The Silence of the Lambs

By Thomas Harris

Book Overview

An ingenious, masterfully written novel, Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs is a classic of suspense and storytelling and the basis for the Oscar award-winning horror film starring Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling and Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

A serial murderer known only by a grotesquely apt nickname--Buffalo Bill--is stalking particular women. He has a purpose, but no one can fathom it, for the bodies are discovered in different states. Clarice Starling, a young trainee at the F.B.I. Academy, is surprised to be summoned by Jack Crawford, Chief of the Bureau's Behavioral Science section. Her assignment: to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and grisly killer now kept under close watch in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Lecter's insight into the minds of murderers could help track and capture Buffalo Bill.

Smart and attractive, Starling is shaken to find herself in a strange, intense relationship with the acutely perceptive Lecter. His cryptic clues--about Buffalo Bill and about her--launch Clarice on a search that every reader will find startling, harrowing, and totally compelling.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312195265
• ISBN13: 9780312195267
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A classic

I've read this book so many times. Amazingly well written.

Couldn't put it down

Such a great book. Very good writing. I had to force myself to go to sleep lol. Could have read it in one sitting if time allowed.

Pleased

Received a very nice copy of this book for it to be an older edition.

If you love horror, suspence and thriller genre, this is for you 😁

Love the interactions of the characters here! Done reading the Hannibal Lecter series. The ending was 🤯

gripping

Having seen the movie adaptation of "The Silence of the Lambs" several times, it seemed at times that I could see the action on the pages of the book rather than just reading them. I cannot help but see Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling and it is the voice of Anthony Hopkins I hear when Hannibal Lecter speaks. While this may limit how I view the characters, this does not detract at all from the book and I feel that in many ways, the novel is superior and is still gripping despite my familiarity with the story.Clarice Starling is in training at the FBI Academy. She is a star student in the Behavioral Sciences Division when the Department Chief, Jack Crawford, calls her into his office and gives her a job. She is to interview one Dr Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter in order to help get into the mind of a serial killer. There is an open case with a serial killer who has been nicknamed "Buffalo Bill", and Dr. Lecter may be the only chance to solve the case without there being many more murders. Starling is only a trainee, and this may be why Lecter is actually willing to speak to Starling about Buffalo Bill, though he is always holding something back. Lecter is a villain of extreme intellect and this comes through in his dialogue. Like "Red Dragon", Dr. Lecter is not the central villain and the story does not revolve specifically around him (though he has a larger role this time around). Lecter does play a pivotal role because without him, the story cannot move forward. We never truly get into the psyche of Jame Gumb (not as much as we did with Frances Dolorhyde in "Red Dragon"), and it seems as if most of his actions happen off camera. While Lecter is a very interesting character, it is Clarice Starling that we get to see grow as a character and become more confident and insistent in her work with Lecter and to catch "Buffalo Bill" even though she is only a trainee. She was put on this case and she intends to see it through. As creepy as the movie could be, I loved this book. It had a very fast pace and stayed interesting throughout the story and it didn't matter that I had seen the movie multiple times. I was interested in the story Thomas Harris was telling. While Harris goes into detail about crimes, it doesn't feel very gory or unnecessary. It seems that this novel was a best seller in the late 80's and it is easy to see why. "The Silence of the Lambs" is a well told thriller and any fans of James Patterson and that genre should definitely give this one a look.

Superb

When you read "The Silence of the Lambs" or hear about the book, you probably start immediately to remember some scenes from the movie starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. The movie comes pretty damn close! And it's rare that a movie follows the plot of a novel so closely.It is difficult to write something about a story that is so well known, basically by its adaptation for the screen, which has been buried under a heap of Academy Awards. Like many others, "The Silence of the Lambs" proves the fact that the book is always better than the movie.Clarice Starling is an FBI trainee. The FBI's chief of Behavioral Science has called on her to help solve a serial murder case. She must interview Dr. Hannibal ("the Cannibal") Lector, a psychiatrist jailed for killing and eating various patients, to get inside the mind of Buffalo Bill, a serial killer on the loose. Starling becomes close to Lector who helps her discover how to find Buffalo Bill, and how to find closure in her personal life."The Silence of the Lambs" is simply a superb, electrifying book. What a writer Thomas Harris is and what a character the infamous Dr. Hannibal Lector is. With Dr. Lector, Harris makes you look at the face of evil, and stare! This book sets the standard in psychological terror. If you haven't seen the movie yet, read the novel first, then see the characters brought to life brilliantly by Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. I thoroughly enjoyed the two principal characters Dr. Hannibal Lector and Clarice Starling. And I look forward to Hannibal. I wish more novels were like this.

