In a style as languid as a summer night in north Florida, Dexter tells the tale of a family whose closet overflows with skeletons. Nineteen-year-old Jack James is eager to help his older brother, a Miami Times reporter who comes home to investigate a murder case, but the truths they uncover, about both their town and their family, ultimately prove devastating. It's a wild read -- part pulp fiction, part southern Gothic, and completely riveting.

Tom Nord