I love a great book that can keep me up at night, causing the adrenaline to rush though my body, thus tenderizing my flesh (as this book so thoughtfully points out). This chapter in the Dexter life is almost a rebirth of the great style of Jeff Lindsay. I think he moved more toward making Dexter human here like the show, which I think is a good move since the first couple of books it took some getting used to a much Darker Dexter. With Daddy Dexter in this book, it seemed that he was full of growth again, which is good for a series.
Normally I don't care for series books. My thought is how do you keep the mystery of a character or even charm of a character through several books. You can't. Just like in the Dark Tower series of Stephen King, the characters lose their edge. Lose their mystery. Not in this case. I found that Developing Dexter allows him to keep his edge, that and the first person story telling doesn't let us think that he should just be mysterious. The first person story telling also allows us to think like him. To be like him. To hear the fluttering of the Dark Passenger.
My only knock with this book was that it was pretty transparent that his brother was in on the whole thing. It didn't surprise me when he was there for the rescue. That and it also didn't surprise me, though I was rooting for it, that he wouldn't really change his ways. That he would find that what he is doing is protecting his family.
Overall, this was an improvement to the series. A great read.
