Dexter Is Delicious

I'm not a giant fan of the Dexter franchise, but it's always sparked my curiosity. I've watched a couple of episodes of the first season of the TV show and flipped through the first couple pages of some of the books. So, I wasn't sure how I would feel about this book, as most of the readers seem to be long term fans.

In short, this was a fun romp. The story was much more imaginative than your run-of-the-mill mystery series. The writing was mostly pedestrian, but with some entertaining turns of phrase (mostly alliteration).

The theme of family and the contrasts between families of choice and families of biology was not particularly subtle, but was interesting.

I've read a lot of reviews about the mysticism with which Lindsay imbues the “dark passenger,” but I felt kind of ambivalent to the idea that there was a separate entity in Dexter that wanted to kill. It worked as a metaphor. I would have disliked it as more than a metaphor, but Lindsay never really pushed that point.

All in all, this was an entertaining, quick read. It would be a top notch airport or beach book and was good enough that I wasn't embarrassed to be reading it during my commute. It's better than the vast majority of serial mystery books out there, but it doesn't reach the ranks of Great Literature of Our Times (nor does it strive to.)