Product Description

There's a killer on the loose who knows that beauty is only skin deep, and a trainee investigator who's trying to save her own hide. The only man who can help is locked in an asylum. But he's willing to put a brave face on - if it will help him escape.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49682 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 421 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris, is even better than the successful movie. Like his earlier Red Dragon, the book takes us inside the world of professional criminal investigation. All the elements of a well-executed thriller are working here--driving suspense, compelling characters, inside information, publicity-hungry bureaucrats thwarting the search, and the clock ticking relentlessly down toward the death of another young woman. What enriches this well-told tale is the opportunity to live inside the minds of both the crime fighters and the criminals as each struggles in a prison of pain and seeks, sometimes violently, relief.

Clarice Starling, a precociously self-disciplined FBI trainee, is dispatched by her boss, Section Chief Jack Crawford, the FBI's most successful tracker of serial killers, to see whether she can learn anything useful from Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Lecter's a gifted psychopath whose nickname is "The Cannibal" because he likes to eat parts of his victims. Isolated by his crimes from all physical contact with the human race, he plays an enigmatic game of "Clue" with Starling, providing her with snippets of data that, if she is smart enough, will lead her to the criminal. Undaunted, she goes where the data takes her. As the tension mounts and the bureaucracy thwarts Starling at every turn, Crawford tells her, "Keep the information and freeze the feelings." Insulted, betrayed, and humiliated, Starling struggles to focus. If she can understand Lecter's final, ambiguous scrawl, she can find the killer. But can she figure it out in time? --Barbara Schlieper

Clive Barker
‘Thrillers don’t come any better than this… razor-sharp entertainment, beautifully constructed and brilliantly written’

Roald Dahl
‘The best book I’ve read in a very long time… subtle, horrific and splendid’

Customer Reviews

One word... WOW!
Ok, before I write my opinion on this book, I have to admit something slightly embarrassing first. Deep breath….I love trashy psychological thrillers! However, this is certainly not a trashy book, whatsoever. As a young reader (I was about 14 when I first read this), I was in the lucky position of not seeing the film first. Yes, it is a great movie. Yes, Jodie Foster makes a great Clarice Starling, and yes, it does not deviate from the book too much. However, there is so much more information included in the novel that simply cannot be materialised into a film (do you know the chemical formula for bilirubin?).
I will not bore everybody with the plot, I’m sure the world and his dog has seen the famous ‘liver and Chianti’ scene, and many more besides, but if you have not read this book yet – read it now! Thomas Harris is the most superb, underrated author of modern times, and I find it difficult to choose which of his novels is the greatest. For those of you who have seen the movie adaptations of ‘Red Dragon’ and, more depressingly, ‘Hannibal’; do not be put off from reading these works of art.
I realise I am gushing far too much about Harris’ brilliance, but that is how reading his novels make me feel! Although my view is slightly biased, ‘The Silence Of The Lambs’ offers everything required for a great book – thrilling, page-turning suspense that leaves you hungry for more and feeling like you have actually learned something when you finally put it down. I am now waiting with baited breath in the hope that Thomas Harris will write more about Hannibal’s past ‘meals’, and satisfy my hunger!

There are thrillers and there are thrillers.
We all know about Hannibal Lecter, the infamous antagonist of Harris' trilogy due to the success of the movie adaptation of this book. Our introduction to the leads is short and precise. Harris knew exactly what he wanted to create when he sat in front of his word processor and began writing this terrificly terrifying novel about serial killers. There is no time nor pages wasted running around just to fill space. I have undertaken a writing course and the main lesson that I learned was that every word should earn its space on the page, and Harris definitely uses every word to its maximum. He sets the pace from the off and we join Clarice Starling as she is introduced to the most infamous serial killer of all time in a high security prison for the insane. From there the ride begins!
If you are fortunate enough to not know anything about this book order it now and enjoy as I did and many millions of others have. If you have only seen the equally outstanding film, buy this book and read an author at the pinicle of his career. Mr Harris, I salute you.

chilling, gripping and the best book ever written...
This is by far the best book ever written, I adore this book no end, it is a literary masterpiece, I even have my e-mail address based on the title.
This book is no doubt brilliant - but why? Well I'll tell you...
This book has the best ending of any book, 'and she sleeps sweetly, deeply in the silence of the lambs' - absolutely fantastic.
This book hs the best character composites ever, Agent Clarice Starling a brilliantly described and compiled heroine. Dr Hannibal 'the cannibal' Lecter a notorious, insane, psychopathic, human eating, genius, ex-psychiatrist superstar who I think even though he does not exist in reality, it is quite possible that people are looking out for him, he's very influential. Buffalo Bill a terrifyingly disturbed body flaying serial killer, every scenario with him in it is chilling. And more like the obnoxious Dr Chiltern and stern and domineering Jack Crawford. Superb
This book has obviously been research profusely and the terminology and plots which incorporate this terminology is unequivocally unbeatable.
This book is writen by a class author and it is the one of few books I will read again again again again and again oh and again... BRILLIANT if you have any appreciation for great literature you will read this...