Darkly Dreaming Dexter
by Jeff Lindsay
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jeff LindsayEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-19
ISBN: 0307277887
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Book Review: Deeply Damaged Dexter
Summary: 4 Stars
It takes a special reader to appreciate a book like this. As I was reading DARKLY DREAMING DEXTER, I questioned, again, the fascination I have for serial killers. Certainly, I could never be one. I rescued a severely diseased alley cat and brought her into my home because I didn't have the stomach to give her to a "no-kill" shelter. (There's no such thing, btw, as a no-kill shelter for severely diseased strays.) One of the telltale signs of a sociopath is a complete and utter disregard for life. While I was finishing this book last night, I looked at my alley cat, who was lounging gratefully on my stomach, and tried to imagine harming her. Of course, I was unsuccessful.
Yet I count The Silence of the Lambs as one of my favorite films largely because of Anthony Hopkins portrayal of Hannibal Lecter, and my enjoyment of this book wasn't hampered by Dexter's Dark Passenger who cam out to play and did interesting things with a knife and people's body.
Make no mistake - Dexter Morgan is a monster. He tells us this repeatedly, in whimsical, witty prose, and yet we find ourselves - we, gentle readers all of us (I hope) - don't see ourselves in Dexter. For a book to be considered successful amongst readers and critics alike, its hero or heroine must be a character that everyone can relate to. Yet...
Dexter Morgan is a blood spatter analyst for the Miami police department, and he is also a serial killer. His foster father, Harry, recognized Dexter's emptiness when he was young and dedicated his life to putting Dexter on a path that would keep him alive. The love, or perhaps pity, that Harry must have felt for Dexter! How easy it would have been to turn him into an institution when he became aware of Dexter's disdain for life. Instead, the Code of Harry (Dexter's term) is developed, a set of rules that even an emotionless depraved anything-but-human Dexter must follow. That Dexter follows them tells us a bit more about "empty-hearted Dexter" than even he realizes. Monsters don't follow rules.
Dexter and his Dark Passenger (as he names the evil inside of him) live by the Harry's rules, and the most important one is to stick to bad guys. Don't kill just anyone to satiate your hunger, make sure that your victims deserve to die.
In this, the first in what will be a three-book series (and hopefully more!) in September, bloodless body parts are being found, and Dexter finds that he is drawn to them, more so than usual. He has a reputation in the police department - not a good one! - for being able to figure out the "serials", for who else would make sense to him if not a kinsman? But as the body toll increases, Dexter finds himself plagued, for the first time in his life, by dreams that are almost foretelling. And he starts to wonder if his startling accuracy at predicting what to look for and where is because perhaps, just perhaps, the killer is him. That the Dark Passenger went for a ride without him.
I said that it takes a special reader to appreciate a book like this - as well, it takes a superbly gifted writer to write such a book. Dexter appeals to us because he is witty and charming, and as readers, we find that while we certainly don't condone the desires of his Dark Passenger, he - as Entertainment Weekly put it so well - solicits our love. With positively prancing prose, and a lively first-person narrative style, we find ourselves pulled in to Dexter's little world. We follow him as he investigates himself, and get to know his Dark Passenger. Lindsay wisely keeps us at a distance when the Dark Passenger has taken over, and only hints at what Dexter is "playing" with. That was a wise decision. Had we been given a closer look at the Dark Passenger's desires, and how they were fulfilled (read: gore), Dexter wouldn't have nearly so dashing and dear.
My only criticism is that the ending was unsatisfying. It felt abrupt and contrived. Nevertheless, it made perfect sense. Still.
The next book in the series is Dearly Devoted Dexter.
In September, Dexter in the Dark: A Novelis being released in hardcover.
Showtime made a 13-episode serial out of this, and the first season largely follows the plot. Indeed, the only reason I knew of the book was because of the dark and daring series that Showtime is airing. I believe that Season 1 is still available OnDemand; if not, Showtime is running reruns, and there will be a Season 2. Michael C. Hall, fresh from his spot-on portrayal of a gay funeral director, plays Dexter in the Showtime series. The characters that Lindsay brought so vividly to life are very well represented.
Summary of Darkly Dreaming Dexter
The Basis for a New ShowtimeŽ Original Series Starring Michael C. HallMeet Dexter Morgan, a polite wolf in sheep?s clothing. He?s handsome and charming, but something in his past has made him abide by a different set of rules. He?s a serial killer whose one golden rule makes him immensely likeable: he only kills bad people. And his job as a blood splatter expert for the Miami police department puts him in the perfect position to identify his victims. But when a series of brutal murders bearing a striking similarity to his own style start turning up, Dexter is caught between being flattered and being frightened?of himself or some other fiend.
Meet Dexter Morgan. He's a highly respected lab technician specializing in blood spatter for the Miami Dade Police Department. He's a handsome, though reluctant, ladies' man. He's polite, says all the right things, and rarely calls attention to himself. He's also a sociopathic serial killer whose "Dark Passenger" drives him to commit the occasional dismemberment.
Mind you, Dexter's the good guy in this story.
Adopted at the age of four after an unnamed tragedy left him orphaned, Dexter's learned, with help from his pragmatic policeman father, to channel his "gift," killing only those who deal in death themselves. But when a new serial killer starts working in Miami, staging elaborately grisly scenes that are, to Dexter, an obvious attempt at communication from one monster to another, the eponymous protagonist finds himself at a loss. Should he help his policewoman sister Deborah earn a promotion to the Homicide desk by finding the fiend? Or should he locate this new killer himself, so he can express his admiration for the other's "art?" Or is it possible that psycho Dexter himself, admittedly not the most balanced of fellows, is finally going completely insane and committing these messy crimes himself?
Despite his penchant for vivisection, it's hard not to like Dexter as his coldly logical personality struggles to emulate emotions he doesn't feel and to keep up his appearance as a caring, unremarkable human being. Breakout author Jeff Lindsay's plot is tense and absorbing, but it's the voice of Dexter and his reactions to the other characters that will keep readers glued to Darkly Dreaming Dexter, as well as making it one of the most original and highly recommended serial killer stories in a long time. --Benjamin Reese
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