Lindsay's Fourth Dexter Morgan Book Gets Series Back on Track, Mostly

Jeff Lindsay, pen name of Jeffry P. Freundlich, has created one of the more interesting creatures of mystery fiction with Dexter Morgan. As fans of the Showtime series "Dexter" know, Morgan works for the Miami Police Department as a blood splatter forensics expert. He is also a serial killer who murderers when the system fails. In the latest book, Dexter by Design, Lindsay returns from a flirtation with the occult that made the third book in the series, Dexter in the Dark, a disappointment. While the newest doesn't quite measure up to the first two, it appears to have put the series back where it belongs.

Mr. Lindsay writes in the first person, and that gives the reader an intimate insight into the workings of the twisted mind of a sociopath. It also creates some delightful dark humor that makes reading the books a joy -- if one's sense of humor lends itself to such. Furthermore, Mr. Lindsay's craft is well-polished enough for him to write conversationally, which adds a verisimilitude that makes Dexter likable in a perverse way. He is Hannibal Lecter, but he works for the side of good.

In Dexter by Design, the anti-hero has recently married long-time girlfriend and mother of two, Rita, who has no clue to whom she said, "I do." They honeymoon in Paris, and while Dexter is largely bored, a piece of performance art they see there in which the artist removes her own limb seems to brighten his mood. Then, the pair return to Miami. The first two chapters seem largely irrelevant until much later in the story, when the boundaries of art and law clash. Mr. Lindsay might have benefited from a bit more editorial help at the start.

Nevertheless, the rest of the tale involves Dexter being the hunted as well as the hunter, a recurring theme in the series. Here, he is up against a twisted mind that he doesn't understand as well as those in the previous stories. This allows Mr. Lindsay to break away from what could have become a formulaic trap -- telling the same thing over and over with the names, places and murders changing but little else.

The plot does seem a bit contrived at the end. Dexter and Kyle Chutsky (ex-CIA man and boyfriend of Deborah Morgan, Dexter's adoptive sister) chase the bad guy (well, the bad guy the reader wants brought to justice rather than the protagonist) to Havana, where their plans go awry. Mr. Lindsay, then, quickly moves the action to a huge art festival at a Miami arena where things wind up playing out largely by accident. It isn't quite as satisfying as it could have been, but it does wrap things up to allow a fifth book to happen -- Dexter is Delicious due out in 2011.

For those who have yet to read Dexter and know him only from Michael C. Hall's stunning work for Showtime, the books are worth the time. Much like James Bond, the books differ from the film (not as much granted), but they offer a different way to access the dark world of Dexter Morgan. And for those who are wondering, "Dexter" returns to Showtime for its fourth season this Sunday at 9 pm.

© Copyright 2009 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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