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Dexter by Design (Dexter #4)

3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 · rating details · 9,932 ratings · 731 reviews

The macabre, witty New York Times bestselling series (and inspiration for the #1 Showtime series, Dexter) continues as our darkly lovable killer matches wits with a sadistic artiste--who is creating bizarre murder tableaux of his own all over Miami.
After his surprisingly glorious honeymoon in Paris, life is almost normal for Dexter Morgan. Married life seems to agree with...more

Hardcover, 1st Edition, 285 pages

Published September 8th 2009 by Doubleday (first published January 1st 2009)

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Jun 05, 2011 Kiri rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, series, reviewed

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I've begun to ask myself why I keep reading these. The first novel was really good. The second was entertaining. Then came the third novel... we'll just forget about that one it was so odd. No I mean it was ODD.

Obviously this is the fourth novel and as the description mentions Dexter is now married and has two lovely step-children. (I'll let you find out why he adores them so on your own) He returns from his honeymoon - complete with observations about Paris done in Dark Deadly Dexter style. We...more I've begun to ask myself why I keep reading these. The first novel was really good. The second was entertaining. Then came the third novel... we'll just forget about that one it was so odd. No I mean it was ODD.

Obviously this is the fourth novel and as the description mentions Dexter is now married and has two lovely step-children. (I'll let you find out why he adores them so on your own) He returns from his honeymoon - complete with observations about Paris done in Dark Deadly Dexter style. We re-encounter most of the repeat characters, and eventually a plot makes itself known. It should have stayed away.. found another novel perhaps.. better yet beat the author about the ears until it was viable and ready to spring upon the readers.

I think - in the interest of character development perhaps? - Dexter tosses aside the "Rule of Harry" yet again and goes off and gets himself into trouble.. again. (seriously at this rate he'll be arrested by the third chapter of the next book.. no one could be that blind) While a worthwhile antagonist is welcome.. (oh please can we have that story. it'd be SUCH fun) the "opponent" in this book doesn't appear to be the adversary who Dexter was cut out to sharpen his skills against. He's also displaying emotions - despite all his comments to the contrary.

Then there is sister Debbie. While it might intended to be an illustrator of his inability to understand emotion, her behavior and treatment of him (and everyone else) has gone utterly over the top. I didn't pick up that his childhood once he joined the Morgan's was abusive - quite the contrary, it has been portrayed as a loving family situation. He also has indicated emotional bond to all his acknowledged family. Deb is not only extremely rude, she's abusive -- emotionally, mentally manipulative, and lightly on the physical side which includes hitting him (although that is always stated as a punch in the arm although he will avoid it because she repeats the action a few times each episode). Even without the ability to experience emotion that he goes on about this is more than obvious. Sometime in book two I began to ask why she hadn't been reprimanded and counseling introduced. By this book I'm asking wtf she hasn't been fired. Aside from the family dynamics I'd have told her where to get off the bus a while back. If her character seemed to be leading to a point I might not be as strident in my opinion, however her sole purpose seems to be to drag Dexter into a case, prove she's utterly unable to do her job - or be a human being, abuse everyone around her while acting as if it is everyone-else's fault, and not least end up in a life threatening situation that puts Dexter and the rest of those closest to her in imminent (and eminent) danger.

That there isn't much development of characters doesn't help. If Lindsey is headed where I think he is going with Dexter & Co. that would greatly help these books and he doesn't need a great deal of exposition to accomplish it.

I've now finished this and the very last line made me laugh - possibly the only real enjoyment of the whole book. I have the last novel and have begun it but unless something drastically changes I probably will not finish it. Oh and if your interested... the beginning for Dexter is interesting, the first word from Deb enough to make me stop reading. (less)

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Jan 20, 2011 Ladiibbug rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

#4 Dexter Morgan (Mild mannered Miami P.D. blood spatter expert by day, serial killer of bad guys by night)

Books in this series are the basis for the Showtime/CBS TV series

1/19/11 Re-read :-)

Original 2008 Review:

BRILLIANT! ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!! Or, since it's Dexter, perhaps I should say Bloody Brilliant. Or Bizarrely Bloody Brilliant ;-)

Dexter and his new wife Rita return from a honeymoon in Paris where they've visited several art venues, from the classic to the truly bizarre. Coincidentally,...more

