Rating: 
Summary: Gripping and Intelligent; Lackluster Denouement
Review: After viewing both film versions, Manhunter (1986), and Red Dragon, (2002) I thought it was necessary to finally read the book. It was fun to juggle all three works in my head but when I wanted to, Harris's gripping prose made it easy for me to tune out such comparisons and simply focus on the novel itself.The basic plot is typical: retired detective, Will Graham must return from blissful reclusivity for "one last case" to catch Francis Dolarhyde (aka: Tooth Fairy, Red Dragon) before the psycho kills his next victim. The nuanced characters and attention to detail elevate the book from being anything but standard crime fare. Will Graham, Francis Dolarhyde, Freddy Lounds, Hannibal Lecter, Reba McClane, Jack Crawford are each so different in perspective, psychological stability, and motive that the book becomes an interesting blend of contrasting personalities. I especially liked the way the book explored the character of sleazy journalist Freddy Lounds in a series of subtly moving flashbacks. In such passages, the book possesses an uncanny humanity. That said, I hold a few qualms with some of the choices Harris makes towards the end of the book. Throughout the beginning and middle, Harris focuses much energy on the fascinating Dolarhyde: his deformed apperance, traumatic childhood, desires, fears. Undoubtedly, a believable, compelling vision of strangely sympathetic albeit twisted psychopathy emerges. However, as the book progresses in its later stages, Harris positions Dolarhyde's psychology as a rather simplistic form of schizophrenia. His alter ego, the titular "Dragon" speaks to Dolarhyde and tells him to murder people, while the *real* Dolarhyde helplessly obeys the Dragon. The problem is that the Dragon becomes a character in of itself, and Dolarhyde's compulsion loses its grounding and humanity. The second complaint I have is of the god awful denouement. Though I would never reveal what happens, this is perhaps the worst twist I have ever encountered in a book- not least because it's absurd and strives for the kind of perfunctory suspense found in cheap slasher flicks, but because it exists in direct contradiction of the emotional and climactic epiphany that had preceded it. No wonder neither film versions adapted this into their movies. This is still an exceptional read. The characters are well-realized, the attention to detail is admirable, and (generally speaking) the suspense Harris creates is genuine and palpable. I loved the majority of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Did Not Let Me Down!
Review: I have seen both Silence and Hannibal, but I have read neither. I believe in reading series boks in order, so I picked up Red Dragon two days ago. Wow! If you only liked Silence because you loved Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter, you may be a little dissapointed. He is not really a main character, even though he is now being played up to be because of his notoriety after its predecessors. This book is about a serial murderer who the police have jokingly dubbed "Tooth Fairy" because of the bite marks he leaves on housewives after killing their whole family. The killer knows himself as the "Red Dragon" because he feels he has the Dragon from William Blake's painting "The Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in The Sun" inside of him, helping him "Become". Will Graham, a retired cop who captured Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter and was almost slain by him, is called upon by the FBI to help capture this mass murderer before he strikes again at the next full moon. Graham has a great memory and imagination but a bad case of recurring fear. he must overcome this fear and talk to Dr. Lecter, who may know something about The Dragon. Lecter manages to manipulate the killer and Graham from his cell, through a tabloid called "The National Tattler". He communicates with the Dragon through codes in the personals section and manages to get the FBI into a frenzy over the ads, getting a sleezy reporter named Freddy Lounds involved in the picture. The killer is also tormented by his past. He has a cleft palate and sound funny when speaking, causing him to slash his victims with broken mirrors from the house. He also hears the voice of his dead nasty grandmother, who had total control of the killer as a youth. This book is not the conventional horror story. It is more a psychological thriller than a blood and gore fest. If you are looking for a good way to have nightmares for months, this book is highly recommended. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Horror like I never hope to meet
Review: Having seen both Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon movies, it was interesting to listen to the book on tape. As movies go, Silence seems the more powerful. But this book is enough to make anyone's skin crawl. And it isn't just the nature of the crimes or the killer that is spooky. Will Graham, one of the FBI's profilers, is able to get inside the head of killers like Hannibal Lecter, the man he managed to put away, but not before being so badly injured that he nearly died. Because of that experience, he quit the FBI. When Jack Crawford asks for his help with a new serial killer, nicknamed The Tooth Fairy, Will's sense of responsibility makes him accept the assignment. Little does he know that this assignment will endanger him and those he loves. In many ways, Harris established the basis for this sort of thriller. The one thing that spoils this recording is the narrator. His tone, often when reading the women's dialogue, is whiney and he isn't as able as some narrators to use different voices to differentiate between characters. That was a bit distracting and made it difficult to follow at times, esp when the listener leaves the story and comes back to it. Still, Red Dragon is interesting and powerful, whether in print or on audio.
