Written by Ian Banks | 17 March 2011

Jeff Lindsay is the author of seven novels. Five of them are about the charming blood-spatter expert Dexter Morgan who is also a serial killer. Ian Banks had a chat with him last month.

Ian Banks: Where did the concept behind Dexter come from?

Jeff Lindsay: It just popped into my head one day. I was asked to give a speech by a civics group and I stood on the stage looking over this roomful of realtors and lawyers all smiling fake smiles at each other and it occurred to me that a serial killer isn't really a bad thing.

IB: Have any of them turned up to a signing or a talk and said they were at that meeting?

JL: Not to my knowledge. Not yet anyway.

IB: Has there been any kind of backlash to the books?

JL: Surprisingly no. The response from the public has been very supportive and enthusiastic. There is a group in Kentucky of about eleven people with access to a fax machine who complain that Dexter is very bad for children. I don't know about that: I don't let my kids read or watch it yet.

IB: Was it difficult to sell the first novel in the series?

JL: It was a much harder sell than my previous novels, which were easier to categorise. It took me four-and-a-half years and six agents to sell the first Dexter, even longer than it took to sell my first two novels.

IB: What is the appeal of Dexter? Is it that he acknowledges that he is an outsider, even going so far as to be baffled by human behaviour?

JL: Like a lot of sociopaths, Dexter lacks social instincts. His behaviour with other people is entirely learnt from his own observations and from what his father Harry taught him. He is baffled by things like kissing his wife good morning – why would he do that if he doesn't want sex? And yet he does it because it is expected of him. Sociopaths observe these things more keenly so they can fit in.

IB: He seems completely mystified by “normal” behaviour and yet, when we see his colleagues, they seem to have less of the social graces than he does.

JL: And that's why when murderers are discovered, the neighbours are always saying stuff like, “he was such a nice, quiet guy.” It's because they’ve learnt the things to do to blend in.

IB: And that's why only a few people like Doakes and his sister Deb have started to suspect him?

JL: Yes. He seems like such a nice guy, always helping.

IB: What's in the future for Dexter?

JL: I don't really know. I’m planning the series one book at a time. Sometimes not even as fast as that. I’ve had some ideas for Dexter Down-under, we’ll have to see how that works out.

IB: What about non-Dexter projects?

JL: I’m always planning books without Dexter but he takes up so much time and energy.

IB: How do you think the TV series is going?

JL: I’ve always thought that TV is where books go to die but I like it a lot.

IB: You don't mind them taking liberties with the books?

JL: I don't have a problem with that, they’re like parallel realities telling the same sort of stories. I don't see the point of being protective about my stories. I know that the show has borrowed from the books occasionally but I don't watch every episode and think, “That's mine, that's mine.” I see Michael (C. Hall, star of the series) doing what I think Dexter should be doing and that's OK.

IB: Which do you think will run longer, the books or the TV show?

JL: I think the show might run longer than me! I hope we both do all right.

Thanks to Jeff Lindsay for his time and to Brendan Fredericks for arranging the interview. For more information about Jeff Lindsay and Dexter click to http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/dexter/

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