Even for a character as creepy as Dexter, his behavior and self-justification regarding the “little predators” carries the unsettling stench of pedophilia. The designs of Nabokov’s Humbert Humbert on his stepdaughter, Lolita, seem downright admirable by comparison. Dexter intuits the children’s nascent serial-killing abilities, and he commits himself to leading them “into the sunless land of wicked pleasure” where they will become “Dexter’s Disciples.” Dexter wants only the best for his new kids, which means becoming a “well-adjusted, smoothly functioning monster.” Happily for him and horrifically for the reader, Dexter’s marriage comes with two little bonuses - Rita’s children, Cody and Astor. “The honeymoon had strained my imitations of polite behavior beyond all their previous limits,” our sociopathic hero admits, “and I was ready to slither back into the shadows and polish my fangs.”
Alas, marriage is just another accommodation Dexter makes to appear normal - a new layer of fabrication required to hide his dark soul and darker deeds. Dexter, who admits to being “sick and twisted,” with an inability to feel love or most other human emotions, is barely tolerant of his new wife, Rita, who is clueless to her husband’s hobbies. “Dexter by Design” starts with our hero on his honeymoon in Paris, suffering his own version of hell. Dexter loves the art and act of murder most tawdry and is eager to share his enthusiasm with like-minded perverts. Sort of Hannibal Lecter Lite, with the taste of John Waters and the good looks of Ted Bundy, Dexter is proud of his “giant brain,” and he often refers to himself in the third person (“Dashing Dexter,” “Dexter of the Deadly Dimples,” “Dexter the Magnificent”).
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