Thomas Harris fan wins one-off gold edition of thriller

A Thomas Harris fan has won a one-off gold edition of the author's latest thriller in a nationwide social media treasure hunt. 

Gavin Dimmock, 50, from Yorkshire says he needs a new bookshelf for the priceless’ world first gold bullion edition of Cari Mora (William Heinemann), the long-awaited new novel by Hannibal Lecter author Harris.

The penultimate clue on Saturday, posted on Instagram, led treasure hunters to Gold Street in Manchester, where a final clue was unveiled in Latin: ‘Lapidis aquae decanus ordinetur porta’ - which translates as ‘May the dean of the stone of water be appointed at the gate’, or in other words, ‘Let the Deansgate (branch in Manchester) of Waterstones be put in order’.

Scores of fans who’d been following the treasure hunt flocked to the store, from Kent, London, Leicestershire, Yorkshire and the south coast, said PRH.

Dimmock said: "I’d been following the clues all week, and had a hunch about the last one.  On most Saturdays I follow my football team Bradford City, but the season has just finished, so my wife dropped me at the train station and I headed to Manchester.  And I couldn’t believe it when I got there and they told me I was the winner.

"I had plans to build new wall-to-wall shelving in our front room for my book collection but I’ll clearly need to re-think those plans now, as this astonishing edition will need to take centre stage. I’ll need to buy another copy though to read, as I don’t think I dare open my prize too much in case the case pages get folded or damaged.  Maybe I’ll just get it out every few years for a special read."

A fan of Harris since the late 1980s, Dimmock added: "I remember hearing an eerie radio ad for the original Silence of the Lambs book, three years before the film came out, which featured the chilling sound of footsteps. I had to get the book, and of course rushed out to see the film version, with Anthony Hopkins in superb form as Dr Lecter - and I’ve been a huge fan of Thomas Harris’ work ever since."

The edition of Cari Mora is signed and contains one ounce of ethically-sourced 24 carat gold in its exclusive design and includes a rare signature illustration of an owl by the author, a motif from the new book.

Cari Mora is the first book from Harris in 13 years, and features new villain Hans-Peter Schneider who is hunting for $25million in cartel gold bullion hidden in the Miami Beach mansion of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.

Other social media clues during the week-long treasure hunt included references to the new novel, such as, ‘Two men are 1,040 miles apart. Hans-Peter is in Key Largo, Jesus is in a city with a golden nickname. Which city is it?’

Rebecca Ikin, marketing director of Penguin Random House, said: "A new novel from Thomas Harris is really precious. Then you have the fact that Cari Mora opens so vividly with the premise of $25 million in cartel gold buried in Miami, and we were captivated by the idea of echoing that hunt for fans and readers in the real world. The Gold Bullion edition is the only one in existence, and Gavin truly has something to treasure for ever."