Dexter in the Dark

Reviews

I finished Dexter in the Dark, and while I’m pleased to see all the old crowd again (even though a few are missing significant body parts), and I still think Dexter’s narrative voice is original and amusing, I don’t particularly like the twist into the supernatural that this book takes.

Now, having said that, I grant that one of my few complaints about Darkly Dreaming Dexter, the first book, is that it, also, has a touch of the supernatural — Dexter and the playfully taunting killer he’s looking for seem to share thoughts and dreams to an extent that can’t be explained by the denouement. But Dearly Devoted Dexter planted us back safely into mystery-land, with nothing more supernatural than the reactions of Dexter’s Dark Passenger, which is part of his character concept and therefore forgivable.

Dexter in the Dark, however, shifts us into a world where the supernatural definitely exists, and I can’t say I’m pleased by the move. We have enough paranormal mysteries on the bookshelves. Lindsay had a perfectly satisfactory storyworld with his cheerfully violent Miami and its dense population of serial killers; a rich setting like that doesn’t need the intrusion of the uncanny. I can’t help but think that his decision to bring in a supernatural element suggests that he’s running dry on ideas.

The book is still fun, don’t get me wrong. Poor Dexter’s stumbling through preparations for the wedding with a sense of baffled bemusement, and he has his hands full with the precociously bloodthirsty children Cody and Astor. All that is great. But you’ll probably want to read it more for his social interactions and dry commentary than for the central mystery itself.

drupagliassotti @ October 3, 2007