Dexter

Dexter Morgan isn't exactly the kind of man you'd bring home to your mum. At heart he's the perfect gentleman: He has a shy girlfriend and seems to lead a quiet, normal life bordering on the mundane. Despite the fact that he can't stand the sight of blood, he works as a blood-spatter analyst for the Miami police. But Dexter also has a secret hobby: He is an accomplished serial killer. So far he's killed 36 people and has never been caught because he knows exactly how to hide the evidence.

Miami's best-dressed serial killer is back and on the prowl - at least he would be if he could shake off his permanent shadow. Ever since their paths first crossed, Sergeant Doakes hasn't let Dexter Morgan out of his sight. Dexter may well be the Miami PD's blood-spatter analyst, but Sgt. Doakes has a pretty good idea of how Dex likes to spend his free time, and he's determined to catch him in the act. Dex hasn't killed in months and is getting twitchy.

Dexter Morgan is busy planning his wedding to Rita to complete his nice-guy disguise. But when a student is found burnt, molested and headless - seemingly sacrificed to an ancient god - and Dex is brought in as forensic analyst to help investigate, he realises he could be dealing with someone a whole lot more sinister than he is. Soon it seems the dark passenger in Dexter's head has gone into hiding. And when something creeps out your friendly neighbourhood serial killer, you know it's serious.

Being a blood-spatter analyst who hates the sight of blood has always made Dexter's work for the Miami PD tough. But it means he's very neat when it comes to his out-of-hours hobby: murder. Of course the fact Dexter kills only bad people helps, too. Now Dex is facing a disturbing situation. He's used to blood at work and blood when he's out with the dark passenger (the voice that guides him on his deadly outings). But he's not sure what to make of the man who says blood is art.

Everything's changing for our friendly neighbourhood serial killer. As if getting married wasn't enough to complete his nice-guy persona, Dexter is now the proud father of a baby girl. And, disconcertingly, he actually seems to care. But even if fatherhood is distracting Dexter from his midnight excursions to rid Miami of a few more lowlifes, there's no let-up at work. Two young girls are missing - and it's not long before one of the bodies turns up partially eaten.

A witness. Such a simple concept - and yet for Dexter Morgan, a perfectly well-disguised serial killer, the possibility of a witness is terrifying. As an upstanding blood-spatter analyst for the Miami Police, Dexter has always managed to keep the darker side of his life out of the spotlight. An expert at finding truly bad people - murderers who've long escaped justice - Dexter has long been giving them his own special brand of attention.

Hollywood gets more than it bargained for when television's hottest stars descend on the Miami Police Department for 'research'. Megastar Robert Chase is famous for losing himself in his characters, and he becomes fixated on Dexter Morgan, the blood-spatter analyst with a sweet tooth for doughnuts and a seemingly average life. To perfect his role as a forensics guy, Chase is obsessed with shadowing Dexter's every move. There is just one tiny problem...

It wasn't supposed to end this way. In a flash of steel, a flurry of gunshots, a chorus of strangled moans, blending with the wails of sirens, certainly. A properly dramatic ending, with a good body count, a dash of treachery, absolutely. But not with Dexter, serial killer and forensic blood spatter analyst, horribly wronged and unjustly accused of the wrong murder, languishing inside the Guilford Knight Correctional Centre, bound and restrained, getting one hour's exercise a day.