#66 Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay

[missingvolume]

This is the third Dexter book. This takes a bit of a turn that I think some people might not like about the books. The writer has decided to switch ideas about Dexter's Dark Passenger. I thought the take was interesting but if you don't care for SF flavored mysteries you might not like the direction the series is moving. Now I have to hold out for a while for the next book to see what he will do with the plot points he has developed.

Comments

[3fgburner.livejournal.com]

I, of course, have read the books as soon as I found out about them. I found the Passenger stuff in #3 to be interesting. I'm looking forward to #4.

[missingvolume.livejournal.com]

I enjoy the books. Just too much stuff to keep up wiht to run out and read everything that comes out. LOL Besides I stil about 5 reviews behind what I have read.

[xmurphyjacobsx.livejournal.com]

Now, see, i just thought he did a lousy job with the whole idea of the Dark Passenger that was not only not interesting, but was a big 'i have no ideas to back up what I started' cop-out. He didn't commit to the idea completely, and he departed from the world as he originally created it. Just gave up on the series after this.

[missingvolume.livejournal.com]

That he didn't explain the origins of the Dark Traveler more or that it ran when the "parent" came looking for it? Or that it did come back to him in the way that it did? You have to admit that changing the reason he has this voice from ho hum "psycho voices" to a dark symbiont is a bit different.

[xmurphyjacobsx.livejournal.com]

I'll agree that it's different. I just thought it was done poorly. He set up the world in the first and second books to be very much 'this world' based. The whole Dark Passenger was, I thought, a pretty good way of dealing with the psychosis. Now he's brought in this whole "serial killers are driven by ancient spirits" thing and he did it BADLY. He broke with the single point of view used in the first two books (when a book is in first person, bringing in over POV usually feels tacked on. I didn't like that stylistically).

Mostly, though, he didn't convince me. I really got bored and then I got irritated. I gave him a pass on the second book, since sophomore efforts often drop a little as the writer tries to figure out what he did so well the first time. But I expect the third book to pick it up. It didn't.

I wanted to like the book, and I was disappointing in it, which I guess sums up my reaction. The first book was really a departure from the usual psycho killer book. Here we have a unique anti-hero. The whole oogie boogie thing pulled away from what really interested me -- Dexter, his upbringing, his coping mechanisms, his growth and changes, how he managed. Instead, Lindsey just shifted away from any kind of development or expansion of character by saying "Oh, he's just possessed." I lost all interest at that point. I call copout.

[missingvolume.livejournal.com]

Actually this is his pen name and he has other books out under his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Lindsay_(writer)

I guess we get to disagree on the books. ;-)

I'll pick up the 4th one but I will not rush out to get it. Will probably be more of a vacation read.

[missingvolume.livejournal.com]

Also the irony was right after I finished the book I watched Metropolis and there is reference to Molok in it. I got a bit of a giggle out of it.