By James Wray Oct 29, 2004, 10:34 GMT
Dr Hannibal Lecter, physician, monster, man of many parts, will return in Behind the Mask, a novel by Thomas Harris to be published in the UK by William Heinemann. Richard Cable, Managing Director of the Random House Division at The Random House Group, announced that Heinemann will publish the hardback in autumn 2005, followed by an Arrow paperback edition the following year.
"Thomas Harris is the premier novelist of psychological suspense of our time", Cable said. "In Dr. Hannibal Lecter he created the literary figure to whom all other villains are compared. Millions of readers in 25 languages have wondered how Dr. Lecter developed his particular appetite for evil. This novel will satisfy their curiosity."
It is the fourth book dealing with the Doctor, who first appeared in Red Dragon, and subsequently in The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. All were bestsellers. Hannibal was a Number 1 Sunday Times bestseller in both editions with hardback sales of 700,000 copies and over 1.5 million copies in paperback.
Thomas Harris was a veteran crime reporter when he wrote Black Sunday, a story of jihad in America published in 1975. All of his novels have been made into major motion pictures, as will this new account of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the film rights to which have been acquired by the Dino De Laurentiis Company, producers of Red Dragon and Hannibal.
William Heinemann have acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for the new novel and a second novel by Mr. Harris. The author was represented in the negotiations by Morton L. Janklow of Janklow and Nesbit Associates.
William Heinemann and Arrow are imprints of the Random House Division, part of the Random House publishing group in the UK.
Source: Random House London
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