Harris is not churning these things out. Red Dragon is his first book with these guys, and he didn't write another thing until Silence of the Lambs seven years later. He puts in the time to make these characters more complicated than good guy and bad guy, and they have to deal with their own internal struggles just as much as they have to hunt each other down.
Having read Silence, watched three Hannibal movies, and sat through two seasons of the Hannibal TV show, it struck me how complicated a backstory Harris had already established by this first book. Hannibal Lecter is a minor character, already locked up. Will Graham's already quit the FBI, and Jack Crawford... is unchanging for all time, it seems like.
It's a great series to make a prequel TV show from, because there is so much unsaid about the past. Red Dragon does no more than drop hints at what the Hannibal Lecter story is, and it seems little wonder that Harris wrote more about him. (Or did the publisher push for it? Maybe he tested well...)
Overall, a heavier read than your average airport book, without sacrificing the satisfaction of a good detective story. Plenty of desperately sifting through the evidence as the clock ticks down, plenty putting the clues together as the killer strikes again. If that's your thing.
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