FEATURE/Hannibal Lecter is Back!!! 'Hannibal,' by 'The Silence of the Lambs' Author Thomas Harris, a June Delacorte Novel.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE FEATURES)--March 31, 1999--Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the serial killer from THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS whose portrayal on film earned Anthony Hopkins an Academy Award, and who for many, is the ultimate villain in modern fiction, is back with a vengeance. "Hannibal the Cannibal" is at the center of the first novel in more than a decade by his creator, Thomas Harris.

Mr. Harris turned in the just-completed manuscript of his book, entitled HANNIBAL, to his publisher, Carole Baron last week. Mrs. Baron, President and Publisher of Dell Publishing, in an announcement that took the bookselling and publishing community by complete surprise, said that Delacorte Press, Dell's hardcover imprint, will publish HANNIBAL throughout the United States and Canada with an on-sale date of June 8th. The 480-page novel will carry a suggested retail price of $27.95 in the U.S.

HANNIBAL will be a Main Selection of The Book-of-the-Month Club. A recorded version of the novel will be published by Random House's Audio Publishing division.

HANNIBAL also features the reappearance from THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS of FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling, portrayed in the movie by Jodie Foster, who also won an Oscar for her performance. The new novel opens seven years after Dr. Lecter's stunning escape from the authorities, the climax of the earlier book, as one of his earlier victims uses Agent Starling as bait to draw the doctor into an intricate and unspeakable design for revenge.

Mrs. Baron observed that readers, booksellers, and practically every movie producer and film studio in Hollywood, not to mention his publishers, have been patiently awaiting this new Thomas Harris novel for years, and we didn't want another summer to go by without everyone getting an opportunity to read Tom's absolutely groundbreaking work. It sets a new standard for "literary page-turners."

Thomas Harris introduced Hannibal Lecter in his 1981 novel RED DRAGON, a worldwide bestseller available in a Dell paperback edition. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, which, to date, has sold more than ten million copies internationally, was praised by the The Washington Post on its publication in 1988 as "a virtual textbook on the craft of suspense "a masterwork of sheer momentum that rockets seamlessly toward its climax."

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS film adaptation received five 1991 Academy Awards: "Best Picture;" "Best Director," Jonathan Demme; "Best (Adapted) Screenplay," Ted Tally; as well as "Best Actor" and "Best Actress" for Mr. Hopkins and Ms. Foster respectively.

A native of Mississippi, Thomas Harris began his writing career covering crime in the U.S. and Mexico, and was a reporter and editor for the Associated Press in New York City. His acclaimed first novel BLACK SUNDAY was published in 1975.

Mr. Harris's literary representative is Morton L. Janklow of Janklow & Nesbit Associates, from whom Carole Baron acquired HANNIBAL a decade ago.

Dell Publishing is a division of Random House, Inc. whose parent company is Bertelsmann AG.