Darkly Dreaming Dexter (urspr publ 2004; utgåvan 2006)

Didn't like how the ending was handled. The big scene "fades to black" and is wrapped up in an epilogue. I don't really understand who killed the last victim but don't really care enough to rewind and re-listen.

Also listened to Dearly Devoted Dexter #2 - 4* - The bad guy in this book was really creepy. (not Dexter) What he did to his victims was like nothing I have ever read. Truly terrifying.

I don't plan to continue with the book series. I did watch the full TV series. ( )

Like millions of others, I was fascinated by the ‘Dexter’ TV series from Showtime. I watched and enjoyed all ninety.-six episodes (yes, I had to look that up - who knew there were so many?) between 2006 and 2013.

It's been a long time since I visited with Dexter so I thought, instead of re-watching the TV series, I'd go back to the source and see what Jeff Lindsay's Dexter looked like back in 2004. I'm glad I did, because now I have new series to follow and an opportunity to watch Dexter follow a slightly different path.

'Dexter Season One' followed 'Darkly Dreaming Dexter' pretty closely, so the plot wasn't a surprise to me until the end, where the TV series deviated significantly from the book.

What was a surprise was how refreshing it was to be inside Dexter's head where I could appreciate his humour, understand some of his genuine confusion about how people behaved, especially when it comes to sexual attraction, and get a clearer view of his relationship with his 'Dark Passenger'. Jeff Lindsay's Dexter is just as likeable but also more chilling than his TV doppelgänger.

Jeff Lindsay's prose is clean and clear, effortlessly building empathy for Dexter while delivering a suspenseful plot lubricated by humour. The supporting characters are very clearly drawn, the dialogue is spot on and the pacing is perfect.

I listened to the audiobook version of 'Darkly Dreaming Dexter', which is narrated by Jeff Lindsay. Some authors read their own works well. Some are a disaster. I was delighted to find that Jeff Lindsay is an excellent narrator. As well as getting all the nuances of the book's content across, he does the voices of the various characters very well.

So, with a different ending to the first Dexter book, and with great writing and narration by Jeff Lindsay, I'm now keen to listen to the rest of the books in the series.

Click on the SoundCloud link below if you'd like to hear a sample of Jeff Lindsay's narration.


https://soundcloud.com/orionbooks/darkly-dreaming-dexter-by-jeff-lindsay

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Not deep or challenging, but entertaining. If you are familiar with the show, you know the story. Dexter is a serial killer with a moral code: he only kills other serial killers. He is helping his sister, a cop, track down one such and discovers his own origin story. I thought this had a sense of humor and a good pace. I was not surprised by the twists since I've already seen the series, so I can't comment on that. I thought the characterization, except Dexter himself, was very thin, though, and the portrayals of the women were especially shallow. Although since this is first-person narrative, it's hard to tell whether that's lazy writing or just Dexter's filter. ( )

Two clean-cut killers
fairly useless detectives
even Deb is dumb. ( )

A ver cómo se lo describo en pocas palabras: Dexter es un psicópata asesino en serie con 36 muertos a sus espaldas y es, además, el bueno de la novela. Un planteamiento así llama la atención, desde luego. Dexter trabaja para la policía de Miami como analista de patrones de salpicaduras de sangre (hiperespecialización, se llama eso). Tiene una hermana policía y un montón de tiempo libre.
Cuando Dexter era pequeño, Harry, su padre adoptivo, descubrió pronto sus instintos asesinos. Perros chillones de vecinos que desaparecían, ratones y lagartijas troceaditos a cuchillo escondidos en el cubo de la basura y cosas así. Así que en lugar de intentar cambiar la mente de un psicópata, intentó reconducirla hacia el Bien. Y entrenó a Dexter, según las normas del código de Harry, para que sólo matase a gente que se lo merecía, y además lo hiciera sin que le pillaran. Dexter recibió una estupenda formación en métodos de asesinato, de preparación de crímenes y de ocultación de pruebas, y hasta la fecha sigue matando pederastas y asesinos en sus ratos libres sin que nadie le moleste. Dexter es, en sus propias palabras, un monstruo muy pulcro. Pero todo cambia cuando un nuevo asesino en serie entra en escena en Miami…
La novela es fantástica. Está bien escrita y nos deja bucear en el mundo interior de Dexter sin llegar a aburrirnos. Como psicópata que es, Dexter es impermeable a los sentimientos, pero ha aprendido a simularlos lo suficientemente bien como para no infundir sospechas, salvo al sargento Doakes, que se la tiene jurada.
La trama está muy bien montada, y no pierde el interés. Abrí la primera página y no pude dejar de leer. Sobre este libro y su continuación, que estoy terminando, se hizo una serie de televisión, que se desvía bastante del guión de las novelas. La serie es también fantástica. Se llama Dexter y pueden conseguirla en la mula en versión original subtitulada. Son doce capítulos muy recomendables. En junio de este año sale la tercera novela de Dexter, que compraré ipso facto.
Novela negra, humor negro y un pasajero no negro pero sí oscuro, el pasajero oscuro del fondo de su mente al que Dexter cede el control en las noches de luna llena, cuando sale a ajusticiar criminales por la vía B en los recovecos de Miami. Totalmente recomendable. No sé cómo será la traducción, pero el original se sale.
Mi nota: Muy, muy recomendable. ( )