Rating:
Summary: Very good
Review: I tell you, Thomas Harris can write a good book. In Red Dragon, the prequel (although also written before, not as an gimmick afterward) to Silence of the Lambs, we follow Will Graham, a former FBI agent brought back to investigate a serial killer who chooses suburban families as his victims. He's also famous for being the man who caught Hannibal Lecter, who also gets a bit part in this story (not nearly as extensive as Silence or Hannibal). I thought I'd be disappointing with the fact that Hannibal isn't in this novel as much as Silence (although he makes the most of his limited time, for sure), but this is offset by a nearly equally interesting villain in Dolarhyde. Whereas Buffalo Bill plays second-fiddle to Lecter through much of Silence, Dolarhyde steals the show. We really get to see the factors that have molded his thinking and the way they conflict with each other within himself. And he's an interesting villain in himself. On several occasions Thomas steps into Dolarhyde's mind in everyday occurrances. What does a serial killer think when he's on a date? Driving a car? It's a fascinating look at a fascinating character. He's not quite Lecter, but he more than carries this story. The plot was also a very pleasant surprise. There are enough twists to keep the story from ever becoming a standard copper/killer story. It delves right into the minds of the characters and I found it took me to some places I'd never been and never thought I'd go. It was surprising (and shocking) until the very last page. Otherwise, the dialogue is crisp, the characters are rich, and the prose is superb. In comparison to The Silence of the Lambs, I would just simply say that they're in the same league, if that says something. It's almost an insult to the other to pick a favourite. They're both must reads. Matty J
Rating:
Summary: Great book only slightly flawed
Review: Through other reviews the plot of Red Dragon is pretty well spelled out. So I'll skip a synopsis. Red Dragon is one of the finest thrillers I've read in many years. The book is very well plotted, the characters are fleshed out, the pace is brisk, and the tension is kept up through most of the book and of course, as mentioned numerous times, this book marks Hannibal Lecter's first (albeit small) appearance. A surprise to the book is the way so much time and back story is given to the antagonist/killer. We spend a great deal of time with Francis Dolarhyde, experiencing the childhood and early adult life that led to his present condition. This brought back very pleasant memories of some of author Robert Bloch's earliest novels, in which most, if not all the story was told from the antagonist/killer's point-of-view. Francis is not your typical serial killer of many of today's novels, where the killer basically is unsympathetic and whose motives are of your typical, done-too-many-times revenge variety. Francis, although a vicious killer, is also quite sympathetic in his way. Three quibbles. First, although a pleasant surprise on one hand, I feel that a little TOO much time was spent on Dolarhyde's background. We get the idea very early on, and the rest feels like excessive overkill. Second, the ending (don't worry, I'm not going to give it away), can easily be seen coming and is not a surprise. Lastly, (and this is not a fault of the book itself) I'd seen the movie that this book was based on, MANHUNTER, before I read this book. Because the movie follows the book very closely, much of the additional delicious suspense that would have been there for me was missed. I knew what was coming. But not to discourage people in the same shoes as I, be heartened by the fact that the ending of the movie does NOT follow the book! Despite this pre-knowledge of events, I must say Red Dragon kept me turning the pages. I didn't stay up all night and read this book, but I DID look forward to getting to it each day that I was reading it. It's that good.
Rating:
Summary: No masterpiece but still very good
Review: This is the first book in the famous Lecter trilogy. In it, Hannibal does not have a prominent role but rather it focuses on Will Graham, the agent who caught Hannibal. Traumatised to the point of retirement, he's brought back years later to use his "special gift" in investigating another brutal serial killer. Personally, I'm not very much into crime/horror/serial killer novels but I saw Red Dragon at the movies and loved it and the book certainly didn't disappoint. The characterisation is extremely graphic in terms of the reader really getting to know Graham and the killer intimately. The vividness of their demons is what gives this book it's intended creepiness, not the crimes themselves, brutal as they are. The one thing I found was that the novel wasn't much better than the movie (in most adaptations I think the book tends to be better and more in depth) - I'm not sure whether it's that the film was made so well that it covered almost all of the book's content or the book's pop-prose style made it less tightly packed (or possibly both). Either way, it's a very good read and Harris deserves the popularity based on this work alone.
