Kerri's Reviews > Red Dragon

** spoiler alert ** I have of course heard of Hannibal Lecter. He's probably one of the few modern day characters that has a place alongside the likes of Dracula -- he's known to so many, even if you haven't read the books, or seen the films (or TV show). I have seen spoofs in shows over and over again, and read references constantly.
I inevitably went into this with a lot of expectations. I knew 'The Silence of the Lambs', the second book, was the one the one where most of my ideas of the character came from (or at least, it's film version) but I figured this would be a solid introduction to the infamous Hannibal Lecter, M.D.
It isn't really -- he's an infrequent presence, chilling but hardly there. The focus is almost entirely on an investigator called Will Graham and a serial killer called The Tooth Fairy/The Red Dragon. Thankfully, this was engrossing enough that I hardly cared that Hannibal was not a main character. I was hooked immediately, and all my expectations fell away as I read on.

Will Graham is a wonderful character, and I was sad to see he doesn't feature again. While I am looking forward to the next book, where I will presumably learn more about Lecter, I think I will miss Will a great deal.
An excellent book. I wanted to read it as quickly as possible, so I could know what was happening, why it was happening, and then inevitably I found myself invested in the characters, including Dolarhyde, their lives, hoping they would be OK etc. I was relieved to finish it, for the sake of knowing everything, but sad too, because it had been such a good book!
I'm very pleased that I have a big omnibus version, so can go straight onto the next one. Its heavy and a bit unwieldy to hold, but once I have it comfortably arranged it's great - with decent sized font thank goodness!
I guess now it's time to leave Will Graham behind, and meet Clarice Starling. I'm pretty sure I wont be able to help picturing Jodie Foster. When I'm done reading the books, I definitely want to see the film/s!