I got my hands on the first 3 books in the Dexter series, and decided to wait and review them all together than to do it one by one.

Book One: Darkly Dreaming

Dexter works in the forensics department of the Miami PD, more specifically blood analysis. Dexter may seem like a good guy. He’s charming, works for the police, has a loving girlfriend except there’s on big thing: he’s a serial killer. The difference between Dexter and the criminals he catches for a living is that he only kills other bad guys. When someone is targeting Miamis sex workers, Dexter can’t help but admire the “art” of this fellow killer.

Book Two: Dearly Devoted

The sequel sees Dexter face someone much worse than a murder. A guy who does something much worse than death: he leaves his victims without limbs, eyes or a tongue. While Dexter would rather be hunting down a child predator, he’s called to duty. The second book is just as good as the first, except much more disturbing as we could have imagined – some things are worse than death.

Book Three: Dexter in the Dark

The third instalment delves more onto what exactly Dexter’s “Dark Passenger” is. I admire how Jeff Lindsay didn’t just use the played out sociopath/psychopath trope and did something original. Dexter in the Dark sees Dexter on his own for the first time after his Dark Passenger is scarred into silence by cult killings, in the meantime Dexter’s coming to realize that his fiancee’s children may be just like him.

My thoughts

For a character who doesn’t even see himself as human there’s something morbidly captivating about Dexter. Lindsay has an engaging, charismatic, style of writing that keeps readers hooked.

I definitely want to read the next 3 instalments but I’ve a lot of other books to read first.

My only complaint is the female characters are not well written at all. All the men in the series like Dexter, Vince, and Doakes are dynamic and interesting. However, the female characters are very one dimensional. Deborah for example is straight up aggressive, while Rita is the polar opposite. It sometimes feels that Lindsay just doesn’t know what real woman are like at all.

I haven’t seen the show yet, but if I decide to watch it, it will be after I finish the books. I’ve heard the show is pretty different in terms of the plot. Some of the tales from the books, don’t come up at all.

Overall, I would still recommend the Dexter series and I intend on finishing it.

If you liked the Dexter books or TV show, you might like Dark Detectives.