SeriesStack

Hannibal Lecter Books in Order

by Thomas HarrisLiterature & Fiction

3 books and 1 novella from Red Dragon (1981) to Hannibal (1999). Rated 4.7 across 19,942 listener reviews.

Reading order

  1. Hannibal Rising

    Novella 0.5 2006 4.3 (2.3k)

    Kindle Paperback Audiobook

  2. Red Dragon

    Book 1 1981 4.6 (5.7k)

    A quiet summer night...a neat suburban house...and another innocent, happy family is shattered -- the latest victims of a grisly series of hideous sacrificial killings that no one understands, and no one can stop.

    Kindle Paperback Audiobook

  3. The Silence of the Lambs

    Book 2 1988 4.9 (8.7k)

    Listen to the silence... An instant classic novel of chilling psychological suspense...a critically-acclaimed audio production of unforgettable intensity...From the tormenting words of the homicidal maniac Dr.

    Kindle Paperback Audiobook

  4. Hannibal

    Book 3 1999 4.6 (3.2k)

    Invite Hannibal Lecter into the palace of your mind and be invited into his mind palace in turn. Note the similarities in yours and his, the high vaulted chambers of your dreams, the shadowed halls, the locked storerooms where you dare not…

    Kindle Paperback Audiobook

Adapted for screen

  • Hannibal TV series · NBC · 2013–2015 · 3 seasons

About this reading order

Books are listed in the series' own numbering, which for Hannibal Lecter is also the best order to read them in. Novellas and short stories sit between the novels they follow, numbered the way the publisher numbers them (0.5 comes after book 0). They are optional — you can skip them without missing the main story. Years are first publication where we could confirm it, and otherwise the first audiobook release.

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