Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

Jeff Lindsay's serial killer with a twist has already spawned a successful television series in the States where they clearly can't get enough of the stuff. Taking as its central character a serial killer who only kills other serial killers, the book opens on a grisly business with a child-killing priest.

As the narrator, Dexter is all chilly ease until a new serial killer in town catches his imagination. Body parts are drained of blood and carefully gift-wrapped before being left in ceremonial piles. Dexter is intrigued and on the case. You see, in the book's other twist, Dexter works for the police as a forensic investigator. His sister, Debs, is also a cop with an eye on a detective's badge, (if only she can get out of vice). Unluckily for her, the detective in charge of the case, La Guerta, is as thick as a whale omelette, and has already arrested the wrong man.

And so it goes on, twist following turn following twist, and with one plot turn too many by the end. Darkly Dreaming Dexter is a book with a genius idea behind it, a likeable anti-hero and a couple of well-executed (forgive the pun) murders, but as a complete narrative it just gets sillier and sillier by the page.

It'll be interesting to see how the television version fares when it finally hits our terrestrial screens. Judging by the daftness of this book, it's a cinch for Channel 5.

Mr Mudd