Red Dragon

Red Dragon is the first "Hannibal Lecter" novel in Thomas Harris' series and is the basis of not one, but two movies and a television series. This is a testament of the deep well of materials that can be found in this novel. I have seen both movies and have watched some of the series, and so this novel suffers from what all book to movie translations suffer from. Familierarity builds contempt. The weird part of reading this book is, I always visualize the character Will Graham as William Petersen from the original movie "Manhunter" but see Francis Dollarhyde as Ralph Fiennes, played with great skill in "Red Dragon" the remake.

As for the novel itself, all I can say is that Will Graham does not come out of the novel nearly so well both mentally and physically as he does in the movie. Hollywood sure "prettied it up" for the big screen not once but twice! Reading this novel makes me want to reread Silence of the Lamb.