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Thomas Harris

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Cari Mora: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Thomas Harris (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

3.7 3,462 ratings

Editors' pick Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

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A resilient young woman must outwit a sadistic psychopath in this pulse-pounding thriller from the author of The Silence of the Lambs, a "master still at the top of his strange and chilling form" (Wall Street Journal).

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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of May 2019: Miami Beach, a white sand paradise with a history of violence, is an inspired choice of location for Thomas Harris’ harrowing new novel of greed and survival: Cari Mora. Somewhere in a mansion on Biscayne Bay there rests a thousand pounds of cartel gold that Pablo Escobar, now dead, will never retrieve. Hans-Peter Schneider—the new face in our nightmares from the man who gave us Hannibal Lecter—has plans to steal the gold but he’s not the only one looking for it. Cari Mora is the young caretaker of the Escobar mansion, and Hans-Peter has plans for her too; plans that involve his primary occupation as a flesh peddler of the most disturbing sort, catering to the fantasies of an incredibly wealthy clientele. Hans-Peter’s macabre interests and inventions are pure Thomas Harris--and Cari Mora, a woman who has already survived unspeakable things, is a worthy opponent for Hans-Peter in this complex cat-and-mouse thriller. Cari Mora is as cinematic as one might expect (and hope for), charged with smugglers and lawmen, gruesome deaths, and deceit that crisscrosses the ocean between Colombia and Miami. Just when you think you know what’s coming, Harris has another twist up his sleeve. His first novel in more than a decade, Cari Mora proves that Harris is a masterful storyteller who knows exactly how to get under our skin and into our heads. —Seira Wilson, Amazon Book Review

Review

"The best of Harris's work, and this includes his latest, long-awaited novel, Cari Mora, has just that feeling of absolute, unquestionable reality. Through a combination of elements--a perfectly realized authorial voice, the steady accumulation of terrible details, an empathetic vision of lost and damaged souls--Harris has created a sense of dreadful intimacy that we cannot escape, that forces us to gaze at unthinkable things, and never look away. No one has illuminated this kind of darkness more thoroughly or effectively than Harris. It seems unlikely that anyone ever will." The Washington Post

"This page-turner begins intensely, builds in suspense then executes a high-action finale . . . Harris writes in cinematic takes and doesn't waste words . . . a good, fiendish read." USA Today

""A less accomplished or ambitious writer might have crafted a worthy thriller with only one or two of the story strands that Mr. Harris weaves; but the several plot elements in Cari Mora are always in fine balance, as befits the work of a unique master still at the top of his strange and chilling form."" Wall Street Journal

"[Cari Mora] is delectable . . . as well as smart and tough and emotionally and physically scarred, all of which makes her a worthy adversary for the various monsters." New York Times Book Review

"Cari Mora is Harris' response to the Me Too movement. He already has proven his mastery of complex female characters in the form of Clarice Starling, but the protagonist and title character here takes things to another level . . . The result is a novel that is extremely well-written from start to finish and gives us a heroine to both root for and respect." Bookreporter.com

"[Thomas Harris's] latest is another penetrating exploration of signature themes--the nature of evil, the persistence of trauma, and the strange, fateful gravity that so often seems to exist between individuals on either side of law and morality . . . It's an electric setup, and Harris handles the suspense as finely as you would expect from one of the genre's foremost practitioners. Cari Mora will keep readers up all night in the best possible way."CrimeReads

"Harris builds the plot skillfully, with violence and betrayal punctuated by moments of calm and reminiscence. The contest for the gold turns into a fight for survival that rockets to the final pages. Cari Mora is a pulse-pounding thriller, and Cari is an engagingly badass character."Tampa Bay Times

"Cari Morais at its best as a sustained meditation on the ineffable extent of humankind's capacity for brutality in the name of personal gain... carries an irony befitting Harris's ongoing consideration of how light and dark are often interchangeable."" Slant Magazine

"It's vintage Harris, with nice twists and elegant ways of expressing just how bad bad people can be . . . Refreshingly, entertainingly creepy and with nary a fava bean in sight." Kirkus Reviews

"The heist story that makes up the bulk of Cari Mora is inventive and crisp, with a prose style that owes less to the floridness of the last two Hannibal novels than it does to the late and much-lamented Elmore Leonard."Slate

"Harris explores the dark side of human passion in this pulse-pounding novel. His first book in 13 years,Cari Mora will not disappoint fans of disturbing, taut thrillers." BookPage

"For Thomas Harris fans, Cari Mora will be comfort food: whimsically brutal and odd and silly, lacking only Hannibal's signature cannibalism." Oregonian

