Quid Pro Quo, Clarice! (The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris)

Member Name: kiddyfarm

Product:	The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris
Date:	01/09/01 (1133 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great character and truely gripping storyline

Disadvantages: none

A madman is stalking the suburbs of America. He is a confused loner. Unable to get the sex change operation he so desired, he decides to take drastic action. He is making himself a girl suit...out of real girls!

Thomas Harris has proved himself to be no one hit wonder, with this superb follow up to Red Dragon. A master of terror, his pen unleashes genious with each stroke. In The Silence of The Lambs, Harris offers up a serving of characters so believable that you feel at times that you know them personally. His writing style is faultless. Powerful descriptions of scenery and scenarios, he takes the reader on a roller-coaster thrill ride, only letting you off of the ride as you turn the last page.

Some characters are re-introduced from Red Dragon, namely Jack Crwford, the craggy section chief of Behavioral Science at the FBI, and, of course, Dr Hannibal Lecter, the sinister killer with an off the scale inteligence level, currently incarcerated in a top security asylum for the brutal canibalistic murders of several unsuspecting aquaintances.

Crawford is heading up a team hunting for a serial killer who abducts women, kills them then helps himself to their skins. Six bodies have been found floating in rivers around the country so far, and the authorities are certain that more will follow unless this killer is caught. He has become known as 'Buffalo Bill' as a result of a sick joke by some police men who said that he always skinned his humps.

Jack finds help in the unlikely form of an FBI trainee named Clarice Starling. She has a keen mind and is eager to make her mark with the acadamy.

Starling is sent to interview Lecter in his cell. At first, she is merely picking his brain to try to draw up a profile of serial killers, but a strange bond is formed between the trainee and the monster. Lecter offers to help her find Buffalo Bill in exchange for intimate details of her own life.

Pressure is added to the hun
t when Bill selects his next victim. She is the daughter of a prominent senetor. Frantic to get to her before Bill kills her, a deal is struck between the FBI and Dr Lectar. He will be moved to another institution where he will have a view, in exchange for him naming Buffalo Bill. It seems the latest victim will be saved, until Hannibal's jailor, Dr Frederick Chiltern interferes. Chiltern is desparate for fame and glory, and by sticking his oar in, it looks as though he has sealed the fate of the young girl held by the madman.

A high tension race against time ensues. The consequences of Chiltern's envolvement are dire.

Starling puts herself in danger and at risk of being thrown out of the FBI acadamy as she follows the trail of the killer.

Racing pulses and beads of sweat on brows are the order of the day right up until the last page of this fantastic story. Just when you feel yourself start to sigh with relief, Harris provides you with another twist to his tale.

Will Starling find the kidnapped girl, and will Chiltern get his just deserts? Read the book, and find out for yourself.

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