The Unkindest Cut
Darkly Dreaming Dexter
by
Jeff Lindsay

Dexter Morgan is a serial killer. It's something which he can't control. When the full moon is out, he is driven by a hunger to kill, spurred on by an unseen force he calls his Dark Passenger. He enjoys his kills, deriving ecstasy from a perfectly performed murder, slowly fileting his victims while they're still alive, leaving no blood behind. He keeps one drop of blood from his victims so that he can relive the thrill of their murder at any time. DexterMorgan is also the hero in Darkly Dreaming Dexter.

Using a serial killer as the hero is an intriguing twist employed by Jeff Lindsay, and it mostly works. Told in first-person narration by Dexter, he's an interesting and funny tour guide through his life and the inner demon he can't control. He was raised by a foster father, a cop who could tell what lived deep inside Dexter. He taught Dexter two important things: to kill only those who deserved to die and how to leave no evidence behind that would tie him to the crime. Dexter seeks out those who are also driven by an inner evil to victimize others. The novel opens with him dispatching a priest who had murdered orphaned children.

Dexter doesn't consider himself human, but he's developed human-like qualities to provide a cover for who, or what, he really is. There is a woman he dates platonically. He knows how to be charming without any sincerity behind it. He works as a blood splatter specialist for the Miami Police Department. He cares for his foster sister, Deborah, also a cop, but Dexter finds himself incapable of love. That would require him to be human. Dexter sees the dark side of every person and society at large, and almost revels in it. This allows him to deliver his story with a style that is a combination of wry sense of humor and detachment from human emotion.

Published by Doubleday Review by W. R. Greer Disponível em: http://www.reviewsofbooks.com/darkly_dreaming_dexter/review/

“Dexter sees the dark side of every person and society at large, and almost revels in it.” Esta passagem atribui ao personagem um caráter de :