027. Dearly Devoted Dexter (2005).

Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay (2005).

          

 The weirdest detective of entire world.

The true justice who turns villains into victims, 

literally chops them off into pieces,

sending them to what he called “Dreamland”. 

Very very Cool.

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layers. – Dexter Morgan.   The world’s only known serial killer.

Since all the serial killers try really hard to hide their activities, it requires true Sherlock-like ability to track them down and that's what our man Dexter has: uncanny sense to identify the fellow serial killers.

He has a day job working as a forensic in Miami Police Dept. Being a serial killer himself, he excels at his job as a blood analyst. At night, he turns into his other self, Dark Passenger.

Due to an unbelievable insanity in his early age (bloody murder tragedy), he is completely devoid of emotion/empathy and is well aware of it. Therefore, whatever expression he wears on his face is carefully prepared acting, a complete fake!!

Because of this, Dexter is constantly debating in his head what kind of FACE he has to flash on his face or what to say depending on the situations.

He collects a drop of blood from his “PLAYMATES (victims)” to small glass panels, and the collection reaches 42 at the end of this book. For our delights, Miami is flourishing with psychopaths!!

Harry Morgan.   Dexter’s step father. He adopted Dexter at 7 and being a great cop, immediately found out Dexter’s need. Once he realized there was no way to deter Dexter’s taste, he trained Dexter to channel his urge toward only certain kind of people,  people who could not be reached by the law. Dexter calls it Harry’s Law and follows it religiously no matter what.

He loved Dexter and truly cared for him and is the only reason why Dexter is surviving in this world. 

Dexter only puts on a human face because he wants to be like Harry.

Debora. Dexter’s sister. The only living human being who knows what Dexter is made out of.

Like her father, Harry, she is good/tough cop.

Rita. Dexter’s girl friend and a future wife. A mother of two: Cody(6) and Astor(8). 

At some point in his “fake” human life, Dexter realized that in order to look normal, he needed a girl friend for cover and he found a perfect answer in Rita who was as much damaged inside as Dexter.

Sergeant Doakes. Every superhero needs archenemy and he is Dexter’s. A cop, but a cold killer inside.

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lace. – Miami, the land where everyone comes to die, according to Dexter.

Hot and humid air and party-every-night atmosphere is just perfect for Dexter and his Night-Dance.

Also, being a center for drug trafficking business in East-coast helps Dexter find his next playmates relatively easy because there are unlimited supply of weirdoes and monsters and pedophiles and on and on….

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lot. – There is a new and brilliant serial killer in town whose technique makes even mighty Dexter jealous.

All Dexter wants to do is track down the killer and “play” with him, but the story gets complicated when a hot shot FBI agent who is here to take care of the killer starts dating with his sister and his archenemy Sergeant Doakes is on his trail 24/7. 

So Dexter has to suppress his urge and learn to work with Debora’s boy friend(FBI) and also acts like normal human in front of Doakes’ surveillance. On top of this, Dexter has to catch the killer before FBI’s so that he can have true fun with him. This book is so good.

                    

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erdict. –A truly remarkable work of art.

A reverse Sherlock Holmes who locates and kills his client before he/she inflicts more damages to the society. Sherlock tracks down the bad guys and put them away in jail, whereas Dexter makes takeout menus out of bad guys and put them away in his secret burying ground under the sea. And they are both awesome.

Much funnier and darker than TV series.

Dexter’s view of society and human behavior is so completely off the mark, yet accurate, in spite of all the gore, this could be the funniest mystery I’ve ever read. Serious.

026. The Postmortal (2011).

The Postmortal by Drew Magary (2011).

          What would you do if someone finds “THE CURE" for aging?

Would you take “THE CURE” and stop aging from that moment till eternity

Or

Choose to be a natural product and face the death?

Very creative and amazingly well imagined answers are here.

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layers. – John Farrell.   A very regular guy with no distinct feature nor special ability, just one of those guys, which works so well with this book. You see, because this book has full of wild ideas and crazy imagination, it needs a person we can safely related to, getting into the story and all that. And that person is john. 

A successful divorce lawyer (for the first two chapters) who later changes his career as an end specialist (for the last two chapters).

End specialists are people who are basically given licenses to kill by government to take control over population growth. They are started as simple suicide assistants, and then later expand their services to bounty hunter business and everything else that involves guns and violence. 

