First edition cover
|
|
Author | Thomas Harris |
---|---|
Cover artist | Craig DeCamps |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Series | Hannibal Lecter |
Genre | Thriller, horror, gothic |
Publisher | Delacorte Press |
Publication date
|
8 June 1999 |
Media type | Print (Hardback and Paperback) |
Pages | 484 (first edition, hardback) |
ISBN | (first edition, hardback) |
OCLC | 41315462 |
Preceded by | The Silence of the Lambs |
Followed by | Hannibal Rising |
Hannibal is a novel by American author Thomas Harris, published in 1999. It is the third in his series featuring Dr. Hannibal Lecter and the second to feature FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling. The novel takes place seven years after the events of The Silence of the Lambs and deals with the intended revenge of one of Lecter's victims. It was adapted as a film of the same name in 2001, directed by Ridley Scott. Elements of the novel were incorporated into the second season of the NBC television series Hannibal, while the show's third season adapted the plot of the novel.
Seven years after the Buffalo Bill case, FBI agent Clarice Starling witnesses her career crumble around her. During a botched drug raid, Starling kills a meth dealer, who was holding a baby. Fugitive serial killer Hannibal Lecter, who has been living in Florence, Italy, under an assumed name, sends her a letter of condolence and requests more information about her personal life. Desperate to catch Lecter, the FBI tasks Starling with apprehending him. She meets with Barney Matthews, former orderly of Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. When Barney asks Starling if she ever feared Lecter visiting her, she replied that she did not, as "he said he wouldn't".
Meanwhile, Mason Verger, a wealthy, sadistic pedophile whom Lecter disfigured during a therapy session years before, plans to get revenge by feeding Lecter to wild boars, using Starling as bait. He is aided by corrupt Justice Department agent Paul Krendler, Starling's nemesis. Rinaldo Pazzi, a disgraced Italian detective, pursues Lecter in the interests of collecting Verger's bounty on him. However, Lecter disembowels and hangs Pazzi in reference to the lynchings of the Pazzi conspirators. After killing one of Verger's men, Lecter escapes to the United States, where he begins pursuing Starling.