Legal Research

Law Library Staff Recommend...

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An occasional feature, "Law Library Staff Recommend..." highlights books that Law Library staff members have read for enjoyment and now recommend that others consider for inclusion on their own reading lists. If you have any comments or questions about any of the titles presented in this feature, feel free to email lawlib@umn.edu or stop by the library. Today we highlight the Dexter books by Jeff Lindsay.

One Law Library staff member is reading Jeff Lindsay's "Dexter" books. The books have been made into a TV series ("Dexter") on Showtime (and a sanitized version on CBS). The main character, Dexter Morgan, is a police forensic expert for Miami PD, but in his spare time, Dexter is a serial killer. Trained by his late adopted father (also a cop), he kills those who have escaped being properly prosecuted by the criminal justice system. He can sense who these people are, gathers enough evidence to satisfy his inner moral code, and then kills them. Since he is a blood spatter expert, his kills are very clean, and he finds the details of murder scenes exquisite riddles to solve.

The books also feature Dexter's adopted sister Deborah, another cop, and Dexter's attempt at a double life that is what he considers "human" or "normal." He dates Rita and bonds with her two children, who, like him, have been victims of brutal crime as children. In them, he sees himself and takes it upon himself to mentor them in the fine art of vigilantism. These books are oddly humorous in a dark and clever way.

Lindsay has three Dexter books in print, with another arriving this fall:
Darkly Dreaming Dexter (2004)
Dearly Devoted Dexter (2005)
Dexter in the Dark (2007)
Dexter By Design (2008)

http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/dexter/ includes info about the author, book excerpts and summaries, and news.

Full post as published by LexLibris on July 07, 2008 (boomark / email).