In the parlance of superhero comics, the latest product of  Harris’ best-seller-and-hit-flick factory would be called an origins story, a narrative accounting for the hero’s superness. Bruce Wayne becomes Batman because of the childhood trauma of seeing a gunsel mow down his parents. Hannibal Lecter becomes the ultimate übermensch because of the childhood trauma of seeing his little sister eaten by criminal scavengers-guys so loathsome even the SS won’t take them--near the end of World War II. Whether and to what extent he actually saw wee Mischa’s demise remain in question throughout most of the book, for until he is an 18-year-old med-school whiz kid, he can’t consciously recall the incident. Which doesn’t, however, mean that he isn’t bent on revenge from the minute after he last sees Mischa alive. Revenge he exacts, making the closing third of the book riveting, not least because at 18 he lacks the omniscience that he honed to perfection in The Silence of the Lambs (1988). Harris’ creation continues to fascinate, here as a youngster far more than as a should-be-doddering senior in Hannibal (1999), and despite (or because of) Harris’ styleless prose. The movie opens all over, like one of the gross anatomy specimens Hannibal prepares in these pages, in February. Start soaking the fava beans.--"Olson, Ray" Copyright 2007 Booklist

Twenty-five years after Hannibal Lecter, a cross between Professor Moriarty and Jack the Ripper, first invaded the imaginations of countless readers worldwide in Red Dragon, bestseller Harris has crafted an unmemorable prequel that's intended to explain the origins of Lecter's evil. Fans of Harris's previous Lecter novel, Hannibal (1999), already know the major trauma that transformed the young Lecter-the murder of his beloved younger sister, Mischa, during WWII-which the author describes in more grisly detail. Lecter also has an unusual love interest, his uncle's Japanese wife, Lady Murasaki, but the bulk of the narrative focuses on Lecter's quest for revenge on those he holds responsible for Mischa's death. Unfortunately, the prose and plotting lack the suspenseful power of Red Dragon or The Silence of the Lambs, and will leave many feeling that with such a masterful monster as Lecter, less is more. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved