Harris is the author of the Hannibal Lecter books, most famous for Silence of the lambs and Red Dragon. Those two books are masterpieces, plotted and written with a chill intelligence and mastery of story structure which warrants study.
I’m not as much a fan of Hannibal and Hannibal Rising because they suffer from the point where an author falls too in love with a character to serve the story.
This is his latest book and although technically competent, it feels rote and lacks the gothic, cerebral intensity of earlier work. It’s more of a love letter to Florida and although I admired it, somehow I couldn’t commit to it.
The story itself offers no surprises and the antagonist Hans is a Lecter-lite who does awful things but manages to be boring and even a liquid cremation device doesn’t move me to feeling fascination or disgust then there are issues with the book.
Diverting but nothing startling. Truly, the lambs have stopped screaming.
My book Until She Sings is out now. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07XJRDND8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_S27KDbKHRZSAS
MB Blissett 