Review: Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1) by Jeff Lindsay

Print Length: 304 pages

Publisher: Vintage Books (June 28, 2005)

From Goodreads.com: Meet 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.

         

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My Rating: 1 star out of 5

I remember reading this book sometime before the show premiered, so when I found the entire set for kindle, I was super excited.

Unfortunately, after reading this one, I can't remember what I first enjoyed about it. Perhaps its just that I have grown as a reader and the things that once appealed to me no longer do. This time around, I found the story to really be rather juvenile. The characters are all exceedingly one-dimensional (especially the characters of Deborah Morgan and Detectice LaGurta - honestly I wondered who tied their shoelaces for them). And then we have dear, demented Dexter. 

Gone was the suave anti-hero that I remembered. The serial killer with a code. Time and again we are subjected to his inner musing (mostly being reminded about how he is incapable of human emotions, and how much smarter he is than everyone else, which considering his coworkers doesn't take much). 

Even the killings were not as I remembered, overshadowed by too much "telling" and not enough "showing". On the whole, the entire thing felt rushed and more than a little choppy. 

I will continue with the rest of the series, just so I can see how it differs from what I remember of the show. Hopefully it improves and I find that spark again.

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                          Darkly Dreaming Dexter is available from Amazon.com