Hannibal

March 5, 2001

Hannibal the cannibal is back again, and in this special audio version, listeners are treated to the author's unique and riveting interpretation of his characters' voices and personalities. Having escaped captivity in The Silence of the Lambs,
Dr. Hannibal Lecter has been living on the sly in Europe, leading the life of a sophisticated, academic gentleman. But Hannibal has left behind one sloppy mistake: a victim named Mason Verger, who was accused of molesting his own children but managed to avoid jail provided he sought psychiatric treatment with Dr. Lecter. Hannibal has left Verger barely alive, and, bent on revenge, this man who is as much a monster as Hannibal buys off a cadre of corrupt government agents to find his nemesis. (As an interesting aside for listeners, Hannibal has left Verger lipless, and Harris's vocal rendition of this character is particularly eerie.) Simultaneously, Clarice Starling, the FBI agent who sought Dr. Lecter's assistance in finding another killer in
The Silence of the Lambs, is also on his trail, while, in turn, Hannibal is seeking Clarice, for whom he shows a curious affection. As the two eventually find each other, the listener is treated to an incredibly disturbing and shocking conclusion.

Hannibal Lecter, the gruesome serial killer who escaped at the end of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, is living high off the hog in Florence when he discovers (through nefarious channels) that his FBI nemesis, Clarice Starling, is in the midst of a career crisis. Falling prey to his obsession with her, he inadvertently sets himself up to be captured, not by the FBI, but by a mortal enemy who intends to feed him alive to wild boars. Reader Thomas Harris has plumbed the inner depths of the monstrous Lecter--after all, he created him--and his familiarity, not surprisingly, informs his energetic reading. The surprise is his portrayal of Clarice Starling, who is utterly credible as the young victim of class and gender distinctions in the FBI. In tones that reveal both femininity and determination, Harris's voice embodies the personal history that makes her so vulnerable and so ambitious. Smatterings of precise Italian also makes perfectly believable Lecter's Florentine pursuers. E.K.D. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine