Like so many others, I loved the Showtime series and wanted to check out the original source material. I was very disappointed indeed. Since a lot of other people seem to have liked it, it may just be a matter of taste, but...

The characters are two-dimensional cliches that can't tie their own shoelaces, except for the daringly deductive Dexter, who *can* tie his own shoelaces. Which makes him a genius. I recall seeing someone else comment that Darkly Dreaming Dexter needs to "show, don't tell." More...

Getting in mind of Dexter is never boring his insight is funny and his technique of killing is masterful.Dexter talks of his beginnings, of his first kill, the day his dark passenger became the rider. Recollections of the past with his father Harry and his deadly advice, its a good fast read in the rambling mind of a sociopath Dexter.
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I'm a BIG fan of the Dexter TV show on Showtime. This led to me being a bit hesitant to read the novels because I was worried about a serious case of disappointment. Michael C. Hall's portrayal of the title character is such an integral part of my enjoyment of the series that approached this book with trepidation, worried I wouldn't relate* as well to the novel's main character.

* a dangerous thought, I know, given Dexter's proclivities.

Well, turns out that my fears were groundless. The characte More...

Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Recorded Books
Narrated by: Author Jeff Lindsay

Darkly Dreaming Dexter introduces Dexter Morgan serial killer of serial killers. To the outside world he is a charming, attractive normal guy with a respectable job with the forensic department. But Dexter (for anyone who hasn’t watched the tv show) is constantly battling his “dark passenger” who dreams of death and can only be assuaged by brutal murder and clinical dismemberment. He was adopted as a young boy by a polic More...

Mysteries and Thrillers are often hit-or-miss for me. I have had the good fortune of being recommended a lot of writings from the creme de la creme of this genre by my father, so grew up ingesting PD James, John le Carre, and Dennis Lehane with the pulp sci-fi that was my fare of choice. I have also, at times, been forced to read a James Patterson or John Grisham for lack of any other reading materials. This has given me a broad exposure to what could arguably be called the most popular genre in More...

Dexter is a serial killer, a killer who just can't help himself. He doesn't even see himself as human. But he does have something of a conscience and lives by the Code of Harry, his cop foster father, who understood his nature and sought to help Dexter control it somewhat when he was a teenager. Now a blood spatter analyst for Miami police, he's brought in on gruesome murder cases and a new serial killer in the city has Dexter feeling inspired, flattered and awestruck - and frightened that it's More...

Firstly I have never seen the show. Not once, not a single episode. Over the years I've been told to watch it countless times and then told I have to read the books. Well finally I decided to read one.

While it was a good story it always felt like something was missing. I prefer my crime books to have more truth about them. The whole plot point of the dreaming was honestly annoying. It felt like it was there just because the author couldn't think of a clever way of getting Dexter to the crime sce More...

I read this series of books because I was so taken by the Showtime series. And you know what? I liked the TV show better! The books are good, and it's fun to get "inside the mind" of Dexter, but because the plot of the book follows pretty closely to the first season of the TV show, it was hard not to make comparisons.

Spoilers below, so don't continue reading if you don't want to know what happens!

A few things that I thought the TV show did a lot better was the whole "flirting with another kille More...

The first time that I read this book I was disappointed in it but that was probably not a fair assessment. This book was written two years before the series and the one book encompasses all of the action of the first season. Twelve hours of programming. The team of television writers had the opportunity to take an already interesting story and explore the possibilities more fully.

I feel that many of the novel's weaknesses were corrected in the television series and that the writers and actors d More...

Yeah, yeah, yeah...
so I picked this up because I saw the Showtime series. I admit, I have become a big fan of the show, which is pretty smart and complex, despite its kind of silly premise. AND it's gruesome, which is always good. The book, however, lacks the depth and character development of the show. I suppose that's one thing that television, as a medium, is actually really good at. The book feels a little flip, and a little silly, andeven though it's the first in a series, it doesn't feel l More...

I wager that for people who read the books early on, or before the series, that this book would be more appealing. And while the book version isn't necessarily BAD, I have to say that the writers of the TV series have taken a good premise and interesting character and made it a fascinating series with a lovable character, a true anti-hero.

The characterization of every female in the story is frankly insulting: La Guerta is a trashy idiot hitting on Dexter; Rita is a stuttering simpleton; and Deb More...

Oh how I love darling droll Dexter. Dexter is fluent in sarcasm, which is the language on my home planet, so I really loved this. Can't wait to finish the series. Great writing, fun characters, lots of swearing and subtle wit, this book was written with me in mind, I think.

"Feeling - what authentic human fun!"

"And then more quiet, silence so deep it almost drowned out the roar of the night music that pounded away in my secret self."

"What to wear? I could think of no guidelines on what we were wearing this season to a party forced on you to celebrate an unwanted engagement that might turn into a violent confrontation with a vengeful maniac. Clearly brown shoes were out, but beyond that nothing really seemed de rigueur."

"I'm not sure what I am. I just know there's More...

Like many people I read this book because I am a huge fan of the tv show. All my favorite characters were here and the story is basically the first season of the series.

I have seen movies that were just as good as the books, but here is a case where the show far outstrips the book. The characters are basically the same, but they are better in the show. Dexter is a show where you love the characters in spite of their major flaws. Here every character other than Dexter himself are very uninteresti More...

I simply love Showtime's Dexter. If Dexter the TV show were a book, I'd give it 5 stars. I've held off on reading the books that the show is based on for a while, because I didn't want anything to sully my Dexter-love. Was it possible they could favorably compare?

Luckily, Jeff Lindsay's first Dexter novel is pretty damn charming. Like The Princess Bride, the screen version by its very nature ends up missing a lot of the wonderfulness that's hidden in the narration. I loved the constant use of al More...

Oh Moon, glorious Moon --- Why did'nt I pick this up when it was first released is beyond me!

I love Dexter and his Dark Passenger. His sarcastic wit, his lizard brain, his fake girlfriend and actual love of little kids. His hobby-related career as a blood-splatter analyst by day, and his moonlighting as a killer of killers by night.

Whats not to love?? If you havent read this book (series) yet, you dont know what your missing! I highly recommend this to everyone.

I am ranking this my #2 favorite More...

It really takes talent on the part of any author to take a character that should be unlikable and turn him into a character you like and more importantly, empathize with. Dexter is a sociopath that has urges to kill but thanks to help and love from his family he's channeled his homicidal rage towards the dregs of society (priests that molest children). I was suprised how much I liked this book and what an addictive character Dexter is. I can't wait to pick up more books in this series and tune i More...

Darkly Dreaming Dexter is definitely not a typical "serial killer vs. police" novel. The protagonist, Dexter Morgan, works with the Miami P.D. analyzing blood splatter at crime scenes, and as a result he becomes involved in the city-wide search for a serial killer victimizing area prostitutes. The twist, of course, is that Dexter is a serial killer himself. Not the serial killer currently being hunted by the police, but a serial killer, nonetheless.

In general, I stay away from novels about seri More...

It's always difficult to listen to a book with a tight narrative. It makes me not want to leave my car, so I can keep listening.

I picked this one up based on reviewers' comparisons of it to Dan Wells' I Am Not a Serial Killer. While I can see where a superficial skim of the back blurb might bring about that conclusion, it seems shallow, to me. Yes, there are inevitable comparisons, as serial killers often share many traits. But John Wayne Cleaver and Dexter Morgan are two very different people.

W More...

It's probably impossible by now to not know that Dexter is a serial killer, but just in case you picked up this book without knowing it, the book opens with Dexter picking up his victim, showing him why Dexter picked him up (the evidence of his own killings is laid out before him), and the final killing, all clinically described.

Dexter Morgan is a serial killer who restricts himself to other serial killers. Because he works for the Miami police department as a blood spatter expert, this takes th More...

