New Delhi, May 8 (IANS): The creator of the widely-familiar fictional character Hannibal Lecter, which featured in the Oscar-winning "Silence of the Lambs", has penned another thriller book "Cari Mora" with a female protagonist which is set to hit the stores next week.

This will be the sixth book of American author Thomas Harris, and will be a non-Lecter one after his first-ever book "Black Sunday" (1975).

His other four books revolved around Lecter, who is described as the "great fictional monster of our time" by author Stephen King. Adapted into movies and television shows, they essayed the character of a psycho-villain who murders and eats humans.

Titled "Cari Mora", his sixth novel will be Harris's standalone thriller on the monsters that lurk in the "crevices between male desire and female survival".

The book's blurb tells us that "25 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".

It adds: "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 the immigration authorities. 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."

The story of evil and greed will be published by one of Penguin Books' imprint William Heinemann. It will hit the stores on May 16.