The Strange World of Thomas Harris David Sexton Short Books, 157pp, £4.99 ISBN 0571208452

David Sexton's contribution to the innovative Short Books series is a study of Thomas Harris, the creator of the Uber-serial killer Hannibal Lecter. With stylish economy, and no little humour, Sexton argues that Harris is a great contemporary melodramatist, part of a tradition that includes Bram Stoker and Edgar Allan Poe. Lecter is indisputably a marvellous, if ethically troubling, fictional creation, and Sexton offers a persuasive, theory-free close reading of novels rich in allusion and arcane reference, in a learned, conversational style that has all but disappeared from modern literary journalism, and certainly from the universities. It would be interesting to know what Harris thinks of such attention but, as he refuses to speak to the press, we shall never know. Unless, that is, he agrees to an authorised biography, which Sexton seems ideally positioned to write, should he wish to.

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