The Silence of the Lambs is author Thomas Harris' third book, and the second in a trilogy of books devoted to the FBI's hunt for serial killers. Since the advent of FBI criminal profiling, Harris' works are among the most popular works of fiction dedicated to this subject. The Silence of the Lambs is Harris' most famous work, and has also been turned into a blockbuster movie starring Anthony Hopkins as serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. In this book, Lecter's character is the antagonist to the main character, FBI trainee Clarice Starling. Starling must walk a delicate line in negotiating with the slippery Lecter, hoping to obtain his help in catching another serial killer, nicknamed "Buffalo Bill," because he skins his female victims.

Starling is plucked out of the FBI Academy by her mentor, Jack Crawford, to track down Buffalo Bill before he kills again. The novel takes Clarice on a journey from Lecter's dank cell in the bowels of the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane to the slab where Buffalo Bill's latest body lies. The pressure intensifies when Bill kidnaps the daughter of U.S. Senator Ruth Martin. As the only female assigned to the investigation, Starling is able to use her feminine perspective to understand Bill's victims, and how he selects them. However, each day she spends on his trail puts Starling in greater danger of being flunked out of the academy, and not even Crawford can prevent this from happening. In the end, Starling rises to the occasion, and the green trainee single-handedly tracks down Buffalo Bill. She must then descend into the horrifying basement dungeon, where he traps his victims, to save Catherine Martin.