This is a two star book.
Thomas Harris' Red Dragon is best known for introducing Hannibal
Lecter. Maybe that is its proper place. The antagonist and
protagonist are interesting, “troubled” characters. The book
draws you along with anticipation of the next killing cycle until the
redemptive influence of a woman's love ruptures the Red Dragon. For
all the evident hard work Harris does, ultimately he skates on the
ending – split personalities fighting with themselves. Made for TV
movies don't even do that, well sometimes.
I do also want to point out a time/space continuum error. The FBI
agent in Chicago packages Lecter's ad to the Red Dragon for shipment
to Washington and suddenly we find out that in the distant future the
agent will show the ad to his children during a tour of FBI
Headquarters. That was an uncomfortable time shift. How did that make
it into the book?
George Parker
