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A review by loganisreading
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
5.0
Realistic yet unrealistic, nightmare-worthy yet not, this book sent shivers down my spine. After hearing about the well-known book "The Silence of the Lambs" by Thomas Harris, I decided it would be a great idea to start this series. As a fanatic for horror and crime novels and movies, as well as someone who thinks that becoming an FBI detective would be really, really cool, Red Dragon fit right in with other books I have recently read.
The kicks off with Will Graham, an FBI agent from the Behavioral Sciences Unit, heading into the home of a family of five who was killed together in the place they were supposed to feel most safe. The Leeds family lived peacefully, but did not go in that way. Although it was quick for most of them, Mrs. Leeds suffered the most pain, including having peculiar bite marks scattered all over her body. As Graham profiled their murders, he came to the realization that this killer has struck before, but a long way from where the Leedses lived. However, Graham could not figure out this puzzling cases with only the help of other investigators. He turns to Hannibal Lecter, M.D., who was residing in a psychiatric hospital at the time. With letters from a fan who called himself the Red Dragon, despite the press calling him the Tooth Fairy, Graham used Lecter's help to try to track down this killer once and for all. Unfortunately, after being dragged down different roads and believing that the killer was the next victim for some time, the case only got more puzzling and harder to solve.
I really enjoyed this book. The deeper into the story I got, the easier it was to understand and stay along with. It switched between the third-person point of view of Graham to the third-person point of view of the Red Dragon himself. Also, it explained very well how the FBI profiled him and what drove him to kill. In this case, childhood trauma was the largest factor that drove the killer to kill. As someone who is a big fan of the TV show Criminal Minds, this process was something I had seen countless times on that show and led me to understand what was going on more.
The only thing that I didn't like about this book was how quickly it dove into things at the beginning. I was unsure if I was reading the first book in the series or the last because it provided very little background as to what was going on or what Lecter had to do with anything. I did believe that Lecter was going to be more of a focus throughout the story than he really was, which left me kind of confused at the beginning. However, once I got past that, it was incredibly easy to understand and quickly became a very enjoyable book.
Overall, I give this book five stars and stand by that. I thought that the story was incredible, and that the writing itself was incredible, despite having some confusion at the beginning. I really can't wait to read the rest of the series. Hopefully the other books can top this one!
The kicks off with Will Graham, an FBI agent from the Behavioral Sciences Unit, heading into the home of a family of five who was killed together in the place they were supposed to feel most safe. The Leeds family lived peacefully, but did not go in that way. Although it was quick for most of them, Mrs. Leeds suffered the most pain, including having peculiar bite marks scattered all over her body. As Graham profiled their murders, he came to the realization that this killer has struck before, but a long way from where the Leedses lived. However, Graham could not figure out this puzzling cases with only the help of other investigators. He turns to Hannibal Lecter, M.D., who was residing in a psychiatric hospital at the time. With letters from a fan who called himself the Red Dragon, despite the press calling him the Tooth Fairy, Graham used Lecter's help to try to track down this killer once and for all. Unfortunately, after being dragged down different roads and believing that the killer was the next victim for some time, the case only got more puzzling and harder to solve.
I really enjoyed this book. The deeper into the story I got, the easier it was to understand and stay along with. It switched between the third-person point of view of Graham to the third-person point of view of the Red Dragon himself. Also, it explained very well how the FBI profiled him and what drove him to kill. In this case, childhood trauma was the largest factor that drove the killer to kill. As someone who is a big fan of the TV show Criminal Minds, this process was something I had seen countless times on that show and led me to understand what was going on more.
The only thing that I didn't like about this book was how quickly it dove into things at the beginning. I was unsure if I was reading the first book in the series or the last because it provided very little background as to what was going on or what Lecter had to do with anything. I did believe that Lecter was going to be more of a focus throughout the story than he really was, which left me kind of confused at the beginning. However, once I got past that, it was incredibly easy to understand and quickly became a very enjoyable book.
Overall, I give this book five stars and stand by that. I thought that the story was incredible, and that the writing itself was incredible, despite having some confusion at the beginning. I really can't wait to read the rest of the series. Hopefully the other books can top this one!