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Aug 28, 2008 Austin Vines rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Yay! i think im the first person that found the plot after about an hour of searching!!!!! Being a blood spatter analyst who hates the sight of blood has always made Dexter's work for the Miami PD tough. But it means he's very neat when it comes to his out-of-hours hobby: murder. Of course, the fact Dexter only kills bad people helps too.Now Dex is facing a disturbing situation. He's used to blood at work and blood when he's out with the dark passenger (the voice that guides him on his deadly ou...more

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Jan 07, 2010 Syd Perry rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love the Dexter books. Thank you Melissa. Someday I will watch the TV shows. I wish I would've been paying attention when they were on CBS. Not sure I want the full blown Showtime version. Also not sure I'd recommend these books to everyone. There's a lot of bad language (sister Deb has a trash mouth) and Dexter is, after all, a serial killer so there are some gruesome, yet tastefully done, parts.

I've just finished this latest of the Dexter books. Like the leader of the A-Team used to say, I...more

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Apr 26, 2011 Emma Rj rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: free, mystery, horror

Jeff Lindsay seems to be running out of steam. The first two books of this series were amazing. The third was awful. This installment, the fourth, is slightly better than the last.

I love Dexter but a lot of the quick wit and snark that was so prevalent in the first two books seems to be seriously lacking in Dexter By Design. At least the Dark Passenger is back, though. Hoping for a grand finish in the next book.

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Jul 29, 2011 Beverly added it · review of another edition

This particular Dexter book paralleled the third season of Dexter and involved Dexter "making a mistake" in his murders, along with the children being threatened, and the surprise at the end. I have to wonder whether the writer was brought in as a consultant or the book just happened to match the show...or what was going on.
Also, the book reminded me a lot of Alex Cross, which wasn't exactly a good thing. It had the same weird pacing problem, where things happened too quickly or too slowly, and...more

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Feb 23, 2009 Eileen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hmm... I am not quite sure what to make of this. I felt like I was waiting to get into the thick of it but before I knew it, I finished the book - and I don't mean that in a good way. I think it's an improvement over Dexter in the Dark but I still don't think it's as good as the first two books in the series. It lacks that dark, twisted humour that makes the Dexter books such fun, despite the fairly grim subject matter. I know a character needs to evolve and change, but I'm not liking much the n...more

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May 30, 2013 David rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was the last of this series I read. Please remember I started reading these books when 3 were out only because I liked the show. So I read all 3 then this 4th. So please don't judge me...lol...actually I don't care. This was the last I read for a reason. I remember while I was reading this book I had an epiphany...that epiphany was I fucking hate these books...this is not good writing. As I said before it just wasn't entertaining...the plots laughable at this point, corny, the characters we...more

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May 09, 2013 Book Concierge rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: concierge, library, mystery, murder, series, audio

Book on CD narrated by Nick Landrum

Dexter Morgan returns in thriller number 4 in this series featuring a psychopathic serial killer who ONLY goes after the “bad guys.”

I’m tired of the whole “dark passenger” thing flapping his bat wings and silently chucking or salivating with excitement in the background of Dexter’s brain. I really dislike the whole third person reference to himself as “Dexter.” I’m unable to suspend disbelief re his protégés – Amber and Cody, or his wife, Rita. It’s inconsiste...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Donovan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: thriller

I love a good anti-hero...and Dexter serves it up beautifully. This series is simply written and drops a lot of the polish you will often see in other thrillers. Instead, it replaces it with a certain tongue-in-cheek cheesy quality that gives such a dark series a breath of fresh air.
If you like a thriller then you'll find this is one series that you'll fly through.
It's gripping, it's funny, it's a soap opera all wrapped up in a soft doughy package about a psychotic killer.

Plot ***Spoilers***
Dext...more I love a good anti-hero...and Dexter serves it up beautifully. This series is simply written and drops a lot of the polish you will often see in other thrillers. Instead, it replaces it with a certain tongue-in-cheek cheesy quality that gives such a dark series a breath of fresh air.
If you like a thriller then you'll find this is one series that you'll fly through.
It's gripping, it's funny, it's a soap opera all wrapped up in a soft doughy package about a psychotic killer.

