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A review by msand3
Cari Mora by Thomas Harris
2.0
2.5 stars. I’ve been waiting over a decade for a new Thomas Harris novel -- and not even sure one would arrive before he eventually retired or passed away -- so, needless to say, I was excited to get my hands on this the day it was released. I began reading voraciously, and the opening chapters had all the hallmarks of Harris (almost to the point of being a bit clichéd): a weirdo bad guy with questionable personal hygiene habits (to say the least) with a penchant for showering and eating near the dead bodies he is in the process of disposing, a plucky heroine with a troubled past, insect symbolism, moments of rapid and brutal violence, some gross post-mortem discussions. Indeed, it began to feel all-too-familiar, almost as if Harris were going to the same well a little too often.
This wouldn’t have been so noticeable if the plot hadn’t fizzled about one-third of the way into the novel. Important characters are killed off or appear late in the book with very little development. Only the title character receives more than a cursory backstory. Not even the weirdo villain is fleshed out (pardon the pun). The pacing is quite off, with some subplots moving too rapidly and others taking far too long to unfold. The initial set-up -- breaking into Pablo Escobar’s safe -- feels like the opening act of something far more interesting to come later, but it just turns out to be the entirety of the novel’s plot. We are introduced to a detective about halfway through the novel, just for a few brief pages, only to have him disappear and then remerge at the end, but entirely without purpose.
This is a classic example of a novel either needing much more work to be expanded/improved upon, or to be cut down significantly into a more tightly-crafted novella. At its current state, it has too much that is undeveloped. Even so, it was brisk, fun read, even if it felt like the sketch of a narrative that could have been so much better. I found myself happy to be getting one more Harris novel, but forced to come to the conclusion that his best work was really just the Hannibal tetralogy -- and even then, only the first three were great.
This wouldn’t have been so noticeable if the plot hadn’t fizzled about one-third of the way into the novel. Important characters are killed off or appear late in the book with very little development. Only the title character receives more than a cursory backstory. Not even the weirdo villain is fleshed out (pardon the pun). The pacing is quite off, with some subplots moving too rapidly and others taking far too long to unfold. The initial set-up -- breaking into Pablo Escobar’s safe -- feels like the opening act of something far more interesting to come later, but it just turns out to be the entirety of the novel’s plot. We are introduced to a detective about halfway through the novel, just for a few brief pages, only to have him disappear and then remerge at the end, but entirely without purpose.
This is a classic example of a novel either needing much more work to be expanded/improved upon, or to be cut down significantly into a more tightly-crafted novella. At its current state, it has too much that is undeveloped. Even so, it was brisk, fun read, even if it felt like the sketch of a narrative that could have been so much better. I found myself happy to be getting one more Harris novel, but forced to come to the conclusion that his best work was really just the Hannibal tetralogy -- and even then, only the first three were great.