In the 1970s, a cannibalistic serial killer psychiatrist treats patients in the Baltimore Asylum for the Criminally Insane. If your taste in crime fiction is for something even darker, maybe you will be satisfied with the lad who drops the severed head of his mother on the collection plate at church, or the serial killer who skins (“harvest the hide”) his large female victims to make costumes and clothing. This cult classic is the first of five such books by Thomas Harris featuring the now infamous psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter, whose name has become synonymous with ultimate evil in popular parlance and in cinematic circles.
But there are also very vivid lovable characters including the junior FBI student Clarice Starling and her mentor and Sectional Head at Behavioural Sciences, Jack Crawford. The fast-paced story in sixty-one short chapters is filled with plot twists guaranteed to keep readers engaged. Those twists are so complex that it is difficult to believe that even the author could keep it consistent. But he ties them all up neatly and leaves no threads unravelled at the end. That such monster serial killers as depicted here exist is easy to forget as most of them are fortunately locked securely away in such institutions as Ontario’s Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care in Penetanguishene, formerly known as the Ontario Hospital for the Criminally Insane. But they are out there and thrive on attention – think Karla Homolka, Paul Bernardo, Michael Rafferty, Robert Picton or Colonel Russell Williams.
Jurisdictional disputes between the FBI, the Justice Department, various other federal bureaucracies, and the various levels of state and local law enforcement agencies are shown in details that are probably very realistic, but inevitably impede investigations. But if I, with limited expertise in anything, know that the assertion that bilirubin is the main colouring agent in stool is completely wrong, I wonder how many factual impossibilities other more knowledgeable individuals will detect in relation to moth entomology, haberdashery, cooking, basic criminology and psychology, and police procedures .
I was drawn into the chase, hoping for the success of Clarise Starling, in spite of the revolting subject matter. I have not watched the Hollywood adaptation nor will I read the further novels featuring Hannibal Lecter. A small dose of darkness is enough to last a long time. Next, I will read something more upbeat.
Thanks, Vera.
The Passionate Reader 