Rating:
Summary: A Superior Serial Killer Novel
Review: Red Dragon is an exciting and grisly crime novel which is brilliantly written in a taught and deceptively simple prose style. We are introduced to Dr. Hannibal Lecter in this book and it is a great introduction, setting up the action which continues in The Silence of the Lambs (a book I also gave a five stared review). In this book the villain is Francis Dolarhyde, a man with an exceptionally shocking past. I especially liked the inclusion of several chapters about his childhood because they accomplish the seemingly impossible, to make you feel real sympathy for him because the cruelty he suffered as a boy was horrific. The sections of the book where Dolarhyde is alone with Reba McClane really got my pulse racing because Reba's blindness made her extremely vulnerable to him. The plot was excellent and very twisted, involving several shocking and uncomfortable developments which had me biting my nails rather a lot! Will Graham, the FBI investigator, was also a well developed character and I was willing him to succeed throughout. Overall I would recommend Red Dragon to those who like to read tense and beautifully written crime novels - and can put up with the gruesome and scary parts which are quite disturbing. Like The Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon is a superior serial killer novel and a must read for crime fiction fans JoAnne
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: What I liked about this novel was that it dove into the psychosis of the killer. By the end of the book, you understood WHY he was psychotic. Most crime novels ignore this treament and chooses to piant the killer as a one dimensional character. Hannibal is barely in this novel and quite honestlY could've been left out. To me his character in the book was used as filler chapters and was at times boring. I found the character development of the FBI profiler and The RED Dragon way more interesting. I really feel I could read anything with WILL Grahms character in it and wish Mr. Harris had included him in the Silence of the Lambs as well. I do feel that people who watch the movies (Manhunter or Red Dragon) first may be dissappointed by the novel only because the movies' interpetations were done so well
Rating:
Summary: A Well-Constructed Horror Story
Review: I first saw the TV movie, which was a simplified version of this book. This novel shows the careful planning that went into its construction, and an ending that recall some movies with a hard-to-kill villain. The story kept my interest until the very end. The author gives the killer a visible scar, as if it was a symbol. Did Ted Bundy or the Green River killer show any visible signs? I think this book is too well planned. Could an insane killer be such an accomplished planner? Did the movies of happy families set him off by contrasting to his unhappy youth? Would he become a killer in his middle age? Would killing a family's pet dog prevent other dogs from barking at night? But if you suspend such questioning you will be entertained by this story. The story of Hannibal Lecter's capture also seems contrived. Would a careful planner become enraged because Will Graham looked at his medical books? Francis' blind companion fits into this well-constructed plot. Did the author come up with the ending and work backwards? This novel uses "The Joy of Cooking" for a coded message; wouldn't other books be more plausible?
Rating:
Summary: Wow! This One Hits the Mark!
Review: From the moment it introduces us to the world of Will Graham, this novel reads in a way that is completely engrossing. "Red Dragon", the first novel in the Hannibal Lecter series, reads with a white-knuckle intensity that few novels of this (or any)genre rival. This novel, which introduces us to Harris's anti-hero, Hannibal Lecter, is a gripping tale of an FBI officer's investigation and profiling of a serial killer who goes by the preudonym "Red Dragon". Will Graham, the principal investigator in the story, is brought out of retirement to profile this new killer because of his unique ability to "become" the person he is hunting. Graham, who had become a legend in the criminal world as the man who captured "Hannibal the Cannibal", turns to Lecter for assistance in the profiling of this killer. The novel, which was the second offering to the literary world by Thomas Harris (his first, Black Sunday, which has largely been overlooked, has nothing to do with the Lecter novels), is intense, stylish and contemporary, despite the fact that it was written over 20 years ago. It also lays down the dynamic foundation from which Hannibal Lecter emerged into our culture. His character, who is probably the most fascinating of any in the book, is only an incidental character in Red Dragon, despite the fact that his actions are pivotal in the outcome of many events throughout the novel. This book is as good as it gets, and is a must read for anyone who has either seen any of the Lecter films (Red Dragon, Manhunter (an early film depiction of Red Dragon), Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal), or read any of the other novels of the same titles. Harris's writing style is intense, leaving the reader begging for more. It is probably his strongest novel, though not the most celebrated-but it is great. As this new release of the novel advertises, "Meet Lecter for the first time"...you'll be glad you did.
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