Dexter The Tough

I’m the new kid. I am tuf. This morning I beat up a kid. It’s only the first day of school for Dexter, but he’s already mad at the principal, and the secretary, and the janitor, and the kids who laugh at him. When his teacher tells the class to write a story, Dexter writes about how tough he is—and how he’s already gotten into a fight. Is any of Dexter’s story true? Why was the other boy crying before Dexter hit him? And why would the other boy still want to be Dexter’s friend? Even Dexter doesn’t know the answers to some of those questions. But as he deals with family problems, a persistent teacher, and a boy who’s strangely interested in floor wax, he discovers many surprises hidden in his own tale.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “An eerie and beautiful novel . . . Its secrets continue to reveal themselves long after the book has been finished.”—The New York Times Book Review The sun is rising over Moat County, Florida, when Sheriff Thurmond Call is found on the highway, gutted like an alligator. A local redneck is tried, sentenced, and set to fry. Then Ward James, hotshot investigative reporter for the Miami Times, returns to his rural hometown with a death row femme fatale who promises him the story of the decade. She’s armed with explosive evidence, aiming to free—and meet—her convicted “fiancé.” With Ward’s disillusioned younger brother Jack as their driver, they barrel down Florida’s back roads and seamy places in search of The Story, racing flat out into a shocking head-on collision between character and fate as truth takes a back seat to headline news. Now a major motion picture directed by Lee Daniels starring Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, David Oyelowo, and Macy Gray, with John Cusack and Nicole Kidman Praise for The Paperboy “Dexter is a writer who cuts to the bone. There is not a spare word in this searing tale. . . . A bravura performance by one of America’s most original and elegiac voices.”—People “Hip, hard-boiled and filled with memorable eccentrics . . . The Paperboy burns with the phosphorescent atmosphere of betrayal.”—Time “A wise and fascinating tale well told.”—Entertainment Weekly

Ten-year-old girls don't wear wigs. So why is Anya wearing one? That's what Keely wants to know. But when Anya's wig falls off in front of the whole class, Keely realizes what she really wants is to help Anya, even though she's not sure how--and even though it means she'll have to do something she's afraid of: stand up to her friends. As for Anya, she just wants her hair to grow back, but no one can tell her whether it ever will. How can she learn to accept her disease when she can't even look in the mirror?

A secret vigilante killer who works as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Police Department, Dexter Morgan finds his efforts to seek domestic tranquility undermined by a psychopath terrorizing the city.

DEADWOOD, DAKOTA TERRITORIES, 1876: Legendary gunman Wild Bill Hickcock and his friend Charlie Utter have come to the Black Hills town of Deadwood fresh from Cheyenne, fleeing an ungrateful populace. Bill, aging and sick but still able to best any man in a fair gunfight, just wants to be left alone to drink and play cards. But in this town of played-out miners, bounty hunters, upstairs girls, Chinese immigrants, and various other entrepeneurs and miscreants, he finds himself pursued by a vicious sheriff, a perverse whore man bent on revenge, and a besotted Calamity Jane. Fueled by liquor, sex, and violence, this is the real wild west, unlike anything portrayed in the dime novels that first told its story.

“[A] literary feat—when Dexter gets going he crawls under the skin and stays there.” — New York Times Book Review [Dexter’s pieces] read like finely honed short stories....Their spare, haunting scenes echo Hemingway, their insights Faulkner. — Cleveland Plain Dealer PAPER TRAILS is what great newspaper writing is all about. — Washington Post Book World “Pete Dexter is a master story teller in all forms... This is the work of a great American writer.” — Michael Connelly “A jewel box of muscular writing...” — Denver Post Superb...Remarkable...The simple clarity of [Dexter’s] prose is like an Edward Hopper painting. — New York Sun With authority and a strange grace, Dexter has crafted a powerful true portrait of the underbelly of the American Dream. — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Lovers of fine writing ought to give a serious consideration to Pete Dexter’s new book.” — Seattle Post-Intelligencer “Paper Trails is a master class in tight, effective writing.” — St. Petersburg Times “The author’s true eye for detail makes for easy reading.” — Kirkus Reviews “Laugh-out-loud stories...Ideal for... writers and any book lover who appreciates a good story.” — Library Journal “Compact and illuminating...” — Sunday Oregonian “Paper Trails will stir nostalgia for those who remember a time when newspapers prided themselves on cutting loose, colorful writers...” — Columbus Dispatch “A book full of good reading...” — Rocky Mountain News

A serial killer who targets "deserving" people realizes that a new serial killer in Miami is imitating him as an invitation to play.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In his work as a Miami crime scene investigator, Dexter Morgan is accustomed to seeing evil deeds—particularly because, on occasion, he commits them himself. Dexter's happy existence is turned upside down when he is called to an unusually disturbing crime scene at the university campus. • The Killer Character That Inspired the Hit Showtime Series Dexter Dexter's Dark Passenger—mastermind of his homicidal prowess—immediately senses something chillingly recognizable and goes into hiding. Dexter is alone for the first time in his life, and he realizes he's being hunted by a truly sinister adversary. Meanwhile he's planning a wedding and trying to learn how to be a stepfather to his fiancé's two kids—who might just have dark tendencies themselves. Macabre, ironic, and wonderfully entertaining, Dexter in the Dark goes deeper into the psyche of one of the freshest protagonists in fiction.

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE In this striking debut from the author of the National Book Award winner Paris Trout, Pete Dexter chronicles a murder and its consequences in the fictional blue-collar Philadelphia neighborhood of God’s Pocket. Leon Hubbard makes other men nervous, talking to himself or anyone who will listen about the things he’s cut with his straight razor. So when he crosses the wrong guy on a South Philly construction site and winds up with his head caved in, everyone is content to bury the bad news with the body. Everyone, that is, except Leon’s mother—and a local newspaper columnist hoping the story will resurrect his career. Only a mother could love a man like Leon. But only an outsider could expect to change anything in God’s Pocket. Praise for God’s Pocket “Riveting . . . a first-class first novel . . . highlighted by superior writing, dialogue that rings true, and a highly believable background.”—Associated Press “God’s Pocket sings, snarls, mugs, wisecracks, buys you a drink, steals your wallet, and takes you home to meet the folks.”—Richard Price “My own favorite among Mr. Dexter’s work remains God’s Pocket, which I continue to admire for its rich, well-nigh Dickensian mixture of verisimilitude, real-life absurdity, horror and romance.”—Robert Stone, The New York Times Book Review “Rollicking . . . a tough Philadelphia neighborhood comes to life in these pages.”—Playboy

Lights. Camera. Murder. The Dexter series continues with a wild ride through Hollywood. • The Killer Character That Inspired the Hit Showtime Series Dexter Mega-star Robert Chase is famous for losing himself in his characters. When he and a group of actors descend on the Miami Police Department for "research," Chase becomes fixated on Dexter Morgan, the blood spatter analyst with a sweet tooth and seemingly average life. Chase shadows Dexter's every move, trying to learn what makes him tick. However, Dexter's favorite pastime of hunting down the worst killers who've escaped legal prosecution—and introducing them to his special brand of justice—presents, well, a bit of a problem. It's a secret best kept out of the spotlight if Dexter wants to stay out of the electric chair, but even Dexter isn't immune to the call of fame....