A witness. Such a simple concept – and yet for Dexter Morgan, the perfectly well-disguised monster, the possibility of a witness is unthinkable. But when Dexter is on a very private, very satisfying excursion one evening with a wretchedly deserving playmate, the unthinkable happens: someone sees him.
Dexter is not at all pleased. As an upstanding blood-spatter analyst for the Miami Police Department, he has always managed to keep the darker side of his life out of the spotlight…the fun part, where he finds truly bad people – murderers who have escaped the reach of the justice system – and quietly gives them his very special attentions. But now that he’s been seen and identified by his witness, Dexter must launch himself into a different kind of hunt.
Making matters worse, a brutal cop killer is targeting Miami’s police detectives, leaving behind bodies that are battered beyond recognition…and completely bloodless. As the department grows more fearful of the psychotic killer in their midst, Dexter must handle his own crisis and come to terms with the fact that his witness is not only circling him but determined to expose him. Dexter is being followed, manipulated, and mimicked…leading him to realize that no one likes to have a double, especially when his double’s goal is to kill him.
Double Dexter. The 6th book of the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay where the popular TV show with the same title was inspired. And though the show is really awesome and surpassed the book in so many ways, I’d still say the book series is quite entertaining on its own. On this sixth novel, blood splatter analyst/”friendly” serial killer Dexter is faced with his biggest fear. The possibility of his secret being exposed. That is, he kills people who share the same hobby as him, only his victims prey on the innocents and most often than not, escape the justice system. Dexter has always been so careful whenever he’s out doing his business. But that one night, he got so excited to get his hands onto his next victim after spending all those nights tending to his infant daughter that he got so caught up in the moment and forgot to be extra careful. Which is so unlike him. Unfortunately for Dexter, someone saw what he did and now, the witness is out to get him. Without any solid clue as to who it might be, Dexter could only hope that his secret remains hidden until such time that he found out who his witness might be and forever keep him silent. But said witness is not making things easy for Dexter. Not only that he has no idea who it is, he was also being manipulated and watched. Worst, his witness is copying his hobby and it’s only a matter of time before he comes and kills Dexter. But it’s not only that, a serial killer is on a killing spree targeting police officers of Miami and the police department is starting to panic about the situation. Why, one of them could be the next target. And if that’s not enough to worry dear Dexter, who knows what will. Now, Dexter will have to hunt both of them down before the witness exposed him or the killer targets him.
I want to love Double Dexter. I really do. The plot for this one is really promising than the last 4 books of the series. I really had high hopes for this. But then, I was left disappointed. Not because I’m still trying to compare it to the TV show. Nope. I’m so over that route. It’s long been established that the show is so much better. So, what could possibly go wrong? Not the plot, I’d say it’s quite solid and had a huge potential of a good story. It even started real good, enough for me to hope that things will finally look up. Didn’t happen, though. Sadly, it was the characters that let me down. Dexter, especially, is one big let-down. He spends half the time being sick and the constant talk of traffic, hot weather and food and everything else other than working on what’s important to the story (his witness). It was so exasperating reading so many glaring clues thrown and yet the protagonist is so oblivious to them. Especially when said character is supposed to be intelligent and extremely experienced with such things. And if that wasn’t enough, he started acting like a total tool, expecting his wife to cook for him everytime he goes home from work. His constant comparison of his daughter to his nephew is quite annoying, too. I get it, parents will always think their kids are better than the others. But putting down other kids is just not cool. Suffice to say, this book didn’t endear me to Dexter. But wait, it’s not only Dexter that’s frustrating. Rita, Dexter’s wife, became extra irritating as well. She’s already barely bearable in the past few books, but this time, she takes it to a whole new level. Rita can’t seem to form a coherent sentence. At all. The entire book. I feel like I missed something that has happened in the past that made her unable to complete a sentence. It is disappointing that 6th book through the series and yet there’s no growth and depth to most of the characters. Worst, it’s going downhill for most of them. If there are characters that are somewhat tolerable, it will be Rita’s kids, Astor and Cody.
Like I’ve said, it started good. The middle, meh. There’s a lot of stuff I believe the story can do without. Again. Good thing the last part is a little action-packed, enough to lift my bored psyche. The writing is okay, and the dark humor and wit that I find appealing on the other books are still present. The internal monologue is still funny but can be tiring at times, too. Especially when it gets repetitive. I also find it hard to believe how Dexter’s witness was able to one-up him a lot of times. An experienced one vs a newbie. It just doesn’t make sense to me. Anyway, overall, I’d say that Double Dexter is still an okay read. You’d probably enjoy it if you’re a huge fan of the series. Or, maybe not.
RATING: 3/5
