Nothing Left to Lose: A Novel

John Wayne Cleaver has had a strange life. Raised in a funeral home, constantly working to keep his sociopathic urges in check, John stumbled upon the existence of the Withered: monstrous beings with dark powers that have lurked among humans for ten thousand years. And John finally found a good reason to act on his serial killing urges. Now, on the run from the FBI, he may finally have tracked down the last of the Withered, one that the rest of them fear: Rain. And John is determined to finish the Withered off once and for all.

Nothing Left to Lose is the sixth and, sadly, final installment in the John Wayne Cleaver series, and Wells not only manages to bring the saga full-circle but to pay off lots of little threads he’s left along the way. John is at his most engaging here, world-weary and pensive, giving his interactions with others greater poignancy, even when he’s playing them to his own benefit.

Nothing Left to Lose is steeped in finality but never descends into the maudlin. It’s both a satisfying conclusion and a book that feels startlingly different from all those that came before it.