Because of the presence of several characters common to both novels, Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs (1987) have significant similarities. Jack Crawford, psychologist Alan Bloom, and Hannibal Lecter all appear in both books, and both plots concern FBI investigators trying to apprehend a serial killer before he can kill again.

The hero of Red Dragon, however, differs considerably from his counterpart in The Silence of the Lambs. Graham's skill at tracking the killer is distressing to him and those close to him. He says of himself, "You try to reconstruct his thinking. You try to find patterns," and later, he often displays the uncanny ability to think like the killer. When he goes to visit Lecter in his cell, Lecter tells him that the reason Graham was able to catch him is that "we're just alike." Although we recognize that he is trying to...