Thomas Harris stayed with his "delicous" and "intriguing" characters all the way to the end. Without letting our appetite "down". Thank you Mr. Harris. If I had to add something of an "untasting" critic, it would just be about Starling's unlucky episodes almost all the way to the end. The women in your novels don't have enough "spice" in their lives... that's all folks.

I know this won't be a popular review but when Hollywood puts this to film, I sure hope they come up with a better ending. Fiction or not, I couldn't buy into Lecter's personna as I did with "Silence...". You get the impression that Harris got writer's block 3/4 of the way through and that the only purpose of the ending was to lend itself to another sequel. Way too wordy at times. Harris inconsistently goes from third to first person narrative. Interesting but disappointing read. Little if any substance to Starling's character. In fact, there were too many characters, several of whom the story could easily have gone without! Perhaps Hannibal Lecter will go the route of Rocky Balboa. Hannibal IV, Hannibal V.....

I have to admit that I wanted to like this book. My first reaction after reading it was disbelief. "What happened?", I thought. Then I realized what this book really was. Thomas Harris obviously disdains the popularity of the first two Hannibal books. It seems that he wanted to make sure that this book was a curveball, from the one-dimensional new villans down to one of the most laughable endings in literary history. He wrote a book that could never, ever be made into a film. Perhaps he felt his characters had been taken away from him. Don't worry Mr. Harris, it won't happen again.

Oh, I don't know, maybe I over-anticipated after anxiously waiting all these years. With Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, those books were read in one day and re-read over the years. So far, not the same with Hannibal. Good points to this tale are the obvious research put into the life of Hannibal in Italy, but for the most part, the other characters have yet to make me give a hoot. Reading some of the other reviews here make me wonder if I'll even bother going the distance. (Oh, I will, but will probably regret it.)

I really WANTED to like this book, but I don't think it lives up to the previous works in this series. What I liked best about Harris' previous work was his cool detachment from the (ghoulish and horrible) characters and events he was describing. This detachment is nowhere in evidence this time around, with the second person intervals and his obvious affection for Hannibal. When Salon Magazine synopsis for 'Hannibal' I thought it was a hoax...surely Thomas Harris wouldn't deliver such a far-fetched mess! Alas, I was wrong. I enjoyed the book, but it feels like it was written by someone trying to mimic Harris' work without possessing his gift for elegant prose and (usually) seamless story lines. A sad disappointment.

I would like to know who MR HARRIS'S editor is because I can not blame a reclusive autor for believing he has created somthing worthwhile but surely a writer relies on his editor to just tell the truth.So let me do it.MR HARRIS this book is terrible. Your initial opening reads like a bad action movie. Your middle section is reasonable . You should have maybe based the entire book in Europe . But........oh dearie me where did you get your ending from. It is absolute tosh. I found myself laughing through the final 10 chapters and I presume this is not the reaction you were looking for.But hey you're rich and I'm not.You created RED DRAGON . Now that was good.Please buy all the copies of this book back from the general public and have them pulped.Ay Carumba Mr Harris what were you thinking about.