Hannibal Rising
Book 4, Hannibal Lecter Series
Thomas Harris

Hannibal Lecter emerges from the nightmare of the Eastern Front, a boy in the snow, mute, with a chain around his neck.
He seems utterly alone, but he has brought his demons with him.
Hannibal's uncle, a noted painter, finds him in a Soviet orphanage and brings him to France, where Hannibal will live with his uncle and his uncle's beautiful and exotic wife, Lady Murasaki.
Lady Murasaki helps Hannibal to heal. With her help he flourishes, becoming the youngest person ever admitted to medical school in France.
But Hannibal's demons visit him and torment him. When he is old enough, he visits them in turn.
He discovers he has gifts beyond the academic, and in that epiphany, Hannibal Lecter becomes death's prodigy.

While this is the fourth book in the series, it is the prequel to all of the others. This explores Hannibal's childhood, the horrors he had to endure during the Nazi occupation, the death of his parents and of his sister, and being held captive by a group of thieves and looters.

From there he ends up at an orphanage, then living with his uncle, who does not have much time left in the world. Through it all one thing weighs heavily on Hannibal's mind and changes him from a boy to the man he will become - the needs for revenge. Revenge on the men who decided to cook and eat his sister in front of him.

While this book isn't as exciting as the other are and there really is no mystery as to who is killing who, it still makes an incredible read for those who have read the other books in this series (Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal). It explores how a normal boy, the son of a Count no less, can turn into a monster. What has to happen to change innocence into evil? This exploration is chilling and enthralling.

While I do prefer the other novels in this series, I would say this is a must read if you have read the other books. It's different from them, but the concentration on Lecter as a boy and him growing into a man is engaging and truly does explain how he became the person you have read about in the other novels.

Much like the other novels in this series, these books are not for everyone. They're for an adult reader and one who isn't too squeamish. But if you like the other three, then I would highly recommend this one.

My rating: Four out of five snails.