Red Dragon

In my opinion, the best (and the earliest) of Harris's Hannibal Lecter novels. Lecter plays only a minor part in this book, but he is all the more menacing when his violence is only hinted at rather than thrust into the reader's face (as it was in Hannibal). However, the real star of Red Dragon is Will Graham, the troubled but brilliant criminal investigator who is on vacation as the book begins. Graham's special talent …

…struggle with the dark forces pulsing through him. Finally, as usual, Harris's writing remains clean and simple throughout, propelling the story forward with admirable ease. This is a fun (if violent) book, and one of Harris's finest. I read it after I read Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, expecting Harris's earlier book to be weakest, and I was pleasantly surprised to find myself gripped by this novel far more than by the other two.