Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Jeff Lindsay

The thing I keep hearing about this novel, over and over again, is how original it is. Okay, folks, listen up, 'cause I'll only say this once-- the serial killer who only kills bad people is not a new concept. (Anyone remember The Toxic Avenger?) For that matter, it's come into something of a renaissance recently, so much so that the series premiere of the new TV show The Inside dealt with it. If scriptwriters for a TV show are onto something, guys, it's old news.

That said, *Darkly Dreaming Dexter* is still quite the fun read. The pages turn quickly, and Dexter truly is a likable sort of guy, though he continues the recent trend in my reading of narrators so unreliable you have to wonder about the sanity of their creators. Dexter constantly refers to himself as a sociopath, unhuman. The first may be true, but much of Dexter's development throughout the book is not a struggle to become (or against becoming) human as much as it is a struggle with himself to keep from recognizing his own humanity. Dexter, while a far more likable protagonist, shares a lot of traits with Larry, the disaffected (to put it mildly) youth in Dennis Cooper's recent novel *My Loose Thread*.

While the plot of *Darkly Dreaming Dexter* definitely plays second fiddle to us getting to know Dexter (this is the first book in a projected series), there is, in fact, a plot, and it's a pretty good one; Dexter, who when he's not out killing bad folks is a blood-splatter analyst for the Miami police, gets drawn into an investigation of a serial killer who's not taunting the police in general, but is definitely trying to send some sort of message to Dexter in particular. The problem is that Dexter can't figure out whether the killer's trying to say "I'm coming after you" or "Hi! Want to play?"

Darkly Dreaming Dexter is your basic beach read-- empty calories. It's a good book, but not one that's destined to stick with you for a long time after you close the cover. (I finished it five days ago, and just now, while thinking about it, had trouble remembering the identity of the killer.) Still, it's fast-paced, funny, elegant in its own way, and left me wanting to read the next book.