Book Review: Dexter Omnibus by Jeff Lindsay (Crime Thriller)

Title: Dexter Omnibus
Author: Jeff Lindsay
Publisher: Orion
Publication Date: 2008
Pages: 577
Format: Paperback
Genre: Crime Thriller
Source: Borrowed Copy

Darkly Dreaming Dexter: Dexter Morgan can't stand the sight of blood. Which makes his job as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami PD a little tricky. But it means that he's very tidy when it comes to his hobby: murder. After all, even though Dexter only ever kills bad people, he doesn't want to draw attention to it. But now there's another killer out there who's being a whole lot less subtle...

Dearly Devoted Dexter: Miami's best-dressed serial killer is getting twitchy - he hasn't killed for months. Ever since their paths first crossed, Sergeant Doakes hasn't let Dexter Morgan out of his sight. Then a body turns up, mutilated and barely alive. To trap the torturer, Doakes and Dexter will have to work together, if they can trust each other. It's a devil's pact and one of them will have to be the bait.

Dexter in the Dark: When Dexter is brought in to analyse a charred headless cause, it seems he's dealing with a killer even more sinister than he is, and one with a personal interest in him. And with Dexter now having a family to protect, the stakes are high. As he realises his step-children might share his blood-lust, if he's ever to help them target it, Dexter will first have to stay alive himself.

 

Overall, I enjoyed the Dexter Omnibus. I had watched a little of the first couple of seasons of the TV series, so the events in the first story were familiar to me. I enjoyed Lindsay's first-person prose, which really made me relate to Dexter right from the start. By the third book, the plot was heading out of a standard crime-thriller to dip its toes into fantasy, but I didn't mind that and thought it worked well for that storyline. I have some other books to read now, but I probably will look to read more in the series in the future. Recommended if you like crime-thrillers on the darker and gorier side, as well as morally grey lead characters. It gets 4 stars from me.