Double Dexter

September 15, 2011
Two sociopaths are a crowd, as Miami-Dade forensic tech Dexter Morgan (Dexter is Delicious, 2010, etc.) realizes when he's crowded by a wannabe who seems bent on taking over his gig as the bloody scourge of Miami's worst citizens.

Just as he's cleaning up the considerable mess after executing Puffalump, ne Steve Valentine, the pederast clown who'd killed at least three little boys before meeting his doom, Dexter realizes he's been seen at work by someone driving a beat-up Honda. Once a series of unfortunate events allows the witness to connect a name to Dexter's face, he announces his intentions via e-mail. There's a new serial killer in town, smirks the unknown witness, and he intends to learn everything he can from Dexter and then toss his unwilling teacher aside. Of course, Dexter doesn't take this threat to his star billing lightly. His attempts to track down the witness go south, though, when he stumbles over a victim butchered in much the way he would have done the job and hears police sirens in the distance. Dexter escapes this crime scene to return to his wife Rita, who's obsessed with finding the perfect new house for their growing family—her daughter Astor, son Cody and newborn Lily Anne. But Dexter's latest nemesis, remaining one step ahead of him, commits a copycat murder that reopens a case Dexter's adoptive sister Deborah had just solved for Miami-Dade. This throws a deep professional shadow over both Debs and Dexter while the newbie plots his next move and Dexter wonders how he can kill his tormentor even though he's being dogged by his old enemy Sgt. Doakes, and his hands are swollen by poison ivy.

Lindsay, who remains less interested in mystery than in the archly virtuoso first-person narration of his appealingly monstrous Human Impersonator, provides another guilty pleasure. Really, really guilty.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 15, 2011

Blood splatter analyst by day, avenging angel by night, Dexter Morgan is everyone's favorite serial killer. Here the character who prompted Showtime's top-rated program discovers that some criminal out there is copying him. With a six-city tour.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2011
Dexter Morgan, the Miami PD blood-spatter expert who kills evil people in his spare time, the monster posing as a man, has a bit of a problem. While serving up brutal justice to his latest victim (a serial child abuser), Dexter was seen. He barely caught a glimpse of the car as it sped away, but he knows that somewhere out there is a witness. At first he panics, but then his cold, clinical side takes over, and he thinks: I work for the police department, and in my hidden life, I'm an expert at tracking down people who don't want to be found. So he decides: he'll find the witness and dispense with him. Fans of the Dexter novelsor their spin-off television serieswill enjoy the opportunity to see their favorite murderous antihero dealing with an unfamiliar situation, feeling the fear and other emotions he usually inspires in his victims. Dexter is continuing along the rocky road to genuine humanity; presumably, if he ever becomes a normal person, that will spell the end of this series, so let's hope he never quite gets there. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: It's TV, stupid, one might answer if queried as to what took Lindsay's Dexter series from being popular with crime-fiction fans to mainstream bestsellerdom. And, yes, fans of the Showtime series Dexter will be queueing up for Lindsay's latest novel, which is being billed as An all-new Dexter case you won't see on TV!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)