Whereas this does not bode well at all.

I tried, and failed, to get through more than a few chapters of the last Hannibal Lecter book, so I’m not exactly looking forward to the prospect of a fourth. The first book, Red Dragon works, I think, largely in spite of the presence of Lecter. As Elvis Mitchell wrote in his review of the recent film remake, “At the spine of Mr. Harris’s ‘Dragon’ is a great paranoid premise: What if the thing you are best at puts you in touch with the worst part of yourself?” That much is true, and if the film itself wasn’t terribly good, I think it’s precisely because it focused more on Lecter than it did that intriguing premise.

Which is precisely what it sounds like they’re doing again with this new book:

“Millions of readers in 25 languages have wondered how Dr. Lecter developed his particular appetite for evil,” Applebaum said in a statement. “This novel will satisfy their curiosity.”