Darkly Dreaming Dexter (2004)

It was scary how much I liked the character development in this book. Although the story sometimes got a bit light weight the author managed to make me "feel" for Dexter and like him even though he is a total sociopath - a very practised and charming sociopath who does the self deprecating thing quite well. I will definately read more of them - great holiday reading. ( )

I'm a huge fan of the actual show and when I found out that they're based on novels, I knew I had to give it a shot; I was extremely disappointed though. Sure, 'Dexter' the show is creepy and it may be the actor himself but it's done in such a way that it's creepy AND intriguing. The 'Dexter' books... are just creepy. The character lacks any sort of depth and I didn't like him at all. I understand he's supposed to be a serial killer so he lacks any emotion, but, the way they're able to display it in the show is perfect. The books are just missing some integral something. ( )

Not as good as the TV programme ( )

Dexter Morgan is the epitome of a wolf in sheep's clothing. Handsome and charming, Dexter seems like the perfect gentleman, living his life and working as a blood spatter analyst for Miami Metro Police Department. The thing is, Dexter has a dark secret: something in his past has made him want to kill, and with the help of his now-deceased foster father, he's learned to channel that desire into murdering other murderers. When a series of frozen body parts begin showing up around Miami missing any trace of blood, Dexter is fascinated, and then intrigued. It seems like this killer knows Dexter, and he's making it personal.

Obviously most readers of the book draw comparisons to the (superior) eponymous television show. The series taken the concept of Lindsay's Dexter and outstripped the books by far: it made the characters real, whole, and interesting. All of the characters, even Dexter himself, fall flat in the novel. Not one of them is interesting, and not once did this reader care about what would happen next.

There is something off-putting about Linday's tone throughout the whole novel. Is it supposed to come off that flippant and almost glib? Are we, as readers, supposed to enjoy watching Dexter fool everyone around him? While some might revel in the moral ambiguity of the novel, this reader was just left frustrated.

Because I was a viewer of the show before the series, I know that I am biased, and unfortunately can never enter the novels without a hearty knowledge of the television show. A long time ago, I knew this girl who hated the mere idea of the show because she'd heard that Dexter was a more sympathetic character. "That's not what he's supposed to be like," she stated, claiming that instead the whole point of Dexter is that it's all just pretend. Maybe that's how Lindsay envisioned it, but Showtime's slow and subtle evolution of Dexter as a character is much more complex and much more fascinating.

Let's hope that Lindsay's skill as a writer improved as he continued to write this series, because this one left me cold (no pun intended).

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This is the first book in the series. The HBO series followed this story line very closely. ( )