarier than that old bat in Psycho. When he falls in love with a blind girl at the lab, we hope he doesn't give in to Grandma's violent advice.
This book is awesomely detailed, ingeniously plotted, judiciously gory, and fantastically imagined. If you haven't read it, you've never had the creeps. --Tim Appelo
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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This is a wonderful book. Thomas Harris writes with class and there are some sections of the novel that are just so realistic and chilling (Dolarhyde's childhood memories), that one must marvel at Harris's writing ability.
I would say that the very first 80% of the novel is brilliance, and maybe the last 20% falls a little flat in comparison as the scenes have that feeling of "same old, same old" to them.
A very strong book, and nearly the same level as Silence.....
Rated by buyers 
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This is the book on which Harris' writing career was predicated, and I think his recognition is well-earned.
While hardly groundbreaking, this fast-paced suspense novel wraps up every chapter with a cliffhanger. The writing is leaner and more fast-paced than the later books in the series, and I think that's a good thing.
Dolarhyde, who is maybe a little cartoonish, is nonetheless entertaining to read about. He seems to develop a split personality, one of which is the bloodthirsty dragon, while the other is the socially awkward young man who finds himself falling in love.
Between Dolarhyde, the infamous Hannibal Lecter, and the emotionally vulnerable detective Will Graham, Harris has struck upon three strong characters, each of whom do the heavy lifting of entertaining the audience at times.
I would recommend this book as a page turner, and as an introduction to the character of Hannibal Lecter (although, after Silence, the series really goes downhill).
Rated by buyers 
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This was a fantastic book, better than the movie. It was in great shape for a great price.
Rated by buyers -
Red Dragon is an excellent book. Thomas Harris is a master of creating suspenseful stories. The characters that Harris creates fit into the story perfectly. Thomas Harris takes the reader on a psychological rollercoaster ride for the entire novel. Overall, Red Dragon is a must read novel. A+ for Thomas Harris and Red Dragon.
Rated by buyers -
Early Hannibal the Cannibal.
Much like the later Silence of the Lambs we have a serial killer to catch of the rather strange variety, FBI political machinations, and the need for the help of the very scary, even while in prison Lecter.
Not as good as the later book, but if you like that quite a bit you should find this quite good, too.
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