"With Cari Mora, Harris does what he does best--takes us on a spine-tingling, edge-of-your-seat ride steeped in intrigue and nail-biting suspense. You will not sleep. You will not eat. This book screams to be devoured in one sitting." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"There is no doubting that Mr. Harris is the undisputed king of memorable grotesquerie . . . one has no choice but to recommend Mr. Harris's highly skilled performance." The East Hampton Star

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07HWS7XYY
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grand Central Publishing (May 21, 2019)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 21, 2019
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2271 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 321 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #429,761 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #4,761 in Serial Killer Thrillers
- #5,113 in Psychological Thrillers (Kindle Store)
- #7,319 in Crime Thrillers (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
3.7 3,462 ratings

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Thomas Harris

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A native of Mississippi, Thomas Harris began his writing career covering crime in the United States and Mexico, and was a reporter and editor for the Associated Press in new York City. His first novel, Black Sunday, was published in 1975, followed by Red Dragon in 1981, The Silence of the Lambs in 1988, Hannibal in 1999 and Hannibal Rising in 2006.

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Leon

great book, in-1-read

Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2024

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great book, in-1-read

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Josh Mauthe

Set expectations aside and you might just enjoy this lean Miami crime thriller with a great heroine

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2019

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I try to be firm on the idea that any creative endeavor should stand or fall on its own merits. Setting up your own expectations, hopes, desires, and so forth against a book is bound to lead to disappointment, because you'll find yourself reading not the book that you have, but comparing it against the one in your head, and what could ever compare to that? But in a case like Cari Mora, the first book by Thomas Harris in thirteen years, and only his second ever to not feature Dr. Hannibal Lecter, it's hard to separate those expectations from what you get - a fact that's seen by a slew of early negative reactions to the book. And that's a shame, because while Cari Mora isn't The Silence of the Lambs (and honestly, how many books are?), it's still a great, unique crime thriller that mixes Harris's Grand Guignol tendencies with his interest in strong female protagonists, all while keeping his typical focus on how cruelty and evil so often come from human frailties, foibles, and weakness.

Set in modern day Miami, Cari Mora wastes little time in establishing its premise: a cache of gold is stored beneath a house that once belonged to drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, and the sharks are circling. Numerous factions are readying their efforts to take the gold out of the house, no matter what traps Escobar might have left, and caught in the middle of all of that is housekeeper Cari Mora, a young woman who fled horrors in Columbia attempting to find a fresh start in America, but whose childhood experiences left her more hardened than a first assessment of her caring exterior might reveal.

Cari Mora is a lean book - just over 300 pages - but that brevity works to the story's credit, paring down all the excesses and delivering a taut, tense heist thriller where everyone is working their own game and is playing the situation for their own advantage. The book unfolds in short bursts, with power plays, armed incursions, assault forces, brutal deaths, but Harris's brief chapters make each incident have an impact all its own, keeping things moving at a rapid-fire pace that only increases the unfolding tension and keeping any of the players from having much time to truly gain an advantage.

Beyond the crime aspects of the novel, Harris finds himself compelled, just as he was in Silence of the Lambs, by those who have been wounded by the world but strive for something bigger than themselves. That's most evident in Cari, of course, who emerges from the novel as a sort of spiritual cousin to Clarice Starling - a woman whose past traumas have made her the person she is today, but who is also determined to shape the world around her to prevent those traumas from being paid forward to anyone else. Cari Mora is unmistakably a crime thriller - this is about the stealing of gold from a drug kingpin, after all - but what makes the book work is the rich (and colorful) cast of characters, of which Cari herself is just one piece. At times, the book feels almost like an ensemble piece, and as such, Harris makes the outcome of the heist matters by exposing us to all the players involved, thus making the violence and death more impactful, to say nothing of investing us in the ultimate question of who gets the money. That's not to say that Harris doesn't hesitate to give this scenario monsters - the book's main villain, a Paraguayan named Hans-Peter Schneider, is a chilling sociopath whose cruelty stretches far beyond a ruthless desire for gold - but the book feels constantly driven by even the most inhuman characters and their needs and desires, not simply by the plotting of the author.

Just because the novel is generally driven by its cast doesn't mean that there's not some engaging and fun plotting here, however. Cari Mora is part heist novel and part chess game, with Schneider's ruthless depravity on one side and a crime lord named Don Ernesto on the other, with each making moves on the gold through people on the scene. And, of course, Harris has some nasty surprises to come along the way, with a sly sense of black humor coming through as it turns out there's more than just Escobar's paranoia keeping them from getting the gold, to say nothing of some of the extraneous plot elements as both Schneider and Ernesto start making moves unrelated to the gold heist. But what makes Cari Mora work is the way the characters drive all of the plotting, giving readers a piece of pulp Miami crime storytelling where the larger-than-life characters and their interactions are as important, if not more so, than the deceptively simple crime at the book's core.