Plot ***Spoilers***
Dexter Morgan is a guy who leads a double life. A vigilante serial killer by night and a blood spatter analyst with the Miami Police Department's forensics team by day. Now married to the unsuspecting Rita and on honeymoon in Paris, Dexter is contemplating a return to normality after the events described in Dexter in the Dark. While visiting an art gallery, Dexter and Rita are introduced to the concept of body parts being used as art by an avant-garde performance piece called "Jennifer's Leg" in which the artist amputates her own limb.

On returning home, Dexter finds his relationship with his sister, Deborah Morgan, has become strained since she learned of his murderous pastime at the end of the first book. Deborah is a Sergeant detective in the Miami Police Department's Homicide Unit and is torn between loyalty to her brother and father (who trained Dexter to confine his murderous impulses to other killers, and taught him how to escape detection) and her duty as a policewoman to arrest him.

At work, Dexter is called to investigate a gruesome tableau on a local beach, where a pair of bodies have been mutilated and arranged in a display that parodies the state's tourist trade.

At home, Rita is concerned for her children, Cody and Astor, who appear withdrawn and different from normal children. Dexter, on the other hand, knows that the two are sociopaths and has promised to train them to kill those who "deserve it", as his adoptive father, Harry, trained him. Cody is enrolled as a cub scout, which Rita believes will help him to bond with normal children. Dexter believes it will help him learn how to pretend to be normal.(less)

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Aug 28, 2011 Lisa Ard rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After the sideways turn of the third book, I was pleasantly surprised to find the 4th returned to a more comfortable story line.

Dexter is a forensics specialist with the Miami police department who shares his life with a dark passenger. That internal voice pushes him to the utmost violence. His adopted father coached him to act on these stirrings only against those that deserve it - proven criminals who've escaped justice.

The first two books are campy, dark, yet realistic, with Dexter and his...more

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Aug 13, 2011 Amanda Patterson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dexter and his dark passenger are settling into married life. His wife, Rita feeds him. His step-children, Cody and Astor, are developing into mini-Dexters with disarming ease. His work as a blood spatter analyst is a great cover for his dark side.
Life seems almost perfect for the charming serial killer. When a series of artistically arranged corpses are found decorating the streets of Miami, Dexter's sister, Sergeant Debbie calls on him for help. Debbie, is stabbed by one of the wanna-be artist...more

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Feb 03, 2011 Mur Lafferty rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, horror, read-in-2011

Dexter books are enjoyable, although the characters are pretty one-dimensional, especially compared to the TV show. Debra has one mode in this book- grumpy and swearing. Rita is a vapid waste. Dexter is pretty slow, as the author tries to build up to something, the reader can see it coming and just wishes he'd get on with it. Pacing is slower than I remember in the other books; I really don't need to know about Dexter choosing what parking space to take, or the details about his drinks and the f...more

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Feb 01, 2011 trishtrash rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-fiction-and-mystery, humour-satire-parody

Another adventure for the alliterative annihilator; this one sees Dexter looking rather more confounded and less in control than the other books in the series and suffers for it a bit; maybe Dexter cannot always be expected to be on his game, but this fresh wannabe-nemesis, an artist who likes to sculpt in the flesh, as it were, didn’t seem all that challenging, and yet succeeds in running him in circles. On the positive side, Lindsay still likes to distribute cheerful and disturbing gore over a...more

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Dec 30, 2010 Yolanda Sfetsos rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This is the fourth book in the Dexter Series and like the three before it... I loved it! I constantly find myself cheering for Dexter, and love that fate somehow always manages to get him out of the messy entanglements he gets himself caught up in. How awesome is that? Very awesome. :)

Dexter and Rita are in Paris for their honeymoon. Rita's having a fantastic time, but Dexter's a little bored. But when they visit an alternate-type art performance and witness a horrid act of self-mutilation masqu...more This is the fourth book in the Dexter Series and like the three before it... I loved it! I constantly find myself cheering for Dexter, and love that fate somehow always manages to get him out of the messy entanglements he gets himself caught up in. How awesome is that? Very awesome. :)

Dexter and Rita are in Paris for their honeymoon. Rita's having a fantastic time, but Dexter's a little bored. But when they visit an alternate-type art performance and witness a horrid act of self-mutilation masquerading as art, at least his holiday ends on a macabre note. And when they get back to Miami, Dexter finds himself in the middle of multiple artistic murders. A very sick individual is killing people in Miami and then displaying the corpses in public places like horrid platters/advertisements for everyone to see.

