Jan 26, 2004 07:01 PM
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(Updated Jan 26, 2004 10:22 PM)
Selected lines from book reviews on the back cover of the novel are enough to tempt prospective buyers into going for Red Dragon. “Red Dragon is an engine designed for one purpose--- to make the pulse pound, the heart palpitate, the fear glands secrete.” goes the New York Times review. “Warning! If you are subject to nightmares, don’t read it!” goes the Colorado Springs Sun. Well, nightmares or not, I’d recommend this book by Thomas Harris to all readers who are game for crime stories, as well as those who wish to get started.
The first in the Hannibal Lecter trilogy, the other two being The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal (both by Thomas Harris), Red Dragon has inspired two movies--- Manhunter and Red Dragon.
The story is about a retired FBI agent Will Graham, who is brought back from retirement by his colleague Jack Crawford because he believes Graham is the only man who can help solve two gruesome murders seemingly committed by a psycho. Two families are murdered a month apart, on full moon nights, and Graham must nab the murderer before the next full moon brings with it another sinister night; another family mercilessly killed.
Here is the reason Crawford insists on Graham--- Graham, like other crime experts, follows every detail, visits the sites of the crimes, looks for clues and follows the forensic investigations, but unlike the rest, Graham has a unique gift which helps him nab criminals; the Gift of Fear. His Fear is what enables him to delve into the mind of the psychotic killer, think the way he does and predict his next move. Subconsciously, he talks to him, and also tries to know the victims better. “I know how they died, I must know now how they lived”, he says. And he does all this risking his family, his sanity….and his life.
But the story is not about Graham alone. It is also about two other individuals and their mindsets, namely, the killer himself, and I am coming to it, and the much feared n’ dreaded Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
Arguably the most terrifying fictional villain of all time, Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a psychiatrist, an author of several books, a genius and …..a cannibal. Having committed nine gory murders, his favourite hobby is devouring his victims’ organs. Throughout the novel, he is locked up in a cell in the maximum security ward of The Baltimore State Hospital for The Criminally Insane. If you are a Hannibal Lecter ‘fan’, the book could be just a trifle disappointing because the good doctor does not get an opportunity to perpetrate the crimes that he is famous for. All references to his ‘doings’ are in the past. But he does make his presence felt--- be it his introduction, his conversations with Graham or the letters that he writes, NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING is less than chilling. Sample this extract from his letter to Graham: “We don’t invent our natures, Will; they’re issued to us along with our lungs and pancreas and everything else. Why fight it?”
It is then is left to the killer, who calls himself ‘The Red Dragon’, to bring about the blood n’ gore. Driven by a crazy mind that inhabits his well toned, robust and sinewy body, he goes about the murders in a way that makes him untraceable, well, almost. Intelligent beyond measure, he is no less a strategist then he is a psycho.
But the real ‘hero’ of Red Dragon is not Graham, Hannibal or the Red Dragon himself. It is the author Thomas Harris. He was a crime reporter before he became a novelist, and it shows in his detailed, gripping description of forensic investigations and in his ‘first person’ description of the killer’s thoughts. Meticulous to the core, he tells the two stories, that of Graham and that of the ‘Red Dragon’, intermittently, and then combines the two towards the end for a finale that is nothing short of terrific. More often than not, he succeeds not only in captivating the reader’s attention but also in sending a shiver or two down the reader’s spine. Start reading right away then, and get ready for a thrill ride.