Government’s legal henchmen are what they become.

This book is the correction of the journal entry written by John for the period of 6 decades started from 2019 ( the year he gets THE CURE) till 2079.

Solara Beck.   John’s dream girl. The one person whose image is imprinted in his memory till the day he died.

Others.   There are a few characters in this book that are worth mentioning here.  John has a sister and a few nieces and nephews. His father is still alive, so as his two girlfriends and a son. Other than his son, David, everyone else get the Cure.

 Beause John’s Cure Age is 28, which means he stops aging at 28 yrs old, and his appearance stays exactly same since then, his son David who refuses THE CURE and stays organic, looks older than his dad in the later chapters. What a creepy world.

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lace. – It all starts from the center of the universe, New York where John practices his specialty, the divorce law. 

After spending couple of decades in NY and another few in abroad, John starts his new career as End specialist in Virginia.

Even if John’s entire story is based in USA, there are lots of articles John picks up from net or news network which explains what is going on around the world. And that is the juice of this book. You won’t believe what China or Russia is doing to their people to control population.

         

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lot. – In 2019, Dr. Otto, a humble researcher, accidentally discovers “THE CURE”, the method to stop aging process completely which is hailed as the greatest scientific discovery in the history of mankind. And naturally everyone go highlander!! Except chopping off the head part, of course.

Immortality creates all sorts of things, changes everything we know about this world. Classic religions disappear cause nobody’s worrying about the after life.  All the  marriages disappear cause however you love your partner, you just can’t live with the same person for 200 yrs. No medicare, no social security cause government can’t support them anymore. 

Then of course, all the pro-death cults spring up from everywhere and terrorists are having great time bombing everywhere for no apparent reasons. 

Welcome to the future with no future.

The story is divided into four parts.

1.      Prohibition. June, 2019 – How the cure is discovered and how we deal with it. Government, at first, tries really hard to ban it, but fat chances!  At the end, everyone gets it.  

2.      Spread. June, 2029 - Earth becomes the big village of Highlanders. The big, happy generations of people who look exactly the same everyday. The beginning of the end.

3.      Saturation. March, 2059 – Humans are slowly but surely running out of everything. Resources, morality, human-value, love, you name it! Everything!!

4.      Correction. June, 2079 – Officially, the planet is nearly bankrupt with millions of people turning into hobos. By way of preserving whatever they have left in their territory, all the countries turn into some sort of totalitarian governments and are getting rid of people they think are not important to their survival. Criminals, hoboes, seniors are all going to be disposed for the name of their country.  
Logan’s run plus Bladerunner.

                   

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erdict. –With the rate Hollywood is pumping zombie and apocalypse movies these days, I won’t be surprised if some producer in some studio had already bought up the movie right and been working on the final script for the inevitable The Immortal movie. 

Transition of John, from skinny pencil pusher to deadly bounty hunter is quite interesting and what carries the story.

This book is a page turner not with thrill/suspense but with everything else: story, characters, history, love and even humanity.

Only con is for some really annoying reason, the writer or editor insert the date of the each journey at the end of the paragraph. 
So, in order to get the better hold of the story(to see if there is any gap between each entries), whenever I get into the new chapters, I have to flip pages, sometime several of them, to check the exact time the story is written which is just ridiculous.

However, that was the only flaw in this otherwise wonderful book.

If you have even a slightest interest in living-forever concep, like the rest of the entire human race, please do yourself favor and read this book. It's will give you something to think about, not to mention frighten you like burning in hell.

025. The Smoke (2002).

The Smoke by Tony Broadbent (2002).

        

This book has everything lines up.

1.    A handsome and brave hero who happens to be the best cat burglar in the city.

2.    MI5 and Russian secret service going at each other.

3.    The top gangsters in London and the worst criminals in the world each trying to kill our hero.

4.    A young and beautiful woman trying to escape to the free world.

Honestly, you can't assemble the better setting for the mystery than this.

With rich atmosphere of war-torn London (1947) as a background, again, mystery just can’t get better than this.

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layers. – Jethro.   Anyone out there who happens to be interested in the technique of break-and-enter around 1947 will get a full lecture of all the details and secret know-how from our hero, Jethro.

He is an extremely smart and street-smart guy who learns everything from the street of London.