Partnering up with his sister Deborah, the two slowly narrow down the possibilities. However, when Deborah gets stabbed and ends up seriously injured in the hospital, Dexter decides to take care of the culprit with his own brand of justice. Yet, he didn't count on anyone watching him, and then becomes the target of a very sick killer. Now, Dexter's family's not safe and his biggest secret is at risk of being exposed.

Dexter By Design is the latest - and very awesome - installment of Jeff Lindsay's brilliant Dexter books. It's a rollercoaster ride that takes us outside of Miami and then back again. It focuses on a very bizarre and unusual crime, while still developing Dexter's relationship with his sister, wife, and those few who start to suspect him of wrongdoing.

Also, the dark humour I've grown to love is still in this book - I especially laughed at a very twisted but hilarious jingle written to fit The Brady Bunch theme song. In spite of all the darkness, murder and mayhem going on around Dexter, his voice never falters to be entertaining and logical. Dexter might consider himself to be a monster, but he's so much more complex than that.

I can't stop raving about these books. They've become some of my favourites.(less)

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Sep 28, 2010 Steve rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-thriller

My eldest brother really likes the show, and character/story line of 'Dexter'. So when I saw this book in a bookstore I bought it, along with two others for his birthday. I also bought myself a copy ;)

I'd only seen one episode of the show (I really don't watch much t.v.), so I only had a brief idea what Dexter was about - A controlled, but deranged, killer who works as a blood splatter expert for the police and kills other deranged killers. An interesting and slightly original twist to your usua...more

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Aug 30, 2010 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

These are very very light popcorn reads, and enjoyable, but even so, there are some traits about them that are a bit..annoying. Maybe the plot devices wouldn't so obvious if you read the books spread out, but reading them in quick succession - the plot devices become clear that they are making up for either just really lazy or really bad writing.

For one, why is Dexter being allowed to stick his nose into all these cases where these is no blood, much less spatter, and it is therefore clearly not...more These are very very light popcorn reads, and enjoyable, but even so, there are some traits about them that are a bit..annoying. Maybe the plot devices wouldn't so obvious if you read the books spread out, but reading them in quick succession - the plot devices become clear that they are making up for either just really lazy or really bad writing.

For one, why is Dexter being allowed to stick his nose into all these cases where these is no blood, much less spatter, and it is therefore clearly not his job? In any other police department, his sister would have been told to stop wasting manpower can keep other department's personnel the hell out of things they don't have any business doing.

The whole "lets have the criminal du jour take out Dexters' latest and greatest foe" was sort of ok in the first novel (if badly done). In the second one, it was just "Oh, really, again?" But really, when it just keeps happening? Seriously? They can't come up with any other way to get rid of these pesky people? Lazy, lazy, lazy!

The whole idea of having the badly maimed police office stalking around the department is....laughable at best and really bad plot device. What is he supposed to be anyway? Dexter's conscience, personified? Oh gods. Please. The only sub-plot that makes sense there is that he is blackmailing someone in the department.

Oh god - and his sister. This whole pang of conscience thing I can understand - I mean accepting your brother is a serial killer is tough enough, much less trying to understand your father helped get him there. But then to suddenly flip and say "dude, go kill for me?" *snort* At least Harry had a lifetime to understand why some people at least need to die.

And as a serial killer, Dexter sort of sucks. I mean, in the first book, it took him watching another killer to realize that dumping bodies in the ocean was a good way to get rid of them - which rather begs the question of what the hell did he do with the 36 bodies of his earlier victims! And he hates blood! So he cuts up his bodies and becomes a blood splatter analyst! How does that even make sense? (less)

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Apr 15, 2010 Travis rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-mystery

I am off to a lumbering start to my 2010 reading but going back to the well of crime fiction, Jeff Lindsay and Dexter was just what I needed to gain momentum. This was a quick and enjoyable read like Lidsay's previous novels and had some great moments of suspense that had me putting the book down only when I absolutely had to. I like all of the Dexter books but considering that Dearly Devoted Dexter is still my favorite I will use that as my barometer and Dexter by Design is the closest to it. D...more

