Ranking Every Thomas Harris Book From Worst To Best

When the topic of notable authors of the horror genre comes up, it would be downright criminal to not bring up Thomas Harris as one of the true stand-outs. After all, the man not only created some truly disturbed characters, but most notably, he brought the legendary Hannibal Lecter into the world of fiction. Since the character first appeared in 1981, he has gone on to be a central figure in five major motion pictures, as well as a hit television series, captivating fans of horror the world over along the way.

However, there's far more to Harris' writing than just the fabled cannibal. When it comes to disturbing, gritty horror novels, the man is all but peerless. In many ways, he's sort of the anti-Stephen King. Whereas King has published dozens upon dozens of novels in his time, which ranged anywhere from brilliant to abysmally forgettable, Harris has only published five novels, which, save for one black sheep, were all varying degrees of brilliant. He would go on to become one of the single most respected names in horror as a result.

Much like anything else, some of his books were better and in some cases, much better than others. It's time to take a look back at how each installment in Harris' iconic portfolio stack up against one another.

Despite how much of a legend he is, even Thomas Harris isn't immune to one hiccup on his résumé. However, it wasn't even his fault. He didn't even want to write the novel that would go on to become the aforementioned black sheep of his bibliography, but was practically held over a barrel until he did so.

The story goes that film producer Dino De Laurentiis flat out told Harris that if he didn't write an origin story for Hannibal Lecter, he would get someone else to do it instead. Harris, understandably, resented the idea of his greatest brainchild being given a backstory without his involvement and reluctantly agreed to write the book.

The ultimate result of this was Hannibal Rising, the disappointing novel that turned the long-speculated provenance of the enigmatic Dr. Lecter into a by the numbers revenge story. The book lacks a distinct identity and is a rather uninspired affair throughout. In one go, Hannibal Rising tarnished a good amount of the mystique that surrounded the iconic character.

All of that said, Harris should definitely be forgiven for this. From a technical standpoint, it's a still a very well-written piece of literature. Moreover, the reason it's so uninspired is because it was forced upon him. There's a big difference between inspiration for a story coming naturally to a writer and it being order. Still, it probably would have been better for everyone involved if this book never came to be.