The innocent title ‘Silence of the Lambs’ totally belies the content of this novel by American writer Thomas Harris. It is an eerie tale of a young female F.B.I. academy student, Clarice Starling, who with the help of institutionalised psychologist Dr Hannibal ‘The Cannibal’ Lector strives to ensnare the seemingly insane and bloodthirsty serial killer Jame Gumb, alias Buffalo Bill. To describe the novel as a thriller or crime story would be insulting. …showed first 75 words of 1715 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1715 total…on an axe murderer in their garden, trying to convince themselves that if they cannot see him, they will be safe. I feel that this was Harris’s purpose, to show the reader that nothing is impossible, people are capable of anything. Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lector may have been intended as the main characters, but in my opinion the true genius and terror of his novel was locked inside the mind of the killer.