Dexter Is Dead

May 18, 2015
The action of Lindsay’s downbeat eighth and final Dexter Morgan novel picks up right after the over-the-top ending of the previous book, 2013’s Dexter’s Final Cut, which left Dexter, a serial killer who targets other killers, locked in a tiny prison cell. For a change, he isn’t guilty this time, despite a damning set of circumstances. Dexter was found “in flagrante sangre” with the bodies of his wife, Rita, and actor Robert Chase at the crime scene, where his scantily clad 12-year-old adopted daughter, Astor, was also present. Although Dexter’s charged with double murder and considered a pedophile, Chase actually killed Rita, only to be killed by Astor in turn. Dexter is left in legal limbo for weeks, seemingly abandoned by everyone, including his sister, Deborah, who visits only to get him to sign over custody of his children to her. Many readers will struggle to sympathize with this antihero, and the series’s resolution won’t satisfy all fans. Author tour. Agent: Nick Ellison, Nicholas Ellison Agency.