Born July, 27, 1916. Won couple of medals for outstanding courage (saving quite a few shipmates from sinking ship).

He works as a stagehand, sort of laborer behind the theater during his off-days as a cover, but in real life, he secretly owns several buildings and also is a co-owner of the Victory café where his sister is working.

When he is scouting the next target (rich houses), he normally goes there with a little painting easel and sketches/paints the several pages of the place. And then, he spends months for observing places, trying to recognize the pattern and making the actual breaking-in plane.

He also has uncanny ability to read and detect the movement of the other side of room just by gently place his hand to the door and listen which of course helps him numerous time avoiding the jail time.

He talks a lot about what he does or knows, so just by listening whatever he says, you will learn everything about cat-burglar  such as what to look for, how to work with all the tools and when to run, things like that.

Also, through Jethro, who is a highly intelligent guy with keen observation skill and vast knowledge (College educated!!), you will experience the actual life of London in 1947 like reading an encyclopedia of that period. A lot of everyday activities are described in every chapter. The author’s claim that he does tons of research about this period is, judging by the book, totally justified. Research rules!!

Barry.   Jethro’s brother I law. A tough cap driver who knows every corner of the city and everyone around it.

Loves his wife to death.

Seth.   Ex-navy fight instructor who plays guitar for a travelling band.

He saves Jethro’s life by beating up several tugs who tries to kill him and becomes the best friend of Jethro.

A man with few word, big heart and honor. A really cool and honest guy you can trust with your life.

He carries a hammer for protection. A HAMMER!!

Joanie.   Jethro’s sister and part owner of the Victory café. A beauty with heart and attitude.

Ray Karmin.   Part-Russian, half-Viennese Jew. The best fence in London though few people ever know of it.

The father figure to Jethro who teaches him everything out there to know about to become the best cat burger and  jewelry thief in London.

One of very few man Jethro trust with his life.

He is a gentleman scholar in British museum during the week ( highly educated and incredibly intellectual )and “Buggy Billy” who sells pesticide in the underground market during the weekend.

It is through Ray’s words, the author explains all the important backgoung information of the period: Politics, spies, war, immigration and crimes.

Welsingham.   The ex-military intelligence now running MI5. The one who decides to hire(blackmail) Jethro.

Bosanquest.   Welsingham’s right hand man.

And all the bad guys including gangsters and spies whom I won’t mention in here because there are just too many of them.

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lace. – London, England, 1947, right after the war, where you can find everything, I mean EVERYTHING to make any book or movie out of this world exciting. 

Let me give you some examples. There are cat burglars, prostitutes, organized gangs, lots of them, illegal clubs, police and secret police that regular police force don’t even know its existence (ghost police, they call ).  Then there are spies from sides, again lots of them, assassins for hire (most of them are enjoying the booming business).

Then backbone of all these is A HUGE BALCKMARKET in which all the businesses/companies that matter at that time including legal ones, do their actual work during those difficult period.

“The Smoke” is the nickname for London which was re-building itself after the war, pumping lots of smoke out to the air, supposedly making the city stinking and horrible to live in. But if you read this book, you somehow get the opposite impression. Just read what Jethro thinks about his city.

        

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lot. –This book is roughly divided into two parts. 

1.    Jethro, the best cat burglar and jewel thief in London, brakes into the Russian Embassy to steal a few precious jewelers. But on his way out, he picks up couple of extra stuffs including one ordinary looking black book.

2.    His best friend and mentor, Ray, finds out that the book could be a secret military code, and instead of just throwing it away, starts to ask questions about it in the British Museum out of pure patriotism.

3.    That caught the attention of MI5 and now Jethro is blackmailed to go back to the Embassy again to steal the other half of the black book which contains the answer to all the codes.

4.    To make the story more interesting, there is a beautiful Russian secretary who wants to defect to the west. And this is the first half.

5.    The second part finds Jethro deals with gangsters who want his service and Russian spy/assassins who want to kill him just to even the score which is much more grim and bloody than the first half.

However, this book has a really good ending with the promise of the sequel which makes me drooling with expectation, because it is not easy finding book this interesting.

                  

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erdict. – I already explain thoroughly why this book is great, so I’ll just skip to the conclusion.

Tony Broadbent delivers an extraordinary mystery with fact, thrill and lots of unique characters.

With great story and amazing research,

simply put, this book has it all!!