Tooth Fairy and the Beast (Red Dragon - Thomas Harris)

Member Name: mr blonde

Product:	Red Dragon - Thomas Harris
Date:	15/11/02 (347 review reads)
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Thomas Harris, the Author of the Hannibal Lecter ?trilogy? (I use the term trilogy loosely, as it is only really The Silence Of The Lambs, and Hannibal, that he actually plays a far greater role, even though in this novel, his presence is small, yet powerful). He is an author that I had not really heard much about until I was about 16, and actually found out he was the person that created such an intriguing monster such as Doctor Lecter. At this point I immediately decided that one day I would read all 3 novels, however, being only 16, having little money beyond paying for one of my true loves (mountain biking hehehe), I had no choice but to succumb that I wasn?t going to be able to buy the books for a good while. I chose the order in which I have read the first 2 of the 3 merely by chance, I saw Hannibal at a flea market cheap and in good condition, so I brought it home and couldn?t put it down thereafter, and as for Red Dragon, I found that in ASDA quite cheap too (God don?t I sound like a student the way I am going on about cheap), and again could not put the book down until I finished it the other night at approx 2:30 am, and one of my first thoughts was to tell the world, and how better to do so than Dooyoo ;)!

I first started reading this book because of how Thomas Harris had gripped me with his novel Hannibal. I started reading this with high expectations, let me tell you that for nothing, and in all fairness it exceeded even my expectations. I have now read 2 parts of the Hannibal Lecter trilogy, the only one of the 3 I need to read now is surprisingly The Silence Of The Lambs, which I have already owned for a long while, but just never got round to reading it. It will definitely have to follow my current project, The Diary of Anne Frank I think. In fairness Hannibal was slated quite heavily because many saw it as a novel Harris was almost pushed into writing by the media in order to close the Hannibal Lecter file once and for all, I did howe
ver find the book to be pretty good, however, the silver screen version was far from accurate and for a fan such as myself, that was infuriating! I still have not seen Red Dragon, but I do intend to in the future, preferably sooner rather than later.

Anyways, a little about the characters:

Hannibal Lecter, a man who is renowned as being the world?s favourite psychopath, yet he is not brought even half way to life until Silence Of The Lambs, in Red Dragon he sets up the detective who is out to find the serial killer known as the ?Red Dragon? and also the ?Tooth Fairy?, but other than that he plays such a minor part in the novel.

Detective Will Graham, the man who the FBI consider important enough to them in this case that they bring him out of retirement to aid them find the killer. He is the man that brought Hannibal Lecter?s case to a closure when he was first caught, and he is classed as the man for the job in this case too. He has a talent for being able to show people were murdered, he seems to have a 6th sense almost for being able to re enact the murders in his mind and find clues because of it, for example, in his mind he sees the ?Tooth Fairy? opening his victims eyes in order to make them watch him murder their mother even though they are already dead.

Crawford is Will Graham?s superior officer at the bureau, he is here and there throughout the novel, making some important decisions revolving around the case, although he doesn?t play a huge role.

The Leeds Family, the second and most heard of victims of the killer throughout the book.

The Jacobi family, the first victims of the ?Dragon?, less heard of until the end when they play a massive part in the solving of the case.

Francis Dolarhyde (The Red Dragon), you guessed it, the murderer himself, plays a huge part in the film, for those who have seen Silence Of The Lambs, times the role of Jaime Gumb by about 4 and that?s about the amount of de
tail we get about Dolarhyde, he is more cunning, and far more brutal than Gumb ever was.

Reba McClane, the woman who almost manages to turn ?The Dragon? into a human being, she teaches him to love and to make love, and to cap that she is blind, a talented woman indeed. However, her only downfall is that she confuses Dolarhyde, and makes him think that he and the Dragon are no longer ?One?, and that they have been separated.

Freddy Lounds, the reporter that has hounded Will Graham for years, now they must team up in order to try and trap the Dragon, however, Dolarhyde has a thing about killing his victims pets, and he sees Lounds as Will Graham?s pet.

There are a few other characters, but I won?t go on about them too much for 2 reasons, this is an opinion, not just the plot, and also, they are not really as important as the aforementioned. Plus, it is 1:29am, and quite frankly at this time of night I should be in bed, not sat by my computer with System Of A Down blaring at me through my headphones!!!

As you have probably guessed, the basic plot is your usual FBI tracking serial killer routine, with all of the usual twists and turns throughout. However, the thing that gripped me in this one in particular, was not so much the plot, but more the underlying idea that this killer could be a rival to Hannibal Lecter himself, he is intelligent, cunning, and brutal, although in fairness he has neither the style or the gall of Lecter (although I would class filming yourself murdering someone as a lot of gall in most cases). Francis Dolarhyde is somewhat of a mystery, born a harelip, no real friends, raised by his grandmother, a classic case for a psychotic serial killer in many ways, but there is something more to him that doesn?t quite match, that, is that he sees himself as a dragon, it is almost similar to a child with an imaginary friend, although he never grew out of having his invisible chum!

I feel the twist of Hannibal
Lecter turning tail, and almost going against against his usual charm and sophistication, and double crossing someone the way he does Will Graham is a brilliant twist in the story, which at the time seems important, yet that importance dies down until the end of the book. That particular twist adds intenseness to the book that is unsurpassable by many other authors.

I found that I was on edge through the entire book, I am generally a laid back kind of lad, and in fairness for want of a better word, this book had me bricking it (apologies for the slang, but it was the best I could come up with, any suggestions?). My perception of the killer was that he was basically a monster, both in mentality and in physique, he is personified as an extremely muscular man, with an enormous amount of strength, shown both in his murders and his description. All in all I feel this adds a huge amount to his persona, I was imagining Arnie with brains, and I wouldn?t be at all surprised if the guy is like John Cofee in the Green Mile, only white with browny gingery hair and goggles (read it to find out). I imagined Will Graham to be fairly scrawny as Dolarhyde described were about he would break Graham?s back in half when he killed him. I imagined Reba McClane to be an attractive woman, fairly sexually charged, and fairly liberated all in all. Harris has created his characters so that they MUST be shown even on screen in a certain way, otherwise the story will not work. This is something I find attractive about the novel, because unlike Hannibal, it means that anything the director leaves out will not be of significant importance, well I would like to hope not anyway.

I feel that this book is as intense and as sophisticated a novel to have been written in the last 50 years, a bold statement I know, but when you read the book and understand it, you will see, feel and hear as the killer does, you will also imagine the fear of being Will Graham, knowing there is a
killer after you that knows were you and your family live, and that a psychopath has double crossed you as an act of revenge. In order to understand just how intelligent this novel really is, you have to read it, once you have done so, you will understand what I am saying, I still feel that he film won?t do it justice, even though I am going to see it anyway lol. As far as many crime/murder mystery novels go, most can be quite corny, often ironic, and often merely pulp fiction, this however is none of these. There is far more to Red Dragon than meets the eye, and I do feel that I will read it again at some point to see just how much I missed at the first time of reading!

Thanks for reading my op, I have been away for a while, lacking inspiration completely, I have a few people on here I need to catch up with, so I am off to do so now, cheers peeps, catch you later :).

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