Dearly Devoted Dexter: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Sergeant Doakes, Dark Passenger, Captain Matthews (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dexter the Demon, Dexter the Avenger—whatever he chooses to call himself, the hero of this intelligent, darkly humorous series knows he's a monster who loves slicing people into little pieces. That Dexter limits his killing to "acceptable" victims—usually other serial killers—is designed to keep the reader from having to worry too much about the morality of his avocation. Dexter's just added his 40th victim, a homicidal pedophile, and is eagerly looking ahead to number 41 when he becomes involved in a case through his job as a blood spatter analyst at the Miami-Dade police forensics lab. A man is found with "everything on [his] body cut off, absolutely everything"—a piece of work that makes Dexter's own tidy killings look like child's play. This madman, nicknamed Danco, spends weeks surgically removing his victims' ears, lips, nose, arms, legs, etc., while keeping them alive to watch their own mutilation. Despite a certain professional admiration for Danco's dexterity, Dexter decides to take on the case. It's the contradictions in Dexter's character that make it all work—he's smart, he's funny, he cares for children, and yet he has no normal human responses or emotions. The first book in the series, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, was very well received; this one should be as well, and deservedly so. (July 19)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Dexter, your friendly neighborhood serial killer, is a police department blood-spatter expert who, in his spare time, kills people. Not just anyone, you understand--he only kills other killers, people whom he believes deserve it. Is this because Dexter really has a heart of gold? No, he's a monster (he is the first to admit it), but at least he tries to steer his evil into productive channels. In the second of Lindsay's alliteratively titled thrillers (following last year's Darkly Dreaming Dexter), Dexter's nemesis, Sergeant Doakes, is getting a little too close for comfort, and there is also the matter of a psychopath on the loose. When Dexter's two problems eventually link up . . . well, what's a well-meaning homicidal maniac to do? Dexter, the cheerfully sociopathic crime fighter, is one of mystery fiction's most original, compelling, and oddly endearing heroes. Lindsay digs a little deeper under Dexter's surface this time, showing us a little more about what makes him tick, but readers shouldn't worry. There are volumes still to be written about this gruesomely fascinating character. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; First Edition edition (July 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385511248
• ISBN-13: 978-0385511247
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (131 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #95,159 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 2 in The Dexter Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dexter gets under your skin....eeew...., December 12, 2005

By	bensmomma "bensmomma" (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Jeff Lindsay's Dexter is serial-killer-slash-detective, a tortured soul who works as a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami police department. Dexter has trained himself only to kill other serial killers, which gives Dexter a veneer of creepy heroism. In "Dearly Devoted Dexter," Dexter is on the hunt for a villain once betrayed by fellow members of a former Special Forces team, a criminal who actually leaves his victims alive (but, yikes, limbless lipless earless noseless), after kidnapping them and carving them up bit by bit.

Lindsay's Dexter narrates his own story; in combination with Dexter's easy-going friendly manner and his strangely "good-guy" motivations (catch the villain), this leads the reader to be on Dexter's side, to see things through his eyes, so to speak.

So occasionally while reading this book I would suddenly realize I was rooting for someone who would give Hannibal Lecter a run for his money, and a cold shiver would run down my spine. Very sneaky, Mr. Lindsay! If you like getting creeped out, in true horror-movie fashion, this will definitely suit you. On the other hand, if you couldn't bear "Silence of the Lambs," you'd best run away from Dexter before he gets inside your head....brrrrr....

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dexter's domestic disguise, September 26, 2005

By	Eileen Rieback (Coral Springs, FL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Dexter leads a double life as both a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Police Department and a serial killer who discretely dispatches only other demonic evildoers. He's back from his first story, "Darkly Dreaming Dexter," for more dastardly dealings. This time, he finds himself under suspicion by Police Sergeant Doakes. Dexter can't help feeling that Doakes is as much a monster as he is, and that monsters recognize their own kind. When Doakes begins a constant surveillance that prevents Dexter from heeding the call of his Dark Passenger, he spends an uncomfortable amount of time with his girlfriend Rita and her two kids in an effort to appear domestic. To his chagrin, he is becoming a bit too normal for his own liking. Luckily, he is conscripted by his police detective sister to help investigate a new rash of grotesque serial killings that give even a monster like Dexter pause. When the killer absconds with Doakes, Dexter feels an obligation to help his sister track down the killer, even if, by saving Doakes, he will be forced to remain trapped in a life of normalcy.

I wondered if author Jeff Lindsay would be able to pull off another novel about the endearingly inhuman Dexter without reverting to telling the same story twice. He did an admirable job doing just that. As in his first story, Lindsay combines humor along with Dexter's dispassionate acknowledgment as an unfeeling monster. But this time, he provides several fresh new facets to Dexter's personality: first his new role as a reluctant domesticated man, and second his innate understanding of, and gentleness with, children. This short book is a quick and entertaining read. I recommend it for its innovative depiction of a murderous psychopath that a reader can actually like and root for.

Eileen Rieback

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Daring Dauntless Dexter, April 17, 2007

By	T. Burger (Chicago) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Dearly Devoted Dexter (Paperback)

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.