Dexter is Dead; The Good Girls

The final volume of Jeff Lindsay's highly entertaining Dexter Morgan series did not disappoint, unlike the ending of the TV show. Jeesh. Anyway, poor maligned Dexter is in jail, accused of a crime he didn't commit: the murder of actor Robert Chase. Detective Anderson is determined to nail Dexter for the crime, going to great lengths to frame him. Even Dexter's sister Deborah thinks he's guilty. Luckily his biological brother Brian comes to his rescue and hires a high powered attorney to represent Dexter. Dexter is suspicious of Brian's motives, and soon learns why he's being so generous: he stole a great deal of money from a drug lord named Raul, who is sending hit men after him. Brian wants Dexter's help in getting rid of these killers. Dexter keeps being mistaken for Brian and has a couple of close escapes before Raul kidnaps his and Deborah's kids. Desperate to get them back, Deborah agrees to team up with Dexter and Brian and goes on the hunt for Raul and the kids. The ending was highly satisfying, although I will be sad to see Dexter go, he was always so much fun to read about.

I wasn't really into Sara Shepard's "Good Girls", the sequel to "The Perfectionists", until about 2/3 of the way through when she tossed a wicked good twist in there. One by one, the people the girls wished were dead in film studies class are turning up murdered. They don't know if someone overheard their discussion and is killing people off for them, or, even worse, if one of them is the killer. Julie is worried for her friend, Parker, who is getting more and more uncommunicative. After being missing for several days, Julie finally tracks Parker down, and Parker confesses to the crimes. Julie promises to protect her best friend. The other girls confront Julie at a Halloween party, convinced she's the killer, and Julie tearfully breaks down and admits it's Parker. The other girls are horrified: Parker's been dead for over a year. Julie refuses to believe it, and is arrested, sent to a mental hospital for treatment, but she escapes. All right! Now we're getting somewhere :)