Just Finished Reading: Red Dragon

This is a book that I have been wanting to read for a long time, and now I have and I loved it. I have seen all five Hannibal Lector movies (Manhunter, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Red Dragon, and Hannibal Rising) and liked them so I knew I would love this book. While Silence of the Lambs is the most famous story, I have always been interested in the story that has two film adaptions, Red Dragon. Hannibal Lector isn't really an important character in this novel, and doesn't even appear in the second half of the book except for a few letters to Will Graham. The character that I was interested in reading about was Francis Dolarhyde, aka the "Tooth Fairy" or the "Dragon." He is a serial killer to believes that he is "becoming" the dragon and kills entire families whose home movies he had seen at the film developing plant he works at. There are so many great parts in this story, from Dolarhyde kidnapping Freddy Lounds ("Do you see?") to him taking a trip to the Metropolitan museum and eating the Blake painting. It was interesting reading the books and seeing the differences between it and Manhunter or Red Dragon the movie. Like, for instance, how Graham isn't even there when Molly shoots Dolarhyde, but he is in the movie. There are some books that take me forever to read because I slowly lose interest, and there are books that I can't put down. This book definitely belongs in the latter category.