A reasonable being might think that he and I could find some common ground; have a cup of coffee and compare our Passengers, exchange trade talk and chitchat about dismemberment techniques. But no: Doakes wanted me dead. And I found it difficult to share his point of view.
Doakes had been working with Detective LaGuerta at the time of her somewhat suspicious death, and since then his feelings toward me had grown to be a bit more active than simple loathing. Doakes was convinced that I’d had something to do with LaGuerta’s death. This was totally untrue and completely unfair. All I had done was watch—where’s the harm in that? Of course I had helped the real killer escape, but what could you expect? What kind of person would turn in his own brother? Especially when he did such neat work.
Well, live and let live, I always say. Or quite often, anyway. Sergeant Doakes could think what he wanted to think, and that was fine with me. There are still very few laws against thinking, although I’m sure they’re working hard on that in Washington. No, whatever suspicions the good sergeant had about me, he was welcome to them. But now that he had decided to act on his impure thoughts my life was a shambles. Dexter Derailed was fast becoming Dexter Demented.
And why? How had this whole nasty mess begun? All I had done was try to be myself.
*****
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Horror QQ #9 - Chitchat about dismemberment techniques
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Horror QQ #6 - A great deal of faith
'A relationship in today's world needs a strong foundation in faith,' he said, looking at me expectantly. 'Dexter? How about it?'[...]I don't know if it's worse to lie to a minister than to anyone else, but I did want to get this interview over quickly and painlessly, and could that possibly happen if I told the truth? Suppose I did and said something like, Yes, I have a great deal of faith, Reverend -- in human greed and stupidity, and in the sweetness of sharp steel on a moonlit night. I have faith in the dark unseen, the cold chuckle from the shadow inside, the absolute clarity of the knife. Oh yes, I have faith, Reverend, and beyond faith -- I have certainty, because I have seen the bleak bottom line and I know it is real; it's where I live.But really, that was hardly calculated to reassure the man, and I surely didn't need to worry about going to hell for telling a lie to the minister. If there is actually a hell, I already have a front-row seat. So I merely said, 'Faith is very important,' and he seemed to be happy with that.[...]'Any other questions?' he asked me with a very satisfied smile. 'About our church, or anything about the ceremony?''Why, no,' I said. 'It seems very straightforward.''We like to think so,' he said. 'As long as we put Christ first, everything else falls into place.''Amen,' I said brightly.*****
Friday, February 4, 2011
meet Dexter Morgan, polite wolf in sheep’s clothing
The back cover gives us a brief synopsis of the book:
He’s handsome and charming, but something in his past has made him abide by a different set of rules. He’s a serial killer whose one golden rule makes him immensely likeable: he only kills bad people.
His job as a blood splatter expert for the Miami police department puts him in the perfect position to identify his victims. But when a series of brutal murders bearing a striking similarity to his own style start turning up, Dexter is caught between being flattered and being frightened -- of himself or some other fiend.
Praises for the book includes:
"Demonology has a dastardly new darling." – The New York Times
"With chills like these, you can skip the air-conditioning." – Time
"Entertaining… Dexter is a fascinating character, though he’s not the kind of guy you’d like to invite to dinner." – Chicago Sun-Times
Personally, I’d invite him to dinner. I have nothing to worry about, I think. I mean, I’m not perfect and I sometimes border between meanness and insanity (wait, aren’t they from the same side of the fence?), but I highly doubt Dexter would care two cents about me. One: I don’t kill little kids. And as fans of the first book might notice (and I surely hope they did), Dexter is very fond of children (which is ironic, since he’s supposed to be void of human emotions). But he is, and most of his targets (Father Donovan, Jamie Jaworski) are kid-nappers and killers. So as long as I keep my kid-bullying to a minimum (not that I bully kids, I swear I don’t!), I think I’ll be safe. Two: Aside from the usual whacks and punches (and kicks and bites too, sometimes) I give my close friends, I dislike hurting people. No one has ever filed a complaint about me hitting them so badly they had to be sent to a hospital for a CT scan, and I haven’t pushed anyone, not even those people who irritate me, down the stairs. (Well, I threw a marble at a kid when I was in grade school, but I blame him and his constant stalking for that.) So I really doubt if Dexter will be interested in me. I’d be as boring to him as a sack of rotting potatoes… or something like that.