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Dec 17, 2009 paula rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Jeff Lindsay must have been sweating sticky burrs waiting to see how this book would be received. Of course, the three previous Dexter books had done very well, so well that somebody went and gone and made it into a TV series, a CABLE TV series, complete with butts and the eff-word and everything. But now... will even Jeff Lindsay's dearly devoted fans prefer the original article - Book Dexter - or will they be so used to C. Thomas Hall's Dexter (or Anthony Michael Howell or is it Philip Michell...more

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Nov 30, 2009 Acote rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Dexter by Design Review

Dexter by Design is the fourth book in the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay; fans of the first two novels will find this book much better than the third title Dexter in the Dark because it has a little more realism as it does not focus in a ritual involving the supernatural.
Dexter Morgan, the blood spatter analyst at the Miami police department is trying to help his sister Deborah catch the criminal leaving macabre works of art, made out of dead bodies, around Miami. Dexte...more

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Oct 03, 2009 Mark rated it 3 of 5 stars

As much as I love Dexter and Jeff Lindsay's work, I have to say that I'm starting to love the shows more. Book 3 (Dexter in the Dark) really took a downward turn for the series in my mind, and Dexter By Design seems to try and remedy that. Dexter is more or less back to being darkly disturbing and macabre Dexter, but Lindsay is trying to develop him in ways that show him maturing as a parent (and person!) and more or less reversing roles by sitting on the sideline. He's no longer the nonchalant...more

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Sep 20, 2009 Tim Niland rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009-reads

Dexter the television show has gotten so popular that many people do not realize that it began with a book series. The fourth book in the series finds the newly married Dexter helping his sister, a Miami cop, attempt to find the person who is elegantly posing corpses all over the city and understandably driving the tourist bureau to hysterics. After his sister is attacked and nearly murdered, Dexter and his "Dark Passenger" go on the hunt to find the attacker who has also set his sights on Dexte...more

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Sep 19, 2009 Jack rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This has enough of the entertainment value of a Dexter book to be worthwhile, but a lot of the dark fun of a first person sociopath's narration was missing, in part because Dexter doesn't really get to ply his trade in this book. Lindsay is leaning more towards the cat and mouse/nemesis plotlines that also permeate earlier books, but part of the fun was how quotidian murder used to be for dexter, as much a part of his routine as going to the gym, and accompanied by wonderfully detached observati...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Marianne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dexter by Design is the 4th of the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay. After his honeymoon in Paris, where a bizarre limb-mutilating art installation had Rita awed and Dexter intrigued, Dexter is back at work in Miami. As Sergeant Debbie drags him along to investigate the suspects linked to four bodies displayed in macabre fashion (maybe like an art installation?), she begins to confront the dilemma of her position as an agent of the law in regard to Dexter’s hobby. But before she can decide to arres...more

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Mar 07, 2011 Samantha rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The good news is, it's better than Dexter in the Dark. The bad news is, it's not that much better. The mythology angle is gone, never to return, and that, for me, was enough to make it three stars rather than two. The characters-who-aren't-Dexter are even less interesting: Rita never had very much in the novels, but she is less of a non-person than a sexist caricature of womanhood. It's a bit distracting, frankly, to see an author try so hard to hit every single point of stereotype. The only pos...more The good news is, it's better than Dexter in the Dark. The bad news is, it's not that much better. The mythology angle is gone, never to return, and that, for me, was enough to make it three stars rather than two. The characters-who-aren't-Dexter are even less interesting: Rita never had very much in the novels, but she is less of a non-person than a sexist caricature of womanhood. It's a bit distracting, frankly, to see an author try so hard to hit every single point of stereotype. The only positive points of characterization in these are Cody and Astor, who have the potential to become quite interesting indeed, and the primary antagonist of the novel, who is the first villain in the series to have real, understandable motivations and, as such, a small measure of sympathy from the audience. (view spoiler)

Jeff Lindsay has wrote only four other fiction books apart from the Dexter series, and all of those share co-author credit with Hilary Hemingway, his wife and daughter of Ernest Hemingway. I have not read those other books, all of them written in the 90's, but they clearly were not enough practice to give him good craft, especially for mysteries. Authors who are new to that genre underestimate its difficulties. Foreshadow without giving everything away. Don't let your reader figure everything out far ahead of your protagonist, but don't leave them drowning without a clue until the end as to who done it.