Cari Mora isn't much like Harris's other books, and it's an especially far step away from the Lecter books that have made him so well-known. There are glimpses of the psychological depths he brought to those books, but not the same deep dives into disturbed minds, nor the sense of impending horror that loomed over something like Black Sunday. Instead, this is Florida crime, with two crews of criminals all scheming and betraying each other in the name of gold, and with even the "innocents" at the book's core not that innocent. But through it all, Harris has always made clear his interest in rising above the trauma of your life and finding a way to make peace with your demons, and Cari's journey is ultimately one that feels like a crime novel take on Clarice Starling. That may not be enough for a lot of people who expected another Red Dragon or a horror opera like Hannibal, but taken for what it is - a lean, nasty, fun little crime novel - Cari Mora is a great summer read.

29 people found this helpful

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Tracy Robinson

Middle of the Road on this One

Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2019

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“The wind off the bay was full of ghosts tonight — young men and women and children who had lived or died in her arms….other nights the wind batted lightly at her like the memory of a kiss, of eyelashes brushing her face, sweet breath on her neck” (12).

Thirteen years. It is impossible to NOT be overly excited when one of my favorite authors of all time announces a new book after a little over a decade. I pre-ordered. I waited. It was to be set in a different world than Lecter, but that was fine. I loved Black Sunday, too. And then it was here, delivered on release day. YES!! The review that follows is my honest reaction to reading this newest from Harris: part joy, part disappointment, and a bit of bewilderment.

Let’s start with the bewilderment. I innocently opened Goodreads to update my status to “currently reading” and saw some kind of insanity happening. A very low preliminary rating….ON THIS?! I, as a matter of principle, do not usually read reviews of a book I am about to read. Nope, no thanks. So I just skimmed a bit and saw complaints of the normal variety for most books – the writing, it’s boring, and on and on. What really kind of surprised me, but also didn’t, was the number of people commenting on how this wasn’t Silence of the Lambs, etc. Fans can be rough, man. This made me determined to read this book as openly as I humanly could, to forget who the author was and his previous works. I think I succeeded for the most part.

I am not one to dwell on things I did not like about a book, so here goes. The plot is a bit scattered, the villain didn’t “villain”, and there are interjections and/or brief sentences that seem disconnected and pulled me out of the story. The synopsis above is AMAZING. I know they aren’t meant to be everything about the book, I do read quite a bit, but Harris has other threads and pieces of information that make what could be a tight, tense premise a bit, well, fractured. Hans-Peter Schneider has this potential to be a spectacular, evil antagonist. I know I promised to read this without thinking of Harris’ other books, but imagine someone who could encompass the best parts of Hannibal Lecter and Francis Dolarhyde. SWEET! But it didn’t happen, not for me. I am sad.

Finally, the joy. See the quote I opened the review with? There are gorgeous pieces of writing and atmosphere throughout this book. I wish they could’ve lended more continuity to the book, but I was glad for them when they happened. Beyond the writing, I love Cari Mora as a protagonist. I wanted more of her! Most of my favorite parts of this book involve her, her backstory, and her actions. It is evident that Harris has really done his research into Columbia, child soldiers, and the flora and fauna of Miami.

Overall, I landed on a three for this book. I am not angry as others seem to be, nor am I in love. I am, however, thankful for a good read and I remain a constant reader of Harris’ work.

8 people found this helpful

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Thomas Equinas

On time..as goo as advertised

Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2024

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Nice copy of a splendid book

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Guillermo Diaz de Cossio Batani

Tsss

Reviewed in Mexico on July 12, 2020

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Tsss maestría en el suspenso

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Adele Wolfe

excellent

Reviewed in Canada on July 6, 2019

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having read all the other books-silence of the lambs etc I didn't know what to expect with this departure and I was not disappointed. it is excellent thrilling dark and well written. highly recommend

One person found this helpful

Lucrecio Blazquez

Cari Mora

Reviewed in Spain on May 19, 2020

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There is nothing of interest inside this novel.
The story is dull, the chariters aré not real. Is not indicares for a film

Maurizio S.

Materiale non eccezionale

Reviewed in Italy on August 13, 2019

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Coerente con le aspettative

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Florence Meyer

Très décevant, bâclé

Reviewed in France on June 7, 2019

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J’ai été très déçue. Harris nous avait habitué à mieux. Le livre donne vraiment l’impression d’avoir été écrit à la va-vite. Le méchant est caricatural et peu crédible. Zéro suspense. La psychologie des personnages est rudimentaire. A éviter, pourtant il y avait de très bonnes critiques.

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