One of the Best Thrillers Ever Written

Like most people, I was first introduced to Silence of the Lambs by the movie version; it blew me away, and no small part goes to the always ingenious acting of Anthony Hopkins. You get extremely close to the two main characters: Clarice Starling and Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lector. The pacing is fast, and the writing is perfect for the mood. Harris doesn't waste a word or page, and not a moment is dull. I ripped through this book in a remarkably brief time. This is a must read which did for the thriller what The Exorcist did for the Horror genre.

The best of all Harris books

I doubt that anyone would argue the fact that this is the best of Harris's books, though RED DRAGON and BLACK SUNDAY are excellent, too. Any would-be author should read any of these as textbook examples displaying how "brevity of description" --as opposed to long drawn-out descriptions of a person or place in a scene--can be so powerful. For instance, Clarice Starling is simply described in her own thougths as someone who "knew she could look allright without primping" and that left you with the image of a great-looking female protagonist. Harris, and lesser known but equally as talented fellow Mississippi author Charles Wilson are two of the best I've ever read at being able to pull this "brevity" off. In fact, the above mentioned books of Harris, along with Wilson's GAME PLAN, DONOR, and NIGHTWATCHER, are among the most visual books I've ever read, without boring you with "too-much" description to get that effect. By the way, for those who loved SILENCE in particular, and haven't read Wilson, they should try NIGHTWATCHER for a read very similar to SILENCE in its story line and fear factor, with possibly better laid-out character development in NIGHTWATCHER--but hey, all of them top notch reads.

Sometimes, there really are monsters...

The term "horror" is often misused today when applied to literature or film. It connotes an image of spilt blood, slashing knives, masked figures, and nubile teenager girl with underdeveloped bodies and personalities. If I asked someone to name a horror author, I'm sure Stephen King would come to mind, although King's books haven't scared me in a long time, full of the same sort of characteristics I've just described.But to me, horror is much more than flesh and blood. Like H.P. Lovecraft who argued that horror came from within, I believe that it is actually a sense, an emotion so deep within us that when exposed to genuine terror (as opposed to slick, Hollywood produced images) we feel our hearts quicken and our muscles tighten in anticipation of response. Fight or flight. The terror compounds when we are faced with human monsters, rather than the supernatural, the ones that lurk in our neighborhoods, in our homes, or in our hearts.Thomas Harris' The Silence of the Lambs is an excellent example of true horror. Originally published in 1988, adapted to film in 1991, and reissued in a lovely trade paperback edition for the tenth anniversary last fall, the novel is actually a sequel of sorts to an earlier Harris novel, Red Dragon, which was also adapted into film ("Manhunter," 1986) yet not as successful as its sequel. Perhaps this was due in part to the relatively unknown cast, although still an excellent gathering of fine actors. Lambs had Glen Campbell, Jodi Foster, and Anthony Hopkins, the latter two also won international acclaim for their portrayals. The film generated an enormous response, and even influenced this reviewer to create a character modeled heavily on Foster's portrayal of FBI Academy trainee, Clarice Starling.In Lambs, Clarice Starling is a cadet enlisted by Jack Crawford (played by Campbell, heavily based on real-life profiled, John Douglas) to interview Lector in connection with an open case file on a serial killer nicknamed "Buffalo Bill." Bill, it seems, has been kidnapping women, holding them for some time, then killing and skinning them for some unknown purpose. His methods and locale vary, but there is one similar characteristic among the victims: they are all large-framed and young. The FBI cannot determine a pattern in his behavior, however, so they hope a questionnaire applied to known and detained serial killers will help in developing a profile on Bill.And so, Clarice is sent to interview Hannibal Lector, a former psychiatrist who devoured parts of his victims, occasionally serving them in gourmet meals -- without telling, of course -- to party guests. An intelligent, perceptive, and attractive trainee with a severed past, meager finances, and a very strong desire to advance in the Bureau, Clarice is anxious to participate. Ambition is her flaw, her weakness, and it is a veil which covers her eyes sometimes.Clarice valiantly attempts to question Lector, but he qu