| | |  | | Home » Dexter by Design: A Novel | | | | | | | Description: | | The “Dexter” series—bestselling books, acclaimed TV show, worldwide phenomenon—continues with Dexter’s deadliest case yet.
After his surprisingly glorious honeymoon in Paris, life is almost normal for Dexter Morgan. Married life seems to agree with him: he’s devoted to his bride, his stomach is full, and his homicidal hobbies are nicely under control. But old habits die hard—and Dexter’s work as a blood spatter analyst never fails to offer new temptations that appeal to his offbeat sense of justice. Not to mention that his Dark Passenger still waits to hunt with him in the moonlight. The discovery of a corpse (artfully displayed as a sunbather relaxing on a Miami beach chair) naturally piques Dexter’s curiosity and Miami’s finest realize they’ve got a terrifying new serial killer on the loose. And Dexter, of course, is back in business. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Jeff Lindsay | | Paperback:
| 304 pages | | Publisher:
| Vintage | | Publication Date:
| August 24, 2010 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0307276740 | | Product Length:
| 5.17 inches | | Product Width:
| 0.64 inches | | Product Height:
| 8.01 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.5 pounds | | Package Length:
| 7.9 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.1 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.8 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.45 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
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| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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41 of 45 found the following review helpful:
 Diabolically, delicious, DexterSep 08, 2009
By Nicole Del Sesto
Yummy.
I think fans of the first two Dexter books, but not so much the third, will be happy with this book. Not ecstatic, but happy.
Dexter has just gotten married, and by the time he gets home from his honeymoon, his dark passenger is rearing to go. He seems to be playing a little more fast and loose with the code of Harry and we see a bit of cat and mouse in this book, and I was somewhat reminded of book one.
I'm generally happy with whatever form of Dexter I can get (I even liked book three) so I was entertained. A few things grated on me a bit, however. The book lacked the humor of the first three, perhaps the novelty has worn off, but mostly I think Lindsay beat the horse dead on both Miami traffic, and Dexter's supposed lack of emotion. If Dexter had no emotion, he'd be a dull character nobody liked. So to be reminded like 100 times during the book that he doesn't have emotions, was overkill (ha!). Dexter might not be "human" but he definitely has strong feelings about things. (Food, justice, Doakes, himself, etc.)
I don't know if I have "book Rita" confused with "TV Rita", so I may have this wrong, but the minute they got married, she seemed to turn into this unlikeable simpering character. And finally, there were several times where I declared "That would never happen." So all in all, I enjoyed it, I was entertained, I love Dexter, but it was a tinge flawed.
Dexter the television show is among my favorites on TV. They've done a phenomenal job with the character, and all the characters on the show really. I give Lindsay all the credit in the world for having created this magnificently loveable serial killer, but for me, the television shows have surpassed the books. In spite of that, I definitely plan to keep reading the books.
24 of 29 found the following review helpful:
 Dreadfully Dull DexterOct 21, 2009
By Steven Diamond
"Elitist Book Reviews"
There is only one thing worse than Lindsay taking his series in a completely un-foreshadowed direction (DEXTER IN THE DARK), and that is going back to the way it was before without even a comment. The situation is like the terrible ending of the novel SPHERE by Michael Crichton. (Let's all hold hands and say it NEVER happened! Wee! Horrible. Just horrible.) Simply put, going back to the "status quo" made DEXTER BY DESIGN...boring and predictable. Those are two words the Dexter novels should never be associated with.
Let's start at the beginning. Dexter and Rita are married and on their honeymoon in Paris--hooray for them. They go to the Louvre and make comments on how the "Mona Lisa" is overrated. (As an aside, I felt the same way when I visited the "Mona Lisa" display in the Louvre. You know what the "Mona Lisa" is mysteriously smiling about? The fact that she duped everyone into thinking the tiny painting was worth looking at.) The newly-married couple then go to an "exhibit" of one of those "artists" that hack into themselves and call it art. It was pure shock-value writing used to set up the displays of death that would be there to greet Dexter when he returned to Miami--but there is no connection between the "art" in Paris and the displays in Miami other than "Hey, the bodies are gonna be like THIS!" It was heavy-handed, coincidental, and tasteless.
And then we get to the formula. Dexter goes home to Miami. Dexter sees a body at a crime-scene. It intrigues him. His sister, predictably, runs around screaming like a foul-mouthed banshee while accomplishing, exactly, nothing. Rita bursts into tears every four chapters or so. With five pages left, like usual, Lindsay wraps everything up as quickly and as rushed as possible. The end.
Seriously, the formula has gotten old, but I didn't realize it until reading this novel. But you know what really bothers me about these novels now? The lack of character development. This is where the TV show has pulled ahead of the novels. In the show, the characters have been growing and learning over the course of three and a half seasons. The novels? No change. Deborah is the same as she was from sentence number one in the first novel. Same with Rita. The other side characters? They may as well be cardboard cut-outs. Dexter can only carry the novels by himself for so long. There comes a point where the other characters need to exert some influence on Dexter and the flow of the novels. After all, isn't a PoV character also a product of the side-characters? This is what the Showtime series realized after their Season 1, and it's why it has been enjoyable and fresh from season to season.
The whole reason the Dexter novels were successful is because they were so different. With Lindsay following an easily discernible formula, that differentiating factor has been neutralized. I want Lindsay to get these novels back on track...really, I do. He (Lindsay) needs to do something different without resorting to stupidity-inducing shock value. Do I think he will come up with something original to freshen up the series? No, because he poorly executed his "brilliant" plan in book 3 and panicked by going back to the standard formula in book 4. Also, in DEXTER BY DESIGN, Lindsay took some of the filler plot-lines from the TV show and used them as "new stuff" in the book. I figure he will soon continue this trend and have the fifth book follow the Second Season of the TV show where Dexter is covering his tracks from an FBI agent. At this point, Dexter feels like a paycheck generator.
DEXTER BY DESIGN is nothing more than a terribly mediocre entry into the series, and the genre.
For a slightly more detailed review, head over to my blog, Elitist Book Reviews.
11 of 12 found the following review helpful:
Dark and Dismal DexterSep 08, 2009
By E. A Solinas
"ea_solinas"
The infamous Dexter Morgan is now married and settled down... but of course, that hasn't really changed anything inside him. Or has it?
And "Dexter By Design" is a solid fourth entry in Jeff Lindsay's thriller series, about a serial killer who focuses his efforts on serial killers. While there's still a bit too much focus on Dexter's new home life and stepkids, Lindsay still laces the story plenty of incisive wit, weird and grotesque serial killings, and a general aura of overhanging darkness. And coq au vin, occasionally.
After a brief and mostly idyllic (except for some gruesome performance art) honeymoon in Paris, Dexter has returned to Miami as a devoted husband and family man, yada yada. He also returns just in time for a string of gruesome new murders: four people who are eviscerated, filled with weird stuff (fruit and sunscreen, among other things), and artfully arranged. When it causes a media storm, a reluctant Deb asks Dexter to please help her out with the investigation.
His own experiences (and the Dark Passenger) tell Dexter that this isn't an ordinary serial killer, but someone who seems to have a strange grudge against the tourist trade of Miami. Or something like that. Whatever But things get far more personal for our soulless anti-hero when Deb is viciously stabbed, and Dexter's killing of the serial killer only end up causing more trouble... because he got the wrong guy. The next murder is someone close to his family, and Dexter ends up on a race against time to keep them from being the next round of victims.
"Dexter By Design" is neither the best nor the worst of the Dexter series -- while it's better than the story that precedes it, it's not quite up to the brilliance of the first couple books. But it's a fairly solid thriller story taken on its own merits, laced with Jeff Lindsay's dark wit and macabre goings-on (as well as some bizarre new problems associated with being a stepdad -- such as the whole "poop van" scenario).
