Darkly Dreaming Dexter: DEXTER NEW BLOOD, the major new TV thriller on Sky Atlantic (Book One) - Softcover

Lindsay, Jeff

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0752865749 ISBN 13: 9780752865744

Publisher: Orion, 2005

Synopsis

Introducing Dexter Morgan, a serial killer to fall in love with...

'A macabre tour-de-force' NEW YORK TIMES

Dexter Morgan isn't exactly the kind of man you'd bring home to your mum. At heart, he's the perfect gentleman: he has a shy girlfriend, and seems to lead a quiet, normal life bordering on the mundane. Despite the fact that he can't stand the sight of blood, he works as a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami police.

But Dexter also has a secret hobby: he is an accomplished serial killer. So far, he's killed 36 people and has never been caught because he knows exactly how to hide the evidence. And while that may lead some people to assume he's not such a nice guy, he tempers his insatiable hunger for brutality by only killing the bad guys.

However, Dexter's well-organised life is suddenly disrupted when a second, much more visible serial killer appears in Miami. Intrigued that the other killer favours a style similar to his own, Dexter soon realises that the mysterious new arrival is not simply invading his turf but offering him a direct invitation to 'come out and play'...

About this title

Review:

Meet Dexter Morgan, the chief protagonist of Darkly Dreaming Dexter. He's a highly respected lab technician specialising 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 draws 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. Debut author Jeff Lindsay's plot is tense and absorbing, but it's the voice of Dexter and his reactions to the other characters that make this one of the most original and highly recommended serial killer stories in a very long time. --Benjamin Reese, Amazon.com

Review:

A virtuoso debut by a new young American author, this is a compulsive trip through territory rendered familiar by the psycho-thrillers of Thomas Harris and Michael Connelly and other masters of the dark arts of abnormal pathology (GUARDIAN)

One of the most likeable vigilante serial killers in recent thriller literature ... Like other charismatic killers - Hannibal Lecter, say, or Tom Ripley - Dexter has a set of motives that are tough to untangle. But his quest proves weirdly convincing (NEW YORKER)

A sleek black comedy (LITERARY REVIEW)

It's been years since there's been a thriller debut as original as this one ... humorous, self-deprecating, smart and sometimes lyrical - a gripping, deliciously offbeat novel (PUBLISHERS WEEKLY)

It's a great idea. And it's easy to see why this debut novel has gone down a storm ... the whole thing is stylish, polished and very readable (DAILY MIRROR)

Long after readers finish this gripping novel, they will still be thinking (or dreaming) about Dexter (BOOKLIST)

A macabre tour-de-force (NEW YORK TIMES)

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0752865749
• ISBN 13: 9780752865744
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288