Title: Cari Mora
Author: Thomas Harris
Published: May 2019, Grand Central Publishing
Format: Hardcover, 311 pages
Source: Publisher
Summary:
From the creator of Hannibal Lecter and The Silence of the Lambs comes a story of evil, greed, and the consequences of dark obsession.
Twenty-five
million dollars in cartel gold lies hidden beneath a mansion on the
Miami Beach waterfront. Ruthless men have tracked it for years. Leading
the pack is Hans-Peter Schneider. Driven by unspeakable appetites, he
makes a living fleshing out the violent fantasies of other, richer men.
Cari
Mora, caretaker of the house, has escaped from the violence in her
native country. She stays in Miami on a wobbly Temporary Protected
Status, subject to the iron whim of ICE. She works at many jobs to
survive. Beautiful, marked by war, Cari catches the eye of Hans-Peter as
he closes in on the treasure. But Cari Mora has surprising skills, and
her will to survive has been tested before.
Monsters lurk in the
crevices between male desire and female survival. No other writer in the
last century has conjured those monsters with more terrifying
brilliance than Thomas Harris. Cari Mora, his sixth novel, is the long-awaited return of an American master.
My thoughts: While I know who Thomas Harris is, I have never read any of his books…until now. For some reason, I never read any of his Hannibal Lecter series, though I have seen the one movie, The Silence of the Lambs, which I really liked. That being said, when I saw he had a new book coming out, I decided I wanted to read it.
Now, I will say not having read his other books, I really have nothing to compare this work to. Is it better or worse? I have no idea. All I can comment on is whether I liked it and I did…I thought it was a good story – it kept me engaged and was fast-paced, which I always like in a thriller. The characters were all quite interesting, and I liked that Cari was a fierce to be reckoned with – Harris certainly knows how to create a strong female character that is for sure.
I loved the chilling, horror-type feeling I got from this book. Perhaps that’s why so many people love Harris’s writing. He definitely has a knack for creating psychopathic characters and I loved it. Will I read more of his work? Absolutely! This story got under my skin in the best possible way – think mobster with serial killing vibes. It was good and I’m glad I took a chance on it.
Hello Kristin. I am Colin Baldwin, fellow bibliophile, of Huntington Beach, California. I have read both Cari Mora and the Lecter series, and I would strongly recommend the latter. To provide my personal opinion, Cari Mora falls short of Harris’s previous work. It isn’t terrible; Harris just didn’t have another masterpiece in him.
As I mentioned, I love reading books. It’s great to know people like you are still out there in this day and age. If you’d like to peruse my thoughts, see my own blog at colinbaldwin.blogspot.com. It’s an all-purpose blog, but you will find my literary opinions on there. So far, I’ve yet to get any commentary except from my family, so I’d truly appreciate if you’d post your feedback. Also, I too love interacting with other book-lovers.
Sincerely,
Colin Baldwin