I read the book two years ago. Fuckin sick. Not as good as Silence of the Lambs...but you really can't expect it to be.
What you may or may not know is that they made "Red Dragon" before Silence of the Lambs came out. It was a small time film that didn't have Anthony Hopkins. At the time, Thomas Harris, the writer, as well as the producer for the movie thought Red Dragon would get negative reviews because of the whole Communist thing and the color red. They ended up naming the movie "Manhunter". In my opinion, Manhunter sucked ass. But once again, this movie is gonna have Hopkins, not some no named actors on a B movie.