The book
Hannibal is sadly, as
bitter_engineer states above, nowhere near
as good as the original.
Lecter is a
peripheral character in
The Silence of the Lambs just as he is in
Red Dragon. In this book, Harris appears to have
fallen in love with his creation. His habit of
writing in the present tense is somewhat
indicative of how much he identifies with characters.
What particularly got to me about this book, even more than the absurd dénoument, was the frequent references to Dr Lecter's "exquisite taste". However, the examples given , sadly, do not speak of excellent taste by any means. Rather, they read as though some had bought a catalogue of "The World's Most Expensive Stuff" and picked random items from it.
Dr Lecter may have exquisite taste. Thomas Harris isn't anywhere near as refined, and his attempts to portray it merely smack of pretension. Harris writes cops and FBI Agents incredibly well. He should stick to his strengths in future and maybe he'd return to literary form.