Dexter Morgan is a serial killer confounded by compunction distilled in his delicate youth by a devoted foster father who saw him for what he was and sought to protect him from the probing police. The Code of Harry is the creed that commits Dexter to allow his Dark Passenger to dissect and dismember only the deserving - pedophiles, murderers - before leading them slowly into death.
Okay...enough of my feeble attempt at replicating Jeff Lindsay's lively alliterative style. But if you found the above paragraph remotely entertaining, you're sure to find Lindsay's skilled pen far more enjoyable. His "positively prancing prose", as I referred to it in my reviews of Darkly Dreaming Dexter, makes the book a joy to read. Even more fascinating is that we're in Dexter's head the entire time, as Dexter himself is the narrator.
For an emotionless killer, Dexter has a great sense of humor and his cold detachment from everyday life makes his insights into the human psyche even more amusing and telling. For example, "I have always felt that it was preferable to think with my brain, rather than with certain other wrinkled parts located slightly south. I mean, seriously, don't people ever *see* themselves, staggering around drooling and mooning, all weepy-eyed and weak-kneed and rendered completely idiotic over something even animals have enough to sense to finish quickly so that they can get on with more sensible pursuits, like finding fresh meat?"
In "Dearly Devoted Dexter", Sergeant Doakes, who Dexter believes has seen the emptiness inside of him, follows Dexter everywhere and "sits on him". Frustrated in his pursuit of a pedophile to feed his Dark Passenger, Dexter tries to live out a more normal existence, which is part of the Code of Harry - blend in. To do so, he starts to spend more time with his girlfriend Rita. After all, what's more normal than a guy having a girlfriend? He even puts on hearty good-night kisses as part of his show to Doakes - although Dexter knows he isn't fooling him.
A particularly twisted sociopath makes an appearance, and even Dexter is impressed with the technique. That made for a good scene: he stood admiring what was left of the newcomer's work while the majority of the Miami police force was vomiting last week's pizza. This new nut has ties to Washington, El Salvador, and Tito Fuentes - good luck putting that puzzle together! When someone from Washington that's bigger than the "feds" arrives to take over the case, Dexter's foster sister Deborah falls for him, and her involvement in the case (which realistically should be minimal) increases. This means that so does Dexter's (whose involvement, as a lab tech, should be Zero). Deb relies on Dexter for help, and while Dexter has difficulty understanding why he should be bothered, he always gives in when she reminds him that he is family.
Dexter claims constantly that he is not human, yet in a flashback we see him emotionally wrought over Harry's death, and while he is loathe to admit it, he feels something with his sister as well. To give you another insight into Dexter's twisted mind, this occurs after Dexter and Deb find themselves in their car, upside down, under water. "A real human being might have thought of his drowning sister much sooner, but really, let's be fair, one can only expect so much from an imitation...But although I was not really reluctant to rush to the rescue, I couldn't help thinking that we were asking a bit much of Dutifully Dashing Dexter this evening, weren't we?"
The police procedural aspects are virtually nonexistent here. If that's all you enjoy in crime fiction, you probably won't want to add this to your list. And Lindsay stretches things a bit - homicidal sociopaths turn up a bit too often for my taste, and Dexter, a mild mannered lab tech, has far too much to do with a rather terrifying investigation than is believable. But if you like the idea of a story told from the POV of a serial sociopath with a conscience and a killer sense of humor, wit, and insight, you can't go wrong with this. You'll find yourself laughing aloud and genuinely liking Dexter. Lindsay doesn't spend much time on Dexter's deviousness, which is wise, because if we saw Dexter at play, we couldn't possibly like him. But with this distance, as Entertainment Weekly said, Dexter is "maybe the first serial killer who unabashedly solicits our love." Both books in the series have come in at under 300 pages, so they're a light easy read.
