If you're like me, you probably decided to give this a book a read because you're a fan of the Showtime television series. I'll start my review there ...
As some other reviewers have pointed out, this book is both similiar to but quite different than the show. This is not inherently a bad thing. The first half of this book pretty closely follows the show; the method of murder for the "Ice Truck Killer" is the same, all the same supporting characters are there, described, more or less, as they appear in the accompanying TV series, and various scenes are replicated for the series ... but once you reach about the final quarter of the novel, things diverge almost entirely from there to the point that saying anything about it would ruin some of the book's plot.
Ignoring the TV series' existence, this book is not too bad. When I started reading, the first-person narration, lack of detail or definitive scene setting, and altogether creepiness of Dexter's personality somewhat threw me, but ultimately, the pervasive use of dark humor, mystery, and subversive nature of Dexter's Dark Passenger drew me in and kept me reading. To that end, the author has a fairly captivating style of narration; it's easy to read, at times somewhat funny, but also occasionally philosophical.
However, for me, things somewhat fell apart as the book reached the climax, and were all but ruined by the book's ending ... I won't reveal details here, but the author unfortunately kind of rushes through the ending to the point where it's just ... kind of over. There's an epilogue, but it manages to raise more questions than it answers. I'm aware that there are another 6 books in this series, but this doesn't excuse ANY author from a weak, vague, and somewhat confusing ending.
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For those who may be wondering: which is better, the TV series or the book? Again, this is coming from someone who saw the TV show first, read the book second (and this may make my opinion tainted), but I'd have to say the TV show is better. Referencing ONLY the first season of "Dexter" (which is the only one based on the book series, specifically, this one), the show generally does a better job of setting up the nature of the mysterious Ice Truck Killer. There's a dynamic involving the Ice Truck Killer in the book that is an interesting angle for the book to take, but ultimately is less satisfying than the one the TV show uses. Further, the characters, including Dexter, are portrayed and developed a lot better in the show; in the book, only Dexter seems to have any appreciable personality, and that's ironic given he's a sociopath (perhaps that too is a bit of dark humor?). Perhaps it's an inherent problem with a book about a sociopathic killer being writtenin the first person, but everyone around Dexter could be cardboard cut-outs, for as well as their characters are portrayed. Finally, as I mentioned above, the ending to this book is pretty vague and ulimately is not as satisfying as the way "Dexter" wrapped it up.
Overall, I would have given this book 3 stars, but the quality of the first half and the enthralling nature of the author's writing, combined with a genuine mystery at it's heart, pushes my rating just over the line to 4 stars. Would I recommend this book? Maybe ... Will I read the rest of the books? I'm just not sure at this point, especially based upon a review I saw for book #3 ...
Steve Bucher
Nick SC