Review: Dexter by Design (Dexter #4) by Jeff Lindsay

Print Length: 285 pages

Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (August 24, 2010)

From Goodreads.com: After his surprisingly glorious honeymoon in Paris, life is almost normal for Dexter Morgan. Married life seems to agree with him: he’s devoted to his bride, his stomach is full, and his homicidal hobbies are nicely under control. But old habits die hard—and Dexter’s work as a blood spatter analyst never fails to offer new temptations that appeal to his offbeat sense of justice.  Not to mention that his Dark Passenger still waits to hunt with him in the moonlight.  The discovery of a corpse (artfully displayed as a sunbather relaxing on a Miami beach chair) naturally piques Dexter’s curiosity and Miami’s finest realize they’ve got a terrifying new serial killer on the loose. And Dexter, of course, is back in business.

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My Rating: 1 star out of 5

I don't even know what it is I am reading anymore. As far as I am concerned there should never be an instance where the television show should be BETTER than the books, but here we are. 

Gone is the spark that made these books intriguing. Now they are being downright creepy just for the sake of doing so and following a formula that is not only so downright absurd that it is laughable, but also making it easy to guess what is going to happen. I miss the olden days of a Dexter who was smarter than the average human. A Dexter who wouldn't make such careless mistakes. Seriously. Dexter charges into a place without first checking it out? Or luring his victim elsewhere? It was the planning that made him so successful in the first place and now he throws it away for what? For someone who spends a great deal of time telling the reader that he doesn't experience human emotion, he certainly spends a lot of time being ruled by them. The Dexter I knew and loved would never have allowed himself to be caught on video. Much less nearly caught by the police. But of course, at the end Dexter is allowed to live free another day. 

Four books down. And because I got them all at once, four more to go. Wish me luck! Although at this point, I can't honestly see how they could get any worse. Let me not say that as for some reason it feels like the author got a lot of those when originally writing this series and has been taking that as a personal challenge. 

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                                  Dexter by Design  is available from Amazon.com