The following article was featured in Bendigo's best selling Newspaper - "The Bendigo Advertiser" and was written by Michelle Walkden. It appears here without confirmed permission from the author, but in good faith. All text beyond this point is the copyright of Michelle Walkden.


Thomas Harris isn't a prolific writer; he churns out a novel every dozen years or so - no wonder they are so good.

Hannibal, the sequel to the highly acclaimed The Silence of the Lambs, is just about as good as the first offering.

While not truly a sequel, Hannibal does involve the familiar characters of Hannibal Lecter and Special Agent Clarice Starling.

Fans will remember The Silence of the Lambs finishing with Dr Lecter "Have a friend for dinner" and very much alive and at large.

Hannibal picks up the live of the main characters seven years later.

Dr. Lecter is still on the most-wanted list, nut no longer is the subject of an intense manhunt, and Starling, although revered for her role in putting a stop to Buffalo Bills killing spree, is going nowhere career-wise.

It would seem to be people in the FBI determined to keep her down.

Through somewhat unusual circumstances, Starling inadvertently gives her enemies all the ammunition they need, being in a media-unfriendly shoot-out.

That's when Lecter returns to her life, care of a note of encouragement with it all-too-familiar Psychological manipulations.

The hunt for the good doctor suddenly reintensifies with the added incentive of the concern of a wealthy victim whose money and influence can help Starlings enemies leap from simple public servants to public figures.

Enter foreign mercenaries and a former star of the Italian police force fallen from grace.

But have they really found Lecter, or just an innocent lover of ancient artifacts?

Any why does Starling get the feeling that she is being watched?

There is little doubt that Harris knows the ins and outs of the criminal mind and the crime-fighting bureaucracy, being a former journalist in both the US and Mexico. What he doesn't know is Australian currency.

Despite an incredibly well-researched depiction of Florence and the inner workings of one of the oldest centres of great art, he still has a character using and Australian quarter to work a coin-operated light.

It's a small thing, I suppose, compared to the elaborate historic reference, the analysis of Dante's Inferno and even the intimate detail of pig genetics, but it was still annoying for this antipodean reader.

While relatively well written pacy and climactic, Hannibal seems to lack the thrill psychological captured in The Silence of the Lambs, relying more heavily on actual, rather than implied terror.

You could certainly put the book down and enjoy a comfortable nights sleep, or relax in front of the fire without hearing cannibals creeping through the back door.
The introduction of so many characters feature the focus of the storyline, and hasn't allowed for the intimacy, albeit sinister, which was the hallmark of the Lecter/Starling relationship in The Silence of the Lambs.

All in all, a good read, but not on a par with The Silence of the Lambs.