In The Devil’s Only Friend , John Cleaver is at it again. As I hoped, the story has moved away from Clayton County. This time around, John and Brooke– now with many of the memories and personalities of the demon (Cursed/Withered) Nobody–are part of an FBI task force tasked with hunting down and killing as many of the demons as they can.

It’s a cool way to take the story and I’m glad to see the change. I like seeing how John interacts with his new team members. It’s interesting that they’re all screwed up in their own ways, but they’re still trying to hunt something even worse. I wish we’d gotten a bit more depth on them before the end of the book, but it’s still a new situation to see John react to.

Worldbuildingwise, we learn far more about the demons than we’ve ever known before (except perhaps if you read Next of Kin first). I especially like how different each of the demons is. They not only each have different powers, they have completely different feeling personalities and many of them actually do manage to feel their age. It’s an interesting bit of worldbuilding and each one we see just makes me want to see more.

Overall, it’s a solid book. Serial killer after serial killer in the small town first trilogy was getting to be a bit much, but now they have the entire world to play in. There’s a lot of potential there for the second trilogy. Given the ending ( Wells really likes killing off his cast doesn't he... ), I’m curious where it will go next.

Side note: If you get the chance, read Next of Kin after The Devil’s Only Friend . Reading the short story first reveals a few things you would find out through the course of the book more naturally. I wish I had.