Hannibal

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Authors: Thomas Harris

Tags: #Fiction, #Thriller

BOOK: Hannibal
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“A STUNNER … writing in language as bright and precise as a surgeon’s scalpel, Harris has created a world as mysterious as Hannibal’s memory palace and as disturbing as a Goya painting. This is one book you don’t want to read alone at night.”


THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

“RELENTLESS … ENDLESSLY TERRIFYING … 486 fast-paced pages, in which every respite is but a prelude to further furious action …
Hannibal
begins with a murderous paroxysm that leaves the reader breathless….
Hannibal
speaks to the imagination, to the feelings, to the passions, to exalted senses and to debased ones. Harris’s voice will be heard for a while.”


LOS ANGELES TIMES

HANNIBAL
THOMAS HARRIS

“A WORK OF ART … You’ll eat up
Hannibal…
. There isn’t a wasted word … the last 100 pages are the best I’ve ever read in the thriller genre.”


Larry King
,
USA TODAY

“The readers who have been waiting for
Hannibal
only want to know if it is as good as
Red Dragon
and
The Silence of the Lambs
. … It is a pleasure to reply in the negative. No, not as good. This one is better. It is, in fact, ONE OF THE TWO MOST FRIGHTENING POPULAR NOVELS OF OUR TIME, the other being
The Exorcist…. Hannibal
is really not a sequel at all, but rather the third and most satisfying part of one very long and scary ride through the haunted palace of abnormal psychiatry…
Hannibal
is a full-out unabashed horror novel…. I hope with all my heart that [Harris] will write again, and sooner rather than later—novels that bravely and cleverly erase the line between popular fiction and literature are very much to be prized.”


Stephen King
,
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

“DELICIOUSLY FRIGHTENING.”


NEWSDAY

“A TRULY SCARY BOOK … Harris writes with authority and a knack for detail, creating some memorably creepy scenes.”


PEOPLE

“GOTHIC, FANTASTIC … FULL OF WONDERFUL TOUCHES.”


INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

“A TRIUMPH of straightforward, smart prose. Not a word is wasted, not a thought is irrelevant. Harris is a master, and in
Hannibal
he reached, he stretched, and once again, he grabbed the prize.”


DAYTON DAILY NEWS

“A pleasurable sense of dread.”


THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

“CHILLING …
HANNIBAL
IS SCARY, SOMETIMES UNENDURINGLY SO … you hardly mark the moment when an entertaining novel becomes literature … a bizarre book, indeed, but enthrallingly so.”


DAILY NEWS
(
New York
)

“A magnificently gory page-turner.”


DETROIT NEWS

“The book takes off … into the stratosphere of fantasy, into Hannibal Lecter’s private world… A GRAND GUIGNOL ROMP … Yet there’s still a
basso ostinato
of serious questions, and the answers are darker than in
Silence.”


THE NATION

“ALWAYS MESMERIZING … BRILLIANT, BIZARRE, AND ABSURD … This is a post-suspense novel, as much sardonic philosophical jest as Grand Guignol thriller…. Although renowned for his mastery of suspense, terror and dread, Harris saturates these pages with a surprising elixir: a fierce irony.”


PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“GRIPPING … A PAGE-TURNING MARVEL … AN INGENIOUS PLOT … Harris writes wonderfully here, with elegant poetic rhythms and much striking imagery.”


MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

“DIABOLICALLY CLEVER … Harris serves up a feast in
Hannibal…
. He writes like an angel with the devil’s sense of humor…. The hypnotic blend of horror story and psychological thriller lifts crime fiction to sublime….
Hannibal
is ghoulishly good fare.”


BOSTON HERALD

“A PAGE-TURNER … Harris works some surprising twists … [he] paces the action well.”


HOUSTON CHRONICLE

“A delightfully perverse book … Harris is still one of America’s best, most daring pop writers.”


TIME OUT NEW YORK

“[A] DEVILISH TALE … EERILY REALISTIC AND CHILLINGLY VIVID FROM BEGINNING TO END. As Harris sketches his hideous scenarios, he allows us to color them in with our imaginations. But not overdoing it, he draws us in, practically making us conspirators in his macabre fantasy.”


NEW YORK POST

“ENORMOUSLY SATISFYING … a smashing good time, turning the pages for thrills, chills, horror and finally, a bracing, deliciously wicked slap in the face … perhaps the very best the thriller/horror genre is capable of producing.”


SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

“VERY ENTERTAINING.”


NEWSWEEK

“It was worth waiting 11 years … Vivid details and crisp dialogue … Brilliantly intertwined and absolutely, unbelievably violent. It’s horrifying and breathtaking and so beautifully written that you’ll be tempted to read it in one sitting…. Harris has succeeded on every level with
Hannibal…
. We’re very much a part of the action, from first page until the last breathtaking chapter. The conclusion is one of the most startling I have ever read; it will knock your socks off.”


THE KNOXVILLE NEWS-SENTINEL

“[A] PAGE-TURNER … I have read every word of
Hannibal
, most of them only twice, but some as many as five or six times.”


NEW YORK

Also by Thomas Harris

BLACK SUNDAY
RED DRAGON
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

Contents

Cover

Other Books By This Author

Title Page

Part I - Washington, D.C.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Part II - Florence

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Part III - To the New World

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Chapter 61

Chapter 62

Chapter 63

Chapter 64

Chapter 65

Chapter 66

Chapter 67

Chapter 68

Part IV - Notable Occasions on the Calendar of Dread

Chapter 69

Chapter 70

Chapter 71

Chapter 72

Chapter 73

Chapter 74

Chapter 75

Chapter 76

Part V - A Pound of Flesh

Chapter 77

Chapter 78

Chapter 79

Chapter 80

Chapter 81

Chapter 82

Chapter 83

Chapter 84

Chapter 85

Chapter 86

Chapter 87

Chapter 88

Part VI - A Long Spoon

Chapter 89

Chapter 90

Chapter 91

Chapter 92

Chapter 93

Chapter 94

Chapter 95

Chapter 96

Chapter 97

Chapter 98

Chapter 99

Chapter 100

Chapter 101

Chapter 102

Chapter 103

Acknowledgments

Copyright

I

WASHINGTON, D.C.

CHAPTER
1

You would think that such a day
would tremble to begin …
.

C
LARICE
S
TARLING’S
Mustang boomed up the entrance ramp at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on Massachusetts Avenue, a headquarters rented from the Reverend Sun Myung Moon in the interest of economy.

The strike force waited in three vehicles, a battered undercover van to lead and two black SWAT vans behind it, manned and idling in the cavernous garage.

Starling hoisted the equipment bag out of her car and ran to the lead vehicle, a dirty white panel van with
MARCELL’S CRAB HOUSE
signs stuck on the sides.

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