"A macabre tour-de-force." — The New York Times Book Review

“A dark comedy with a creative twist.”— The Miami Herald

“Dark and devious. . . . . Daring and unexpectedly comedic.” — USA Today

"Maybe the first serial killer who unabashedly solicits our love." — Entertainment Weekly

"With chills like these, you can skip the air-conditioning." — Time

"One of the most likeable vigilante serial killers in recent thriller literature." — The New Yorker

“Demonology has a dastardly new darling.” — The New York Times

“Just when you think (hope?) that the tired and rarely credible device of the serial killer next door has hit a wall, along comes a writer like Jeff Lindsay to prove you wrong. . . . So enjoyable.” — Chicago Tribune

“Mordantly funny.” — The New York Post

“A fresh, inventive slice of crime fiction that turns the axis of good and evil . . . upside down. A psychological thriller in the best sense of the genre.” — The Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)

“A memorable debut with a hero who really ought to be in a mental institution, but is too much fun to lock up.” — The Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)

“Dexter’s captivating, first-person account is a genuinely exciting read.” — Time Out (NY)

“This ghoulish, fascinating tale . . . will grip readers and make a lasting impression.” — The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Entertaining. . . . Dexter is a fascinating character, though he’s not the kind of guy you’d like to invite to dinner.” —<i...

Amazon.com Review

Meet Dexter Morgan. He's a highly respected lab technician specializing in blood spatter for the Miami Dade Police Department. He's a handsome, though reluctant, ladies' man. He's polite, says all the right things, and rarely calls attention to himself. He's also a sociopathic serial killer whose "Dark Passenger" drives him to commit the occasional dismemberment.

Mind you, Dexter's the good guy in this story.

Adopted at the age of four after an unnamed tragedy left him orphaned, Dexter's learned, with help from his pragmatic policeman father, to channel his "gift," killing only those who deal in death themselves. But when a new serial killer starts working in Miami, staging elaborately grisly scenes that are, to Dexter, an obvious attempt at communication from one monster to another, the eponymous protagonist finds himself at a loss. Should he help his policewoman sister Deborah earn a promotion to the Homicide desk by finding the fiend? Or should he locate this new killer himself, so he can express his admiration for the other's "art?" Or is it possible that psycho Dexter himself, admittedly not the most balanced of fellows, is finally going completely insane and committing these messy crimes himself?

Despite his penchant for vivisection, it's hard not to like Dexter as his coldly logical personality struggles to emulate emotions he doesn't feel and to keep up his appearance as a caring, unremarkable human being. Breakout author Jeff Lindsay's plot is tense and absorbing, but it's the voice of Dexter and his reactions to the other characters that will keep readers glued to Darkly Dreaming Dexter, as well as making it one of the most original and highly recommended serial killer stories in a long time. --Benjamin Reese

From Publishers Weekly

Miami blood spatter specialist Dexter Morgan is not your average monster. He occasionally gives in to the impulse to kill in order to satisfy the Dark Passenger inside his brain, but he's much more well-adjusted than the label "serial killer" implies. He has a girlfriend, a sense of humor and, thanks to the loving tutelage of his cop foster father, he dismembers only other serial killers. But his self-control is sorely tested when he agrees to help his sister, a vice cop, solve a string of murders so bizarre, and yet so familiar, that he seriously starts to wonder if he is committing them in his sleep. Voiceover artist Landrum does a superb job conveying Dexter's witty first-person narration; he seems to embody "quirky, funny, happy-go-lucky, dead-inside Dexter." With his nimble vocal chords, he also has no trouble giving voice to the story's female characters and affecting an authentic-sounding Cuban accent for the incompetent homicide detective assigned to the case. Perhaps Landrum's finest feat, however, is the chill-inducing voice he adopts for Dexter's Dark Passenger, which underscores Dexter's transformations from charming neighborhood killer into inhuman predator. Refreshingly original and expertly narrated, this audiobook should be required listening for all thriller aficionados.
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