"Dearly Devoted Dexter" is a seriously nasty novel. About 80% of what I've read for the past decade of my life has fitted into either the crime or the horror genre and this is one of the most disturbing and unpleasant novels that I have read in that entire time. And yet, I finished the book and fully intend to read the next Dexter novel.
For the uninitiated, Dexter Morgan is a serial killer who, although lacking in conscience, does follow a set of rules that mean that he only kills bad people. He works for the Miami Police Department as a blood-spatter expert and in between killing people, assists his sister, Deborah, a Miami cop, in solving murders. In this, the second Dexter novel (the first was "Darkly Dreaming Dexter"), Dexter and Deborah must find a psychopathic surgeon who, instead of killing his victims, removes all unnecessary body parts and leaves them alive.
The descriptions of the victims in this book are hard going. Yet, Jeff Lindsay makes, what would otherwise be a very dark horror novel, palatable by injecting it with enough humour to allow you to move your mind away from the gruesome subject matter. Dexter's wise-cracking commentary, although morbid, is very well written and very funny.
I am reluctant to recommend this book to my friends, for fear that that their stomachs aren't as strong as mine and that they will just see this book as the work of a sicko. However, if you happen to be blessed with intestinal fortitude and a sense of humour that's as black as tar, then give the Dexter books a go. Dexter is a wonderfully written and complex character and the Dexter novels are some of the most interesting and different crime novels that I have seen in a long time.
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Dearly Devoted Dexter Books In Print, Audio Books.