Sep. 14th, 2009

lightreads: a partial image of a etymology tree for the Indo-European word 'leuk done in white neon on black'; in the lower left is (Default)
Dexter By Design (Dexter, #4) Dexter By Design by Jeff Lindsay


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
All right, that's more like it. Our favorite vigilante serial killer goes on his honeymoon to Paris, then comes home to a killer with an artistic bent. And we can all basically pretend that book 3 never happened.

Hilarious, as usual, but also disturbing in places, which is all for the best. And we see Dexter responding to some extremely unexpected circumstances in his own Dexterian way, and reflecting a bit on the Harry code and its implications as he trains his stepkids to be good little sociopaths. And there's just a teensy bit of philosophizing by Lindsay on the nature of the stories he's telling as pieces of violent art. At least to the extent possible with Dexter's peculiarly limiting narration. And then a bombshell at the end, which, well. Heh.

All in all exactly what I wanted – forward-moving, absurdly funny, keeping hold of what makes it good while changing things up in interesting ways. And most of all, not stupid.

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