The Silence of the Lambs
1988
- lambs
- black witch moth
- autopsy
- pupa
- offender profiling
- forensic psychiatry
- federal bureau of investigation
- fiction
- government investigators
- psychology
The story
The Silence of the Lambs is a psychological horror novel by Thomas Harris. First published in 1988, it is the sequel to Harris's 1981 novel Red Dragon. Both novels feature the cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter, this time pitted against FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling. The novel won the 1988 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel. The novel also won the 1989 Anthony Award for Best Novel. It was nominated for the 1989 World Fantasy Award. ---------- Also contained in: - [Red Dragon / The Silence of the Lambs](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL138391W)
What it’s like
Cold, procedural prose with clipped sentences and precise, unhurried detail: Quantico's stark corridors, bleak winter roads, the sterile hush of a maximum-security asylum, and the faint smell of formaldehyde that clings to the forensic scenes. The voice is controlled and observant, with the tension held in quiet exchanges that can turn unsettling in a sentence. Its atmosphere is cold, sinister and claustrophobic, closer to dread that builds in corridors and cellars than to jump-scare shock. Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, is the guarded, determined center, and the story follows her slow, careful effort to earn trust from a brilliant, dangerous psychiatrist, alongside a hunt that keeps circling a grim, hidden killer. Intensity is high: murders are described in unflinching, sometimes graphic detail, with autopsy-level specifics, cannibalism referenced, and brief but brutal moments of violence. It is not gentle and not for background reading. It suits readers who want a tense, intelligent thriller, late-night and fully absorbing, for people who enjoy psychological cat-and-mouse and crime fiction with a cold, literate surface.
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