Lights. Camera. Murder. The Dexter series continues with a wild ride through Hollywood. • The Killer Character That Inspired the Hit Showtime Series Dexter Mega-star Robert Chase is famous for losing himself in his characters. When he and a group of actors descend on the Miami Police Department for “research,” Chase becomes fixated on Dexter Morgan, the blood spatter analyst with a sweet tooth … spatter analyst with a sweet tooth and seemingly average life. Chase shadows Dexter’s every move, trying to learn what makes him tick. However, Dexter’s favorite pastime of hunting down the worst killers who’ve escaped legal prosecution—and introducing them to his special brand of justice—presents, well, a bit of a problem. It’s a secret best kept out of the spotlight if Dexter wants to stay out of the electric chair, but even Dexter isn’t immune to the call of fame….
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Dexter tastes the good life as a bodyguard for a beautiful TV star. But a psychotic killer is after her and only Dexter and Deborah stand between Jackie and him. Very humorous dialog for such a dark story as Dexter’s Passenger awakes and joins the party. This story is a twofer as Dexter takes care of one monster only to find another needs “correction” though he doesn’t know who it is. We see a whole new aspect of Dexter, a carnal, emotional side he’s never acknowledged or exhibited before. And an incompetent, bungling Dexter so unlike his suave, monster persona. It’s another darkly humorous story in Jeff Lindsay’s inimitable style.
It didn’t make any sense to me why Dexter would be a bodyguard to an actress. Then after reading on, I figured that Dexter is comparing himself to an actor. He is playing a part of a normal human being, while struggling to keep hidden & sustain his true & murderous lifestyle.
Later I am further troubled cause it seems that Dexter has changed his mind on what he wants. Is he willing to give up his family/cover to live the life of luxury as a celebrity?
Does his Dark Passenger have what it takes to guard someone’s body? Other than the indecisiveness, I found the murder-on-a-movie-set predictable. However the ending is shocking & left me unsettled & wanting the next book Right Now!
Dexter may be a dark and twisted serial killer, but what has made this series so compelling is that we as readers understand and connect with him on a very base level. This handsome and charming, yet inwardly awkward and oddly asexual, man intrigues us. We want to know what makes him tick, to hear what his sometimes-witty-sometimes-sinister inner voice reveals, because we see just a bit of him in ourselves.
Not so in this novel.
This time Dark, Darling Dexter displays all the immaturity, impulsiveness, immorality and shallowness of a fourteen year old hormone-imbalanced boy. He is a wholly unlikable douchebag, though for what it’s worth there isn’t a single likable character in the bunch. The recurring characters seem to have become caricatures of themselves: Rita stammers and achieves ludicrous levels of bubbleheadedness, Astor is Satan’s seething teen daughter, Cody’s personality has all but dissolved into nothingness, Debra is f***ing background noise, etc.
Even the plot seems formulaic, practically tedious, this time around. Everything is flat at best, annoying and cloying at worst. There are glimpses of decent writing — nothing bordering on the garish grammar and awkward writing you may see in a one-star indie novel — but I can’t give this book more than two stars, and only then to acknowledge the decent polish from an experienced writer. The novel, overall, pretty much sucked.
A light bulb came on in my head when Dexter admitted at one point that his predicament resembled an “absurd teen fantasy”. Indeed. I concur.
If Dexter’s Final Cut is supposed to wrap things up, I wholeheartedly agree it’s time to stop beating this dead, bloated and rotting horse, and move on.
As an aside, and to make matters worse, I listened to the Audible.com version, which once again, was tragically read by the author. Whatever happened to Nick Landrum, the guy who read the first few in the series? He gave Dexter a superbly intriguing and potent voice! The author, on the other hand, has been panned repeatedly for his dweeby, flimsy, breathy and weak readings, yet he keeps on keeping on, in this case hurling an otherwise barely mediocre book to the jagged rocks below.
This is sick. Do not buy. you will be very disappointed