Dexter Is Delicious

Lindsay's fifth thriller featuring Dexter Morgan (after Dexter by Design) brilliantly combines suspense and gallows humor. Dexter, a blood splatter analyst for the Miami-Dade PD, seriously considers giving up his secret life as a killer of serial killers after the birth of his first child, Lily Anne. Then Dexter's police sergeant sister, Deborah, calls him to the scene of a possible kidnapping, the bedroom of 18-year-old Samantha Aldovar, a student at a fancy private school. The quantity of fresh blood in the room, "like a large animal had exploded," suggests that the missing Samantha must already be dead, but it's Samantha's friend and classmate, Tyler Spanos, who turns up a cannibalized corpse. When it appears that one of those responsible for Tyler's horrible end will evade justice, Dexter finds it harder to turn over a new leaf. Readers will look forward to seeing the further impact of fatherhood on Lindsay's highly original protagonist in the next installment. (Sept.)