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Chills And Chuckles Fuel Dexter's Latest Adventure

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By AMY SMITH LINTON

Published: September 16, 2007

'Dexter in the Dark,' by Jeff Lindsay (Doubleday, $24)
Dexter Morgan is a blood-spatter tech for the Miami police department. He enjoys jelly doughnuts, Miami traffic and fishing on Biscayne Bay. He also happens to be a serial killer.

Thanks to his foster father's training, Dexter restricts his appetite to murdering only those people who really, really deserve it. But in this third installation of Dexter's story ('Darkly Dreaming Dexter' and 'Dearly Devoted Dexter' inspired the Showtime cable series named for this quirky anti-hero), Dexter meets a sinister presence that scares his own 'Dark Passenger,' as he calls it, right out of the car.
Dexter knows he's a monster, an 'artificial human being' with no soul and no human emotions. And he has spent years hiding it. But now, he must face this sinister and ancient threat - not to mention his impending normal life as his wedding approaches - without the aid of his Dark Passenger. ('What a frail thing a human being is - without the Passenger, that is all I was, a poor imitation of a human being. Weak, soft, slow and stupid ...')

The other killer begins to toy with Dexter, who experiences fear and panic for the first time ('Feelings; what authentic human fun. Next I would join a bowling league.'). But when Dexter's soon-to-be stepchildren are snatched, it's time for Dexter to test his limits.

Funny, gruesome and appallingly hard to put down, Dexter's latest adventure delivers both chills and chuckles. My only question: How long until the next one?

Amy Smith Linton of Tampa is a freelance writer. Writer Jeff Lindsay will speak and sign his new book at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the main auditorium at the News Center, home to The Tampa Tribune, News Channel 8 and TBO.com, at 200 S. Parker St., Tampa.

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