HANNIBAL

Hannibal Lecter, the gruesome serial killer who escaped at the end of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, is living high off the hog in Florence when he discovers (through nefarious channels) that his FBI nemesis, Clarice Starling, is in the midst of a career crisis. Falling prey to his obsession with her, he inadvertently sets himself up to be captured, not by the FBI, but by a mortal enemy who intends to feed him alive to wild boars. Reader Thomas Harris has plumbed the inner depths of the monstrous Lecter--after all, he created him--and his familiarity, not surprisingly, informs his energetic reading. The surprise is his portrayal of Clarice Starling, who is utterly credible as the young victim of class and gender distinctions in the FBI. In tones that reveal both femininity and determination, Harris's voice embodies the personal history that makes her so vulnerable and so ambitious. Smatterings of precise Italian also makes perfectly believable Lecter's Florentine pursuers. E.K.D. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 99]