Australian Penthouse

In our 2008 interview for Dexter in the Dark, you said you had problems getting the character to where you wanted him, and even considered killing him off. Two books later, has this changed?
Well, I had a couple of good books in between that made it relatively easy. It’s funny you should bring that up, though, because I find myself in the exact same spot again. Apparently, every three books I get this block. Maybe this time I’ll use a large hammer, and then Cody will take over the family business.

In Delicious, the birth of Dexter’s first child reveals glimpses of real emotion within the character. Was your decision to provide this evolvement a conscious one to humanise Dexter or just a personality facet of sociopaths?
Maybe both those things, but neither was conscious. I don’t sit down and plan things that ruthlessly. It was just what I was feeling when I started. I did plan to begin with him looking down at the birth of his child. I had plot points, but I had no idea about the tone until it started happening.

Do you have regular sources who advise you on the science in the books or do you go to different people according to plot direction?
I have a lot of sources in Miami, and others who do forensics for a living. I don’t really go into a lot of detail in the books because it’s just not interesting to me. Some people like it, I don’t. It’s background for me. I recently learned we’re using a different thing to test for trace blood and fingerprints; it’s a new chemical. That’s good to know. I need to know that, as Dexter uses it. But I don’t go into long lyrical sentences using the electro-spectro-diccolo-pack test machine. I don’t know and I don’t care.

The hit TV show Dexter has developed a different plot to your novels. Have the scriptwriters introduced any specific stories or twists that you like or dislike?
Rita’s a great example. I wasn’t happy they killed her off. I think [Julie Benz] is a terrific actress, a really nice person, and I hate to see anybody lose their job. On top of that, people are angry at me for killing Rita. I say to them, she’s still alive in the books! Occasionally they do stuff I never would. Sometimes it’s just because it’s TV, other times it’s a bunch of other writers wanting to put their own imprint on it. It doesn’t yank my chain in any way. It’s a different medium with different demands.

We understand you used to be a karate champion. What can you tell us about that?
I was at the black-belt level and I took a silver medal in the World Championships. The guy I was fighting for the gold was about six-foot-eight and very, very serious, a really hard person. I was a point-and-a-half ahead and was thinking it was easy; he was slower than anyone I’d ever faced.I went in for a side snap-kick and landed it perfectly. I heard a loud pop and crunch. I thought I’d got him, but when I landed on my foot I realised I’d got me.

I broke my foot in four places kicking this guy in the ribs. As I was standing there in shock, he did a sweep move that lifted me up and sent me flying out of the ring and into the bleachers. People think this is a punch line, but as I went back in, all I could hear in my head was, “New strategy, let the Wookie win”, and that made complete sense. I tried to give him small targets to get points so I could finish with the silver medal instead of being disqualified.

Have you ever thought about combining your passions into a stage musical about a sociopathic, serial-killing martial artist?
Actually, I believe I’m about 65 pages into something quite similar to that! I mean, why not?