Thomas Harris
The Silence of the Lambs
Future FBI agent Clarice Starling gathers her fIrst practical experiences looking out for the so called serial killer
Buffalo Bill. The FBI is completely helpless in their investigations. The only help could be Dr. Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter, who is arrested in a hospital for the criminally insane.So the FBI hopes that Dr. Lecter knows something about Buffalo Bill, because Lecter had a lot of psychopaths as patients some years ago, when he was a psychiatrist. At least Lecter could know something about the way those insane people think. Carice Starling is sent to get some information. But Lecter is much too brilliant and intelligent to just tell Starling his knowledge without any advantages for himself. He entangles Starling in a puzzling and nerve-racking question-answer game in which Starling has to watch out that she isn't telling Lecter the deepest secrets of her soul.
When I first held the book in my hands, I tried to imagine in which way the butterfly on the cover and the strange title could be connected with the short summary on the back of the book. It said, that the book is about an "evil cannibalistic serial killer - Hannibal Lecter". So does Lecter kill lambs, to make them quiet? No, of course not. In fact Thomas Harris slowly reveals that Buffalo Bill breeds those butterflies and the silence of the lambs is something that has to do with Starling's past. Lecter is trying to outwit Starling - with his intelligence and his knowledge of human nature - to tell him something about this past.
But I was confused in the first few chapters. The story starts immediately in the behavioral science section of the FBI, where Starling gets the order to "interview" Lecter about Buffalo Bill. In this part of the book the reader doesn't know much about Starling or Lecter and so you don't really understand what Lecter's situation is or anything about his background. By then the story gets more thrilling and more exciting from page to page. It seems that in about every three or four chapters a corpse is found and the impression develops that Buffalo kills more women over night if you don't keep reading now and help Starling!
After about two-thirds of the book the absolute climax is reached. Lecter escapes from prison and Starling is told or even forced to go back to the FBI school, so she doesn't miss her exams. But of course Starling doesn't worry about this and keeps investigating. But the reader isn't really expecting anything else because only Starling can finish this! Finally Starling is confronted with Buffalo Bill. After one of the most thrilling chapters in the book, she overwhelms Buffalo and releases the arrested woman.
All's well that ends well, but still Hannibal is somewhere out there. . .
The book is an absolutely must-read if you like a dark atmosphere, a thrilling story and coolly calculating Dr. Lecter with his cruel desire. Of course you shouldn't be afraid of some blood or corpses...
Volker Nagel | LK Englisch 2001