Lindsay juggles and eventually intertwines the two different sides of Dexter's bizarre life, in a style that mingles tongue-in-cheek wit with a sort of mellow sociopathy. He has a knack for weird descriptions (at one point Deborah looks like "a large and very angry fish, all teeth and wide eyes"), and Dexter's cool internal observations glide through the increasingly frenzied plot like a swathe of black silk ("... while the rest of the world went on its merry way, killing and brutalizing each other without me").
The most pressing flaw? Well, the first half's focus on Dexter's new family is a bit on the dull side, primarily because we're told rather than shown that Astor and Cody are disturbed kids. Fortunately Lindsay seems to realize this (as does Dexter) and things start smoothing out after that, with criminal investigations, kidnappings, revenge and ghastly performance art.
But the fascinating aspect of this book is Dexter himself -- he claims to be soulless and feel nothing, like a demon made flesh, and the Dark Passenger still revels in death and pain. But he seems to be developing some personal feelings for his new stepchildren ("I had a large and wonderful responsibility in taking charge of these two and keeping them safely on the Harry Path") and his distrustful sister Deborah, and even the flickerings of an embyronic conscience. These developments trouble and confuse him, while changing him enough that the character doesn't stagnate.
While not the best of the Dexter series, "Dexter By Design" is an interesting thriller that pushes his bloodstained anti-hero into some intriguing new dilemmas. Worth reading if you've enjoyed what came before it.
12 of 15 found the following review helpful:
 A real disappointmentSep 14, 2009
By Eric G. Pollinger
I can only assume that some of the more positive reviews for this book are from people who have yet to read it.
** Spoiler Alert **
I am a big fan of the books and TV show but this is easily the weakest of the books. Here Dexter is more of a fumbling idiot than the homicidal genius we're so used to. He is outsmarted at almost every turn and is really just a spectator at the books climax. His trip to Cuba (which could have been a good twist) just fizzles and we left with him just.. well him leaving the country and going back to work to 'wait to see what happens'. His only kill in the book is an unplanned, spur of the moment act, against a man he has misidentified in a room which he knows appeared in a prior video and, even when the man gives him the hint, Dexter still doesn't realize he is being video taped (something most readers would have known 10 pages ago). And his nemesis here is half superman, half moron himself - he can pull off the most complex operations one second (detecting Dexter in Cuba, kill in Cuba, kill of Scout Master) but then tries to grab the kids from their car and gets stabbed with a pencil (while Dexter is falling on an ant mound)!!!
This book is worth a skip - only the last line is needed to go from the last book to the next.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Dark Dashing Dexter no more?Mar 02, 2010
By Jonathan Schmidt
I bought all the four existing Dexter novels two weeks ago and just finished with the last, "Dexter by Design". While it was still fun and enjoyable to read I had the feeling that Darkly Dreaming Dexter evolved from the first novel to the last to Dopey Dumb Dexter. In the first two novels Dexter is a sharp, intelligent and calm killer, but what's left of him in Dexter by Design is a protagonist that is more human then ever. And not a smart one. It may be a change of pace with Dexter being somewhat more human and stupid, but what I liked about the other novels was, that Dexter and his Dark Passenger were so clever and smart. In the end he outwitted his enemies and stood triumphant. None of this takes place in the 4th novel. Dexter is outsmarted by nearly everyone in this book. The most disappointing part of this book, was the ending. The events are so unbelievable(and not in a good way) and Dexter stumbles more or less in and out of these. Poor Dark Dexter lost his wit and intelligence and comes out of it unharmed because of the help from others. The role of Dexter feels more like a bystander who is unable to change anything.
I still enjoyed the book for the most time and wanted to read on, but was very disappointed by the ending.
For fans of Dexter and Jeff Lindsay's writing, this book is still a good choice, just dont expect good ol' Dark Dashing Dexter and be prepared for Dull Dopey Dexter.
If you liked the first three novels, you will propably like this too, but don't set your expectations too high.
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