Over Your Dead Body

by Dan Wells
303 pgs  (John Wayne Cleaver series #5)

In The Devil's Only Friend young John Wayne Cleaver tried working as a special consultant to the FBI. His unique abilities were used by a special team of agents to hunt down and destroy the Withered, demons who take possession of a human body and kill with very little chance of ever being discovered. As the book concludes, and things go horribly wrong with an operation, John decides he's better off hunting down the remaining Withered with only the help of Brooke, who is psychologically broken and possessed by the demon known as Nobody..

As Over Your Dead Body begins, John and Brooke have been hitchhiking across the country, hunting the Withered and hiding from the authorities. Their arrive in a small town in Oklahoma, where they believe an ancient Withered has been hiding out unnoticed for decades. But shortly after they arrive in town the murders begin. It seems as if their arrival has caused the demon to begin killing again, and neither John nor Brooke has any idea why.
They know that they need to quickly identify who the Withered is, and stop it from killing anyone else.

This series gets better with each installment. When I started reading the first book, I am Not a Serial Killer, I thought Wells was just a fan of Dexter and decided to put his own spin on the idea. But about halfway through, the book took an unexpected turn towards the supernatural. And while Lindsay's Dexter series eventually got stale--to say nothing about what happened to the TV series--Wells's series has so far maintained its uniqueness, and with each book, Wells's writing talents have become more apparent. I get increasingly more eager for each new book.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Devil's Only Friend

by Dan Wells
304 pgs  (John Wayne Cleaver series #4)

When I finished reading I Don't Want to Kill You, I figured that was the last time I'd read about John Wayne Cleaver--a teenager who had all of the inclinations and desires to become a serial killer, but who kept himself in check with his self-imposed set of rules--and I was okay with that. I liked the way the trilogy ended, and I was content moving on. When I found out Dan Wells was going to write another three books, I was both excited and leery. Excited because I really enjoyed the first three books, but leery because I didn't want him to mess around with something that I felt was complete.

The Devil's Only Friend picks up a short while after IDWTKY ends. John now works for a special FBI task force that hunts down and kills the Withered. The Withered took away the only two things that he cared about in the last book; his mother and his girlfriend, and now John uses his unique set of skills and instincts to identify them, hunt them down, and then kill them. But John would rather work alone, he's not comfortable working with the other members of the team, some of whom know a little bit about his past, but none of whom know about the internal monster he's constantly trying to keep at bay.

Overall I enjoyed this latest book, and I'm looking forward to the next two. It's not the strongest book in the series, but I'd definitely recommend it to everyone who read the first three. It'll be interesting to see where Wells takes the series from here.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

I Don't Want to Kill You

by Dan Wells
(John Wayne Cleaver series #3)

The third and what the author says is the final installment in the John Wayne Cleaver trilogy. The first two books: I Am Not a Serial Killer and Mr. Monster were both great books. I Don't Want to Kill You makes the trilogy fantastic.

I don't want to say very much about the plot of the book because I don't want to spoil anything about the previous two. In my review of Mr. Monster I described the unique character of John Cleaver, so I'll refer you there if you want to get an idea of what he's all about. I enjoyed reading the first book a lot, but for awhile after reading it, I remained uncertain about how I felt about a surprising and jarring turn the book took midway through it. I enjoyed Mr. Monster more I think because I was familiar with that aspect of the story and could enjoy it for the ride that I realized I was taking. With this last book, I really can't say enough about how great a series it was.

Hopefully Dan Wells has many stories like these yet to come.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Mr. Monster

by Dan Wells
(John Wayne Cleaver series #2)

This is Dan Wells's second book featuring John Wayne Cleaver. The first book, I Am Not a Serial Killer, introduced John, a fifteen year-old who is obsessed with serial killers. He has an insatiable appetite for information about them. He reads books about them, he studies their profiles and crimes, and he feels a special kind of kinship to them. John is not a serial killer, but he knows he's destined to become one.

Not surprisingly, whenever  I describe these books to people, most people say something like, "Sounds kind of like Dexter." There are definitely similarities between the two. Both of them are disturbingly likeable characters. But while Dexter gives in regularly to his "dark passenger" by killing pedophiles and others who he rationalizes are deserving of his skills, John is trying to maintain his tenuous control over his "Mr. Monster," hoping to never begin killing. He sees a therapist regularly and has devised a list of rules that he forces himself to follow which he feels will prevent him from ever starting down that road.

Mr. Monster picks up a couple of months after its predecessor left off and I wouldn't recommend reading it without first having read the other. I think Dan Wells is an author whose popularity is going to grow if he continues to write books as interesting and entertaining as these two have been.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