Lindsay shows the frayed edges of his craft in his other novels, but here his inexperience is most apparent: spending hundreds of pages waiting for the protagonist to figure out what was blatantly foreshadowed in the first chapter could only be more agonizing if the book weren't so short. Though it took over half the book for Dull Dexter to arrive at the obvious motivation for the killers, that's only an hour or two of actual reading with a Dexter novel. These things take only a single afternoon of focused, dedicated reading, and as such these novels are like a bag of chips: not really all that great, but it hits the spot and it's done and over with soon enough.

This book is only suitable for those people who must know what happens to Dexter as the series continues, and I have rated it accordingly for those readers. As mystery, there are better-crafted books to spend one's hours with. As a Dexter novel, it's about average. By the time you get to #4 in the series, you know what a Dexter novel has to offer, and if you read accordingly, you will have an experience no better and no worse than you expect. Perhaps not the highest praise, but when you're outwritten by a bunch of TV screenwriters scripting by committee, maybe adulatory fans shouldn't be your expected reward.(less)

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Jan 26, 2011 Aaron Geno rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of books 1-3

Shelves: 1990-to-present, dark-thriller-mystery

I've only read through this book; I have not (yet) read Dexter is Delicious. To this point, book 3 (Dexter in the Dark) is the high point. [Book: Dexter by Design] is very good, but it lacks some of that undefinable quality of the first three.

Spoilers below (book and show)
(view spoiler)...more

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May 20, 2010 Linda I rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: jeff-lindsay, dark-humor

Another great story in the life of Dexter Morgan, the enigmatic serial killer of Miami. As in the previous books, Dexter encounters danger to himself and his family in the form of another killer hell-bent on revenge. Dexter and Rita, while on their honeymoon in Paris, encounter a gruesome new type of art involving the removal of human limbs. And, synchronistically, when they arrive back to Miami a new killer has begun making artwork out of the corpses of tourists. Yet, while investigating this n...more

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Nov 09, 2009 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-suspense

Ahh...much better. I was surprised when I looked back at my Goodreads and gave book #3 such a positive review, as I don't remember it being particularly great (and it kind of went off the rails with a cult plot near the end), but i think it's just attributable to Lindsay's clever writing. But his 4th book was a return to form...gets back a little to Dexter's origins of how he became Harry's pupil and an excellent serial killer, it puts Dexter off his game with his Dark Passenger, it makes his fa...more

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Feb 14, 2011 Crystal rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: murder-mysteries

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 21, 2009 Mike rated it 1 of 5 stars

Dull, disappointing Dexter... but at least it was better than the last one. After a very promising start, Lindsay has apparently ran out of steam with his brilliantly conceived title character, Dexter. "Dexter by Design" features a hackneyed plot, full of predictable perils and plenty of deus-ex-machina moments. I know, it seems silly to use this word when describing a story about a psychopathic serial killer who hunts down and kills criminals while maintaining his alter ego as a blood spatter a...more

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About Jeff Lindsay

Jeff Lindsay is the pen name of an American crime writer, Jeffry P. Freundlich, who lives in Cape Coral, Florida with his wife, author Hilary Hemingway, daughter of Leicester Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway's brother.

Lindsay is best known for writing the Dexter series of novels. Many of his earlier published works include his wife as a co-author. Time Blender was written with Michael Dorn. He graduat...more

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Quotes from Dexter By Design

“Detective, I don't know where the boyfriend is, really," I said. And it was true, considering tide, current, and the habits of marine scavengers. -Dexter” — 23 people liked it

“I don't know if you have noticed this, but it is quite possible for two human beings to have a conversation in which one or both parties involved has absolutely no idea what they're talking about.” — 17 people liked it

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title link	preview: Dexter by Design
avg rating	preview: Dexter by Design Goodreads rating: 3.70 (9932 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5742276-dexter-by-design?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320445527l/5742276.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5742276-dexter-by-design?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay[/url]

Dexter by Design (Dexter #4)

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