Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay)

Member Name: dyllymoo

Product:	Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
Date:	05/11/08 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great characters, and fantastic plot

Disadvantages: None

Having watched the television series, Dexter recently I came across the book and decided to give it a whirl.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter is a book by Jeff Lindsay and is about Dexter Morgan, a serial killer. Dexter cannot control the fact that he needs to kill. He calls the force that drives him to kill his Dark Passenger, and when the Dark Passenger is awake he has no say in the matter.

Dexter was fostered at 3 years old by Harry Morgan and his family. Harry was a cop, a very good one, and soon realised Dexter was "different". Instead of turning him in, Harry made Dexter promise to only kill those who "deserved it", and to be clean, neat and above all fit in. Dexter calls this The Code of Harry.

Dexter doesn't have any feelings and certainly doesn't consider himself to be wholly human, but he has developed all of these characteristics to "fit in" as per Harry's Code. He even has a girlfriend, whom he has been seeing for over a year. Dexter also has a "normal" job, well it's a job anyway! He works as a blood spatter annalist for the Miami police, which of course allows him access to all sorts of cases.

Unfortunately, we learn that Dexter is not the only serial killer in Miami. Someone is murdering prostitutes, cutting them up and displaying them in various places. Deborah, Dexter's foster sister, is a cop and is working vice, but is desperate to work homicide and so asks Dexter to help her. Will Dexter be able to help Deborah solver the murders and will he actually want the killer to be found by police?

There are lots of twists and turns in this book and it's a fantastic idea to make the hero of the book a serial killer. Someone who we know is killing people himself, but that we kind of feel an empathy with as he is killing "people who deserve it", not that this is right, but it feels ok (if that makes sense!).

I had watched the television series and so thought I knew the storyline, but the book is quite different to the series and that was really good for me as I really didn't know what would happen in the ending.

I love Dexter's musings about humans and their emotions, and his very detached and humours view that follows.

The ending, as mentioned before was different to the television programme, and it did actually leave me slightly confused. I even re-read the last few pages to make sure I hadn't skipped anything. It is left quite open.

Ultimately it is a novel that has a lot going for it. It never looses its pace or suspense and contains enough humour and insights to be very engaging. I am really looking forward to reading the second book.

Summary: A great, creepy, engaging novel!