Dearly Devoted Dexter

Sooooo different from the show. I recommend everyone to read the series

OK, it's like this - you're either open to the idea of a serial killer as a hero (quote unquote) or you consider the whole thing so perposterous that the idea cannot be taken seriously. Anyone who has watched the show knows that much of Dexter is tongue-in-cheek, a dark allusion to our nightmares and fondest wishes. How many of us have wanted to hurt pedophiles, rapists and sociopaths but were helpless in the face of that element of humanity that is missing in poor Dexter. Still, the writing is almost as hypnotic as the story itself. We are carried along on waves of ironic, humorous and even poetic confessions of a man who lacks a soul. In this book, Dexter is more in his element, his life is "normal" (but for that pesky fellow policeman) with a gal pal, sister and job as a blood splatter expert. Right off the bat he goes after a pedophile/serial murderer. There is something wrong with adult men who lust after young boys but those who then torture and kill them are worthy of a special cubicle in hell. Dexter knows this and through his gal pal's children he has grown fond of them. Deborah is back in the picture, cussing and searching for something, and it's all a rollicking, terrifying time for all concerned. Some aspects are different than the Showtime series but that is to expected. It is very difficult separating the bemused Dexter on the screen with the one in the book - they seem to merge in a kind of fuzzy composite of half-smiles and unavoidable compulsions. A large part of the book (and show) consists of memories, repressed or otherwise. Again, his adopted dad pops up again (in his mind only) as beyond the grave he continues to guide and influence the boy he saved. My grade - A

Jeff Lindsay's Dexter is serial-killer-slash-detective, a tortured soul who works as a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami police department. Dexter has trained himself only to kill other serial killers, which gives Dexter a veneer of creepy heroism. In "Dearly Devoted Dexter," Dexter is on the hunt for a villain once betrayed by fellow members of a former Special Forces team, a criminal who actually leaves his victims alive (but, yikes, limbless lipless earless noseless), after kidnapping them and carving them up bit by bit. Lindsay's Dexter narrates his own story; in combination with Dexter's easy-going friendly manner and his strangely "good-guy" motivations (catch the villain), this leads the reader to be on Dexter's side, to see things through his eyes, so to speak. So occasionally while reading this book I would suddenly realize I was rooting for someone who would give Hannibal Lecter a run for his money, and a cold shiver would run down my spine. Very sneaky, Mr. Lindsay! If you like getting creeped out, in true horror-movie fashion, this will definitely suit you. On the other hand, if you couldn't bear "Silence of the Lambs," you'd best run away from Dexter before he gets inside your head....brrrrr....

I loved the first book - a wild debut about a serial killer who by day is a 'normal' guy who just happens to have a Dark Passenger with him that prompts him to kill periodically. But only bad guys like pedophiles, those feeding on the innocent. He channels his desires to make the world a safer place. This time the plot does not include further adventures of Dexter and his brother, but helping his foster sister Deb, go after another nasty. While this premise is not the surprise the debut book held, we are chuckling what Dexter gets himself in - like getting engaged in a suprisingly amusing course of events. But it gets better when he learns some 'good news' about his potential step-children. All in all a good read. Keep 'em coming Jeff Lindsay!

Miami-Dade police forensics lab blood spatter analyst Dexter "the Avenger" Morgan obsesses in euphoria when he slices and dices a person, but he also is selective in who he carves up choosing the dregs of society, and psychopaths especially serial killers. He recently notched number forty, homicidal pedophile photographer Steve Reiker and eagerly awaits his next victim. A serial slicer Danco apparently leisurely over a few weeks surgically removes extremities from his victims who he keeps alive as he slowly mutilates them one body part at a time. When a still alive Salvadoran Manuel Borges is found, he has no body part hanging off his torso; the medical examiner estates he underwent at least a month of torture as some of the slits left by the carved off body part healed. Dexter admires this newcomer to the slice and dice game, but also decides to stop this rival although some DC outsider Kyle Chutsky claims lead until he is abducted and loses a finger with more to follow. Now Dexter goes hunting to find the killer. As with DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER, DEARLY DEVOTED DEXTER is a wild macabre perhaps insane South Florida police procedural starring a psychopathic hero who enjoys the finer things in life, eviscerating serial killers. How crazy Dexter is comes out loud clear when unlike his peers and his adversary in the police department who are horrified by Danco's work, the Avenger recognizes a fellow artisan albeit one that he must stop. Readers expecting a High Noon showdown between two professional slashers will enjoy the duel when it occurs but will wait for quite a while as Dexter the sleuth investigates. Harriet Klausner

I never seem to like a writing style that starts a book by asking "how did this happen" or "Why Me?" But when dear dark Dexter asks how, I want to know. Indeed, the tale of what could make the dark passenger seated comfortably in the crocodile brain of Dexter change it's behavior is a really good one. Jeff Lindsay makes me comfortable immediately with the idea that a serial killer can be a good guy. He does this very simply, he tells me that "Children are important." Clearly a child will never have a special play date with our darkly devoted Dexter. This book is an excellent read. There is some repetitiveness that all authors seem to fall into when they bring a character forward from one book to the next. Those of us who are already aquatinted with Dexter might mentally tap a fingernail. But that is a fleeting feeling. Lindsay develops a nemesis for Dexter that is intimidating, and a foe that seems even more inhuman than Dexter. In this book, he creates an elegant solution to Dexter's Sergeant Doakes problem. Dexter also finds kindred sprits and begins to yearn to pass on the Harry Rules he so carefully lives by. I hope that this means that there will be a third book about Dexter. It would be a shame if this were the last moonlight dance of the dark passenger.