A Dark Turn

I recently finished reading the third book of the Dexter series by author Jeff Lindsay. Dexter in the Dark picks up where the previous book left off, which is to say in the book universe that is increasingly divergent from the TV series.

This third book has a very interesting idea at the core of it, one which might be worth exploring in the show at some point. Dexter comes into contact with a much more dark and sinister force than his own "Dark Passenger," and his darkness is essentially frightened away. Dexter finds himself without the urge to kill or skills to do it, and suffers a profound loss of personal identity without this thing by which his entire life has been defined.

The problem with with the book is... well... just about everything else. For starters, the way the author comes at this problem is to essentially define the Dark Passenger as an actual otherworldly force, not just a darkness within Dexter, but as some actual form of demonic possession. For all the flaws of Dexter's sixth season, it at least did a much more interesting job of exploring religion and the nature of the soul.

The book also suffers for some of the details the author isn't willing to just let go of from the previous book. Deb, for example, is still dating the federal agent she met in book two, who has been left emotionally and physically crippled by the events of that book. It might be an interesting character exploration on its own, except that Dexter books are narrated by Dexter himself, and so there isn't really a good way to access meaningful stories about the personal lives of other characters.

There's also the character of Sergeant Doakes. He was absolutely a highlight of the series, and the books as well. And in book two, like in season two, the story of Doakes came to a close. A different one, but an end all the same. Except that now, in book three, it turns out it wasn't the end. Doakes returns in book three, and serves absolutely no narrative purpose in doing so. He appears in two brief scenes, and seems like he might yet somehow prove to be a nemesis for Dexter... but the story never goes anywhere, and the book ends with absolutely no resolution, temporary or otherwise, on the matter of Doakes.

The matter of Rita's kids, Cody and Astor, is also continued from book two, to greater effect, though the book doesn't reach much resolution on that either. This was the thing I was most looking forward to from book two, and I feel like I only got a taste of what I was waiting for here.

And then there was the actual writing technique itself. It was fairly sloppy work. First, Jeff Lindsay violated the "rules" of his own universe by having chunks of the book pull out of first person Dexter narrative to provide a third person perspective of the darker force stalking him. It was a transparent way of injecting suspense. Meanwhile, the actual Dexter chapters were often repetitive. The intially compelling idea of a Dexter without his Dark Passenger soon becomes tedious, as he spends chapter after chapter mulling over his predicament using exactly the same language and drawing exactly the same possible conclusions.

So in the end, my journey through the Dexter books may be over. There are more books after Dexter in the Dark, but I found this one too big a disappointment to be eager to read the next one. The character of Dexter is in much better hands with the writing staff of the series rather than the author who created him -- I say that with conviction even despite the bizarre missteps of the season that just concluded. Dexter in the Dark gets about a D+ in my estimation.