Book 7 - Darkly Dreaming Dexter

January 13, 2010 ~ Flipping the channels last summer and finding nothing worth watching led me to use the "On Demand" feature. There I found Dexter. I don't subscribe to Showtime and didn't know anything about the program besides the few lines describing the program which said something about about a serial killer who kills serial killers. Huh? That sounds convoluted and improbable, I thought. Then I watched it, bought into it, and unequivocally loved the show. What a intriguing character! His sister Deborah, who curses like a sailor (I abhor cursing) is another great character on the show. Since then, I ended up watching all four seasons.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter at Amazon.com

Right now I am a third of the way through Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay and it is pretty much exactly like season one of Dexter. There are usually subplots that don't make the cut when writing a screenplay. Besides some slight changes to the secondary characters, the story was the same. I think this is a credit to Lindsay's pulpy, darkly-funny writing.

The story is about a forensics expert named Dexter. By day he analyzes blood spatter, by night he hunts killers and dispatches them. His adoptive father knew there was no stopping Dexter's "Dark Passenger" so he developed rules to keep Dexter alive, out of jail, and maintaining some moral code - only kill killers. The killer in the book seems...familiar though. Dexter is...confused.

January 17, 2010
I discovered there were more significant changes from novel to small screen; most notably the conflict Dexter had with himself through most of the story. Had I done this? The LaGuerta character was quite different too. Yikes. I was surprised that Deborah becomes aware of her brother's Dark Passenger and how it came about. Good crime novel. If there were no Showtime Dexter, I'd read the series. Now, eh...maybe. 4 of 5 stars.