Brian Moser (Novels)

Brian Moser is a character in the Dexter Novels.

He is the biological brother of Dexter Morgan and the uncle of Lily Anne Morgan. He is the first main antagonist of the novel series.

Moniker
During his killing spree of prostitutes, Brian is known as the Tamiami Butcher or Tamiami Slasher, due to the locations of his first crimes. The police refer to the murders as the Tamiami Trail Killings Case.

His counterpart in the Showtime TV series is The Ice Truck Killer.

Description
Brian resembles Dexter so strongly that upon seeing an image of Brian with dismembered corpses, both Dexter and Deborah Morgan are convinced that Dexter is the murderer. When they meet, Dexter notes that Brian is an inch or two taller, thicker through the shoulders and chest, and has a paler complexion. The age gap between Brian and Dexter is given less then 12 months in the books and three years in the television series.

Their professions differ as well; the books have Brian working at various jobs, such as imports, realty, and for a drug cartel, while in the series, he is a prosthetist.

Personality
Brian is manipulative and fierce. He likes to control others, either from the shadows or directly with his fake smile and acting skills. Brian is able to charm others into thinking that he's not dangerous. One example is when Rita Morgan first meets him in Dexter is Delicious.

He has little value for human life, except for his own and for his brother, Dexter.

Summary

 * Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Brian brings Dexter near the doors of insanity when Dexter begins to think himself responsible for Brian's victims. By mirroring Dexter actions, Dexter wonders if he committed the murders while he was asleep.

Dexter first meets the killer face-to-face in a shipping container located where their mother was murdered. He is taken aback when he realizes that he has a brother and by how much they look alike.

Brian has tied up Deborah so that Dexter can kill her. However, Dexter chooses not to and he lets Brian escape, after Brian kills Migdia. Dexter is relieved that he's not responsible for Brian's innocent victims. In the TV series, Dexter kills Brian to protect his sister.


 * Dexter is Delicious

Brian returns after learning of the birth of Dexter's daughter Lily Anne and introduces himself to Dexter's family.

He works for the cannibalistic coven that lures Dexter into a trap, but Brian saves him. Although Brian also helps save Deborah and Kyle Chutsky from the cannibals, he only does it for Dexter.


 * Double Dexter

Dexter asks Brian to kill a man using an alias, but he mistakenly kills the real Doug Crowley.


 * Dexter Is Dead

Brian steals a large quantity of cash from Raul, a drug lord, after which his life and Dexter's are endangered.

After Brian and Dexter capture Ivan, a bomber who works for Raul, they take him for "questioning." It's revealed that Brian has a secret torture room at a large gated facility, located a half mile south of Opa-Locka. When Dexter sees the storage unit, he finds it "breathtaking" and describes it as decorated in Industrial Nazi Dentist.

On the walls, in neat and clamped rows are a full range of saws, drills, power tools, and commercial grinding equipment. Inside a large rolling toolbox are rows of surgical equipment, including scalpels and saws of every size and shape. There, too, are kitchen implements, such as cutters, grinders, mashers, corkscrews, and other sharp little things. There are more rows of top-quality knives, ranging in size from the tiniest blade to the size of machetes with straight, curved, needle thin, wide, and saw-toothed blades.

They force a terrified Ivan to sit in a dental chair which is bolted to the floor and has hydraulic lifting function. As brothers, Dexter and Brian finally work together, with Brian letting Dexter go first. Dexter picks up a garden clipper and cuts off a piece of Ivan’s little finger.

Before he dies, Ivan reveals that Cody, Astor, Nicholas, and Lily Anne (who have been kidnapped) are on Raul's yacht. Dexter convinces Deborah to work with Brian and they set off to rescue the children. Just before dawn, Dexter pulls his boat alongside Raul's yacht, and he and Brian use a ladder to board the boat. After they take out three guards, Deborah joins them and they go looking for the kids. They find all four of them asleep in a room, with a nanny in bed with the two babies. Suddenly, the nanny wakes up and shoots Brian in the abdomen, after which he sticks his knife into her throat. In pain and bleeding, Brian sets the timer on one of the bombs he brought with him and throws it down the hall toward Raul's room. However, the explosion is so powerful that it sends Brian flying through the air and his body lands on top of Dexter.

Raul emerges from the smoke and shoots Dexter in his shoulder. Smiling, he grinds his gun into Dexter's wound and is about to shoot him a second time but Deborah shoots Raul first. She escapes with the children onto Dexter's boat, while Dexter sets up the second bomb to destroy Raul's yacht with the evidence. Unfortunately, Dexter is disoriented and cannot find his boat in time before the bomb goes off.

Dark Passenger
Brian fully embraces his urge to kill, letting it often take control. His dark passenger is similar in nature to that of Cody's dark passenger called Shadow Guy. More than to Dexter's, Astor and Cody are strongly drawn to Brian's dark passenger.

Victims

 * Ice Truck Killer Victims 1 and 2
 * Migdia LaGuerta -- stabbed her to death
 * Alana Acosta - Head of coven
 * Unnamed cannibal
 * Unnamed cannibal
 * Doug Crowley
 * Unnamed gunman
 * Frank Kraunauer - Attorney, shot three times
 * Ivan - Raul's bomber, tortured and killed jointly with Dexter
 * Two guards on Raul's yacht
 * Nanny on Raul's yacht

Modus Operandi
Like most serial killers, Brian has a preferred killing method, but he will improvise or use other M.O.s.

Unlike Dexter, Brian is not reluctant to use a firearm. In Dexter is Delicious, he killed two cannibals with a shotgun. In Dexter Is Dead, Brian shot several people with a pistol.

Related Pages

 * Astor Bennett (Novels/Comics)
 * Cody Bennett (Novels/Comics)
 * Deborah Morgan
 * Octavio (Novels)
 * Raul
 * Rita Morgan (Novels/Comics)