Thomas Harris is a well-known author of mystery and thriller novels. Readers know him for his Hannibal Lecter suspense novels, most of which have been made into movies. The most well-known is The Silence of the Lambs, which has won many Academy Awards.
Harris was born in Jackson, Tennessee, on April 11th, 1940. His family relocated to Rich, Mississippi, when he was a child.
In 1964, he graduated from Baylor University (Texas) with a major in English. While in college, Harris worked as a journalist for one of the local newspapers, the Waco Tribune-Herald. In 1968, he relocated to New York City to work for the Associated Press, where he stayed until 1974. Even though Harris is a famous writer, little is known about his private life, as he prefers not to discuss personal details. In fact, he hasn’t given a single interview since 1976.
He currently resides in South Florida and has a summer residence in Sag Harbor, New York.
Thomas Harris Books in order
Hannibal Lecter
Standalone Novel
See also: Hannibal Lecter Books in Order.
Similar authors
- The Godfather by Mario Puzo follows the legendary Mafia story of violence and betrayal, now a worldwide phenomenon.
- Stephen King’s The Shining follows a family that travels to a remote hotel for the winter. Here, a dark presence pulls the father into violence, and his psychic son sees terrifying foreboding.
See also: Odd Thomas Books in Order.
Most recommended books
- The Silence of the Lambs (Hannibal Lecter, #2) (4.22 Goodreads score)
- Red Dragon (Hannibal Lecter, #1) (4.04 Goodreads score)
- Hannibal (Hannibal Lecter, #3) (3.79 Goodreads score)
- Black Sunday (3.61 Goodreads score)
- Hannibal Rising (Hannibal Lecter, #4) (3.55 Goodreads score)
Awards
The Horror Writers Association has honored Thomas Harris, the author of Hannibal Lecter, with the 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Latest releases in the series
The last and final book of the series is Hannibal Rising, published in 2006.
Movies based on the books
- The first movie adaptation was Michael Mann’s 1986 film Manhunter, based on Red Dragon. The Silence of the Lambs, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Anthony Hopkins in the role of Hannibal Lecter, was the following adaptation. It became the third picture in Academy Award history to win all five major categories.
- Hannibal, a television series, premiered in 2013. It was not a direct adaptation but is inspired by characters and elements from the novels.
- In 2021, Lifetime produced a television series titled Clarise, centered around Starling working for the FBI.
Book summaries
Red Dragon (1981)
FBI agent Will Graham once risked his sanity to capture Hannibal Lecter, an ingenious killer like no other. Now, he’s following the bloodstained pattern of the Tooth Fairy, a madman who’s already wiped out two families. To find him, Graham has to understand him. To understand him, Graham has only one place left to go: the mind of Dr. Lecter.
The Silence of the Lambs (1988)
A serial murderer known only by a grotesquely apt nickname–Buffalo Bill–is stalking women. He has a purpose, but no one can fathom it, for the bodies are discovered in different states. Clarice Starling, a young trainee at the FBI Academy, is surprised to be summoned by Jack Crawford, chief of the Bureau’s Behavioral Science section. Her assignment: to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter–Hannibal the Cannibal–who is kept under close watch in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Dr. Lecter is a former psychiatrist with a grisly history, unusual tastes, and an intense curiosity about the darker corners of the mind. His intimate understanding of the killer and of Clarice herself form the core of Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs-an ingenious, masterfully written book and an unforgettable classic of suspense fiction.
Hannibal (1999)
You remember Hannibal Lecter: gentleman, genius, cannibal. Seven years have passed since Dr. Lecter escaped from custody. And for seven years he’s been at large, free to savor the scents, the essences, of an unguarded world. But intruders have entered Dr. Lecter’s world, piercing his new identity, and sensing the evil that surrounds him. For the multimillionaire Hannibal left maimed, for a corrupt Italian policeman, and for FBI agent Clarice Starling, who once stood before Lecter and who has never been the same, the final hunt for Hannibal Lecter has begun. All of them, in their separate ways, want to find Dr. Lecter. And all three will get their wish. But only one will live long enough to savor the reward. . .
Hannibal Rising (2006)
He is one of the most haunting characters in all of literature. At last the evolution of his evil is revealed. 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 academics, and in that epiphany, Hannibal Lecter becomes death’s prodigy.
Black Sunday (1975)
It’s the event of the year. Eighty thousand fans have converged in New Orleans for Super Bowl Sunday. Among them is a young man named Michael Lander. But he has not come to watch the game. A tool for a radical terrorist group, he has come to play one. To enact revenge. To feed the rage of others. And the whole world will be watching. Unless someone stops him. But first, they have to find him.
Cari Mora (2019)
Twenty-five million dollars in cartel gold lies hidden beneath a mansion on the Miami Beach waterfront. Ruthless men have tracked it for years. Leading the pack is Hans-Peter Schneider. Driven by unspeakable appetites, he makes a living fleshing out the violent fantasies of other, richer men. Cari Mora, the caretaker of the house, has escaped from the violence in her native country. She stays in Miami on a wobbly Temporary Protected Status, subject to the iron whim of ICE. She works at many jobs to survive. Beautiful, marked by war, Cari catches the eye of Hans-Peter as he closes in on the treasure. But Cari Mora has surprising skills, and she will survive has been tested before. Monsters lurk in the crevices between male desire and female survival. No other writer in the last century has conjured those monsters with more terrifying brilliance than Thomas Harris. Cari Mora, his sixth novel, is the long-awaited return of an American master.
