May 18, 2015
The action of Lindsay’s downbeat eighth and final Dexter Morgan novel picks up right after the over-the-top ending of the previous book, 2013’s Dexter’s Final Cut, which left Dexter, a serial killer who targets other killers, locked in a tiny prison cell. For a change, he isn’t guilty this time, despite a damning set of circumstances. Dexter was found “in flagrante sangre” with the bodies of his wife, Rita, and actor Robert Chase at the crime scene, where his scantily clad 12-year-old adopted daughter, Astor, was also present. Although Dexter’s charged with double murder and considered a pedophile, Chase actually killed Rita, only to be killed by Astor in turn. Dexter is left in legal limbo for weeks, seemingly abandoned by everyone, including his sister, Deborah, who visits only to get him to sign over custody of his children to her. Many readers will struggle to sympathize with this antihero, and the series’s resolution won’t satisfy all fans. Author tour. Agent: Nick Ellison, Nicholas Ellison Agency.
June 1, 2015
Dexter's last hurrah. Think your family is dysfunctional? Bet you've never been jailed for murdering your wife, your mistress, and a famous actor. Dexter Morgan has, and it's no consolation at all to know that his paramour, famous actress Jackie Forrest, and his wife, Rita, were both slain by equally famous actor Robert Chase, whose fans didn't know about his pedophilia, and who was killed in turn by Dexter's adopted daughter, 12-year-old Astor, on whom he'd set his sights. Dexter's nemesis, Detective Anderson of the Miami-Dade Police, is either too dumb to see that he's got the wrong man locked up or too small-minded to care, and Dexter's long-suffering adoptive sister, Miami-Dade Sgt. Deborah Morgan, is convinced that coming to his aid this time would be tantamount to licensing more killing, even if he doesn't happen to be guilty of the particular crimes he's been jailed for. Fortunately, help arrives in the person of white-shoe attorney Frank Kraunauer, who gets his client sprung at the behest of Brian Morgan, Dexter's equally sociopathic brother. While he waits for Anderson to gather enough evidence to justify several charges of homicide, Dexter decides to disobey his high-priced mouthpiece and gather some evidence of his own. He's barely begun when he finds two dead Latinos in his hotel room. Even apart from the threat the discovery will pose to his freedom if Anderson gets wind of it, this can't count as good news, especially since there's every sign the two dead guys came prepared to kill. Who could possibly want to eliminate such a charmingly monstrous killer as Dexter (Dexter's Final Cut, 2013, etc.)? The mystery, as it is so often in this high-flying series, is a throwaway. But fans will rush through the forgettable plot double-quick in order to savor every moment of Dexter's final hour.
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June 1, 2015
Over the course of this series, Dexter Morgan, the Florida crime-scene analyst and serial killer, has becomerather improbably, if you really think about ita cultural icon. He's inspired a popular television series. He's inspired imitations. And now, if we can believe what we read, his story is coming to a close. This certainly appears to be the final Dexter novel, and, if it really is, Dexter is definitely going out in style. The story begins with our hero (antihero?) in jail on trumped-up murder charges. Yes, he's actually accused of a crime he didn't commit, and things look pretty bleak until his brother, Brian, who might be even crazier than Dexter, bails him out. Determined to set things straight, Dexter embarks on a crusade that will ultimately . . . well, make whatever assumptions you will from the book's title. The first Dexter novel appeared more than a decade ago, and Dexter has been a familiar face on the crime-fiction landscape ever since. Expect high demand from die-hard series fans unwilling to let go. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Yes, Dexter is a media superstar, and if this really is his last outing, he's going out with a bang.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)
February 15, 2015
I know you all love Dexter, but after seven national best sellers it's time to say good-bye. And this good-bye is the real thing, not the ending cooked up for the oh-so-popular eight-season Showtime series. Here, Dexter, who's had it all--a family, a satisfying career as a blood spatter analyst, and a parallel life as an angel-of-vengeance serial killer--loses it all with his arrest for a murder he didn't commit. Even as his brother works to prove his innocence, you must wonder whether Dexter will survive this one. Look for a Facebook Q&A, a Reddit AMA, giveaways of the entire Dexter series on Facebook and Doubleday social media, and more.
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