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Red Dragon (Abridged) Audiobook
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(3.00) - 77,891 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
A quiet summer night, a neat suburban house … and another innocent, happy family is shattered—the latest victims of a grisly series of hideous sacrificial killings that no one understands, and no one can stop. Nobody lives to tell of the unimaginable carnage. Only the blood-stained walls bear witness.
All hope rests on Special Agent Will Graham, who must peer inside the killer's tortured soul to understand his rage, to anticipate and prevent his next vicious crime. Desperate for help, Graham finds himself locked in a deadly alliance with the brilliant Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the infamous mass murderer who Graham put in prison years ago. As the imprisoned Lecter tightens the reins of revenge, Graham's feverish pursuit of the Red Dragon draws him inside the warped mind of a psychopath, into an unforgettable world of demonic ritual and violence, beyond the limits of human terror.
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"I read this novel one weekend in the spring. I basically dropped everything and read on my couch for three tension-filled days. It's the kind of story where the antagonist is humanized just enough to draw sympathy yet you feel terrible for rooting for him considering the horrible crime he commits. Dollar Hyde, the serial killer of this suspense story, offers a demented character but ultimately, he walks in the shadow of Hannibal Lecter. He is humanized in the way that his evil qualities are deconstructed and, at times, justified. Not many of us can relate with his physical deformities and way of thinking, but his reaction to trauma is very understandable. Thomas Harris follows suit with the suspense genre in working backwards from the critical moment of murder to the events leading up to it and to the killer himself. The story of the murder is framed within the stories of the serial killer on the run and the detective in pursuit of the mystery. Furthermore, his movement towards some sort of transformation is wonderfully paced in the way he is distinguishing himself from Hannibal, modeling him, and contesting the detective, Will Graham. This highly dynamic character of his is constantly moving and in terms of narrative, this gives Dollar Hyde a dark sense of depth. It makes you want to separate the killer from the crime. Probably the main source of suspense that I found is in the interplay between hostile space and secure space. A setting as simple as a home, not a surprise, can easily become a place of danger. I thought it was interesting how these spaces are attacked. The victims in the novel are preyed upon in ways that they don't expect and the order of Graham's discoveries gave me that very self-aware feeling. For a week or so, I felt like I was being watched-- constantly glancing behind me, peaking outside the blinds and clarifying that the people on the phone were exactly who they claimed to be. Reading this novel is pure masochism. The spectacle of murder is placed under such a microscope that it creates a sense of fantasy so the interest is a strange feeling, and the characters are so well-twisted that it's hard not to wonder where they are going mentally and to track them with readied interest."
— Gregory (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“Red Dragon is an engine designed for one purpose—to make the pulse pound, the heart palpitate, the fear glands secrete.”
— New York Times Book Review -
“A gruesome, graphic, gripping thriller…Extraordinarily harrowing.”
— Cleveland Plain Dealer -
“Irresistible…A shattering thriller…Readers should buckle themselves in for a long night’s read because from the first pages…Harris grabs hold.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“The high-profile film based on the original book lacked much of what this finely rendered audiobook possesses—subtlety, an informative and meaningful backstory, and reasonably believable characters. The film’s shorthand robbed this story of a multitude of vital points, but enjoying Chris Sarandon’s well-planned and controlled performance allows the whole story to shine through.”
— AudioFile
Awards
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A New York Times bestseller
Red Dragon Listener Reviews
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" Loved it, Wish the movie had some of the stuff in the book..the cut some stuff out.. "
— K.i.m.i.c.a.o.t.i.c, 2/19/2014 -
" Wow! Wanna be scared to death? Then you'd better read 'Red Dragon'. This was the first in the Hannibal Lecter series and I wasn't disappointed. A gripping, scary and frightening novel!! This would be a great book to be reading out in the woods, by flashlight in a tent!! "
— Louise, 2/8/2014 -
" I read these three harris books (red dragon, silence of the lambs, hannibal) in order and enjoyed them all. Good, solid mysteries with interesting characters. Also a very good movie. "
— Patricia, 2/5/2014 -
" Maybe I am secretly a horror novel. It is a bit grisley but I totally got into this book. I thought I had figured it all out and the author threw me for a loop. Looking back I realized I let the author lead me to my conclusions knowingly and then picked me up, threw everything around, shook it up some more and then I was left dazed but realizing that was the plan all along. "
— Soni, 1/19/2014 -
" If you liked the movie and thought you would read the book for some added content, Don't bother movie book the same. "
— Larry, 1/18/2014 -
" Probably my least favorite of the three books in the trilogy but still really entertaining in and of itself. "
— Michael, 1/12/2014 -
" I read this book twice. It originally was published as "The Red Dragon" and then about ten years later it was re-published as "Manhunter". I enjoyed both times I read the book. I've read all of Thomas Harris' Dr. Lecture books. "
— Anthony, 1/12/2014 -
" Best crime novel ever. Unbelievably creepy. "
— D., 11/19/2013 -
" The characters were especially vibrant, but the story unraveled a little at the end. But, it's an enjoyable quick read. "
— Paul, 11/10/2013 -
" It was interesting, slightly weird and worth the read but not exactly life changing. "
— Francis, 10/29/2013 -
" Along with Silence of the Lambs, this book is Thomas Harris at his best. Don't read it in the house alone! "
— Patty, 10/24/2013
About Thomas Harris
Thomas Harris is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Hannibal. He began his writing career covering crime in the United States and Mexico, and was a reporter and editor for the Associated Press in New York City. The first four of his Hannibal Lecter novels have been made into films, most famously with actor Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal; the film version of his book The Silence of the Lambs swept the Academy Awards in 1991, winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.