Now.
I guess one of the things I really like about our hero is his ability to engage in witty banter with other characters, even when the situation does not call for it. During breakfast with his foster sister Deborah, this conversation took place:
"How was your date last night?"
"A lot of fun," I said. "You should try it sometime."
"Feh," said Deborah.
"You can’t spend all your nights standing on Tamiami Train in your underwear, Deb. You need a life."
"I need a transfer," she snarled at me. "To Homicide Bureau. Then we’ll see about a life."
"I understand," I said. "It would certainly sound better for the kids to say Mommie’s in homicide."
"Dexter, for Christ’s sake," she said.
"It’s a natural thought, Deborah. Nephews and nieces. More little Morgans. Why not?"
She blew out a long breath. "I thought Mom was dead," she said.
"I’m channeling her," I said. "Through the cherry Danish."
"Well, change the channel. What do you know about cell crystalization?"
I blinked. "Wow," I said. "You just blew away all the competition in the Subject Changing Tournament." (pp.83-84, 2004 paperback edition)
Note that the date they were talking about didn’t exactly end well. But I’ll let you guys read the book to find out why.
Dexter also likes entertaining his readers by way of narration coated with dark/dry humor. During one of his killing escapades (with Jamie Jaworski, this time):
"Let’s talk," we said in the Dark Passenger’s gentle, cold voice.
He didn’t know if he was allowed to speak, and the duct tape would have made it difficult in any case, so he stayed silent.
"Let’s talk about runaways," we said, ripping the duct tape from his mouth.
"Yaaaooww--Whu--whataya mean?" he said. But he was not very convincing.
"I think you know what I mean," we told him.
"Nuh-no," he said.
"Yuh-yes," we said.
Probably one word too clever. My timing was off, the whole evening was off. But he got brave. He looked up at me in my shiny face. "What are you, a cop or something?" he asked.
"No," we said, and sliced off his left ear. (pp.172-173)
In normal circumstances, it is not supposed to be funny. I mean, slicing off another person’s ear was nothing to laugh about. But by that point in the book, readers have already established the fact that Dexter is an unfeeling monster whose only delight is slicing up monsters worse than him. I guess this reason shouldn’t justify chuckling at his jokes or attempts at witty exclamations, but somehow it does.
My personal favorite line from the book is found in page 284. Dexter was having a long soliloquy about the possibility (or impossibility) of sleep murder and his involvement in it. And as such:
"Weren’t we all crazy in our sleep? What was sleep, after all, but the process by which we dumped our insanity into a dark subconscious pit and came out on the other side ready to eat cereal instead of the neighbor’s children?"
Lovely, lovely. Good writing, is it not?
Darkly Dreaming Dexter is not your typical good-cop-bad-cop story, and it introduces a wide array of characters that you will either love or hate with utmost fervor (and I’m not talking about the children killers here). There’s even an interesting twist in the end as bonus. For people who are interested in crime/thriller/suspense/slasher fiction, I would like to recommend this book. For those who still believes in fairy tales and all that, I suggest you grab a copy of Snow White (Disney version) instead. Unless you want to be converted. Dexter just might show you the way.
Oh, and did I mention that this book inspired the hit Showtime series Dexter in TV? No? Well, there you go. Another reason to try it out then.
Horror QQ #4 - We're all crazy in our sleep
“Weren’t we all crazy in our sleep? What was sleep, after all, but the process by which we dumped our insanity into a dark subconscious pit and came out on the other side ready to eat cereal instead of the neighbor’s children?”
*****