Dearly Devoted Dexter

May 23, 2005
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 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.

Starred review from September 5, 2005
Forensic blood-spatter analyst Dexter Morgan is a nice guy who enjoys his job, but what he'd rather be doing is killing people. In this follow-up to 2001's Darkly Dreaming Dexter
, Dexter is kept from his games of "slice the slasher" (he kills only murderers and pedophiles) by a suspicious Sergeant Doakes. Luckily for listeners, Dexter still finds a way to engage in his grim specialty when a fiendish "doctor" comes to town and leaves his victims brutally butchered, yet alive and crippled. Landrum, who is also an accomplished songwriter, hits all the right notes in this superb audio production, flawlessly matching the sarcastic and sinister tones of the novel. At times lighthearted and good-natured, Landrum's first-person narration of Dexter truly makes the character come alive. His transitions between character voices are perfectly consistent—he handles cocky men, grizzled veterans, tough female cops and demure women with equal flair, including a wonderfully quirky and disturbing voice for the novel's villain. Dexter is the most darkly charming and compelling serial killer since Hannibal Lecter, and this production is a sure-fire candidate for audiobook of the year. Simultaneous release with the Doubleday hardcover (Reviews, May 23).