Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the serial killer from The Silence of the Lambs whose portrayal on film earned Anthony Hopkins an Academy Award, and who for many, is the ultimate villain in modern fiction, is back with a vengeance. Hannibal the Cannibal is at the center of the first novel in more than a decade by his creator, Thomas Harris. Hannibal also features the reappearance from The Silence of the Lambs of FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling, portrayed in the movie by Jodie Foster, who also won an Oscar for her performance. The new novel opens seven years after Dr. Lecter's stunning escape from the authorities, the climax of the earlier book, as one of his earlier victims uses Agent Starling as bait to draw the doctor into an intricate and unspeakable design for revenge.