Thomas Harris’ “Red Dragon”

A Must Read 300This week I’ll be reviewing a book slightly out of my normal horror niche: Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon. I’m not usually one to read serial killer books, but this Halloween seemed like the perfect time to delve into the legendary Hannibal Lecter series. The plot is fairly similar to the Silence of the Lambs for the most part. A serial killer operating under the moniker “The Tooth Fairy” is killing families on full moons. FBI Agent Jack Crawford, the agent working the case, seeks out the help of Will Graham, the profiler who captured the sadistic Hannibal Lecter. Graham reluctantly decides to help Crawford, but quickly realizes he needs a different perspective on the case. Naturally, Graham turns to the most sadistic person he knows to help: Dr. Lecter. The three then find themselves in a deadly game of cat and mouse, with Graham and Crawford having to place their trust in the advice of a man whose mind they can’t comprehend.

Like I said before, I’m not someone who tends to read books involving serial killers. For some reason, the genre just doesn’t really disturb me too much. That being said, Red Dragon is a suitably freaky book. The Tooth Fairy is as twisted an individual as I’ve ever seen in a work of fiction, and that is definitely saying something. Harris does an excellent job drawing out the tension in his prose and firmly establishes himself as one of the top names in psychological horror. Of course, the most demented, and well-written, parts of the story involve the actual profiling of The Tooth Fairy. Still, no matter how tight the prose is, the book could fall apart if the story doesn’t work. After all, this is very much a mystery novel. Luckily, Harris keeps the twists frequent enough to change up your expectation, but scarce enough that the reveals don’t become a veritable feature in every other chapter. To give some perspective, I’m an avid reader, and I’ve seen just about every plot twist a realistic horror novel can throw at me, yet I was still surprised a good number of times through my read. Even if you have seen the twist before, you probably haven’t seen it done as well, or as scarily, as Harris does.

Ultimately, if you are a fan of grounded, serial killer horror stories, then you owe it to yourself to read Red Dragon. In fact, you really ought to check it out if you are a horror aficionado at all: you may find yourself, like me, engaged far more than you expected. As we creep into the last stretch of October and the nights grow longer, this is a great book to curl up with in an armchair and proceed to not sleep for the next week. I hope you all enjoy your stint with Dr. Lecter and The Tooth Fairy!

Source: Jake Depew, Assistant Editor