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Jun 12, 2011

Kiri rated it:

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 20, 2011

Ladiibbug rated it:

#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 More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Aug 28, 2008

Austin rated it:

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 dead More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 02, 2010

Syd rated it:

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 use More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 26, 2011

Emma rated it:

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.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 29, 2011

Beverly added it

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 sl More...

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Feb 23, 2009

Eileen rated it:

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...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Aug 28, 2011

Lisa rated it:

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, More...

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Aug 13, 2011

Amanda rated it:

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 a More...

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Feb 03, 2011

Mur rated it:

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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 01, 2011

trishtrash rated it:

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 More...

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Dec 30, 2010

Yolanda rated it:

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Sep 28, 2010

Steve rated it:

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 More...

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Aug 30, 2010

Sammy rated it:

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 More...

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Apr 15, 2010

Travis rated it:

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. More...

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Dec 17, 2009

your neighborhood librarian rated it:

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0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2009

Acote rated it:

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Oct 03, 2009

Mark rated it:

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 nonchalan More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 20, 2009

Tim rated it:

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 sight More...

1 comment like

Sep 19, 2009

Jack rated it:

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2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2012

Marianne rated it:

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:

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...

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Jan 26, 2011

Aaron rated it:

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. Dexter by Design is very good, but it lacks some of that undefinable quality of the first three.

Spoilers below (book and show)
<spoiler>I'm not really feeling the whole Doakes thing; I think the show had the right idea in killing him off completely. His presence here is almost a sort of dark comic relief, and it doesn't play well or More...

1 comment like

May 20, 2010

Linda rated it:

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:

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 More...

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Feb 14, 2011

Crystal rated it:

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Nov 21, 2009

Mike rated it:

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 bloo More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 14, 2009

Lightreads rated it:

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 li More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 04, 2009

Jonathan rated it:

much better than dexter in the dark. but still not back on top form.
the whole supernatural thing has been pushed aside and now dex is back to his old self. only hes not.
it seems he spends the entire book complaining about one thing or annother. usually at the fact his brain isn't working like it used to. i think i read 'my once formidable brain now reduced to mush' (paraphrased) about 30 times.
i don't know whether its that he hasen't killed in so long that his smarts have ran a More...

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Dec 25, 2010

Phill rated it:

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