Darkly Dreaming Dexter is a 2004 novel by Jeff Lindsay. It has formed the basis of the Showtime television series Dexter.
The novel's protagonist, Dexter Morgan, is a young man who works for the Miami Police Department as a forensic blood spatter pattern analyst. In his spare time, Dexter is a serial killer with a catch: he only kills people, always murderers, he believes have escaped from judicial punishment.

Dexter also has an inner voice he refers to as the "Dark Passenger," who keeps prodding More...

Well, I guess everyone has there dirty little secrets. Mine is that I really like this TV show, and when I saw the book I couldn't resist picking it up and reading it. I whipped through it in basically one sitting, about 3 hours, so you know it wasn't the deepest book. Still, it explained a lot about who Dexter is that they can't cram into a weekly 1-hour show. Dexter is the ultimate damaged kid who grows up into a sociopath and becomes a serial killer who only kills people who he knows have kil More...

Well, I watched the TV show first which kind of removes the suspense from the mystery-suspense novel. But I had the book on my shelf for awhile and it needed to be moved from the unred to read pile. One of the biggest problems with reading a book after seeing the television show is that all of the characters are inextricably linked to their television counterparts. I found myself hating the Deb character and I really hated her in the show, but Dexter was amazing in the show and that made me like More...

Leí El Oscuro Pasajero como intermedio de Rant. Llegué al libro por la televisión.

Resulta que existe una serie llamada DEXTER , que ha sido un batacazo para Showtime y ¡yo la amo! Trata sobre un asesino en serie que sólo mata a asesinos en serie que el sistema no atrapa. Recomiendo altamente la serie que ya tiene su segunda temporada, es divina y tiene unas actuaciones supremas, comenzando por Michael C. Hall, el protagonista.

Resulta que la serie para televisión es la adaptación de una trilogía More...

It is hard to say if it is better to read the book and then watch the TV or vice versa. My friend Dinofly recommended me the TV series Dexter as good detective story with hint of deviations, which could make my day little bit darker. The main character and narrator of the story is Dexter Morgan who tried to pass for ordinary guy. He had his job as forensic technician, nice girlfriend and loving sister, however there is one big BUT. Dexter is serial killer with style. He kills easily and with pre More...

This book follows Dexter, a serial killing blood spatter analyst, on his adventures in killing those who 'deserve it'. He researches his victims, who usually consist of people who kill others for the "wrong" reasons. He, especially, doesn't like when the bad guys kill children so he'll stalk them and research them till he is a 100% sure they're guilty and then takes care of them for good. One can't help but root for Dexter as he takes down and destroys the worst of the worst.

This book, the firs More...

Oh! I REALLY enjoyed this book! My fiance and I just finished watching the first season of the television show on Showtime, and I was so excited to learn that it was a book first. It had so much of the cadence of the show - or, rather, I suppose it should be the other way around, but since I saw the show first, Dexter's inner narrative sounds like Michael C. Hall's voice to me... Anyways, the narrative presence is so strong... all in all making this a truly excellent book. And the differences be More...

Generally I'm of the mindset that books are better than books-turned-into-movies-and/or-tv-shows. By reading I can visualize so much more than by watching something on TV which can be flawed by an actor's or director's interpretation. That said, I much prefer Dexter the Showtime Original Series to Darkly Dreaming Dexter.
I watched the whole first season of Dexter and loved it. The storylines are intricate and interesting and the characters well-developed (although I do despise Rita). While shopp More...

What ruined this book for me was the ending. It was too out of the blue and very soap opera-ish. More so than the 'Luke, I am your faaaaatherrrr' drama. I liked where it was going before it ended, to say the least. It was fun to read, really well written, but the ending was a big '... seriously? You went for that?' kind of moment.

Also for anyone who says the TV series is better than the book... you couldn't be more right. The TV series managed to take everything good in this book, and the bad t More...