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 did a great job.

While I still prefer the version that made it to television, this casts that story into an interesting light. I quess I like Dexter as more of a mystery as he is in the TV series. Here we see even more of his thoughts than those disclosed in the series by his voice-overs. It's a great feature of the television show but it may have been overdone in the original novel.

It is a good read but be prepared, it is in several significant ways different than the series.