The Cleansing tells the story of a violent American Indian wolf god, Wanata, who comes to earth every 100 years to make humanity accountable for its abuses against nature. When a strange events begin to unfold in Alaska, Savannah Channing, a freelance journalist for a Denver newspaper is sent to investigate the story of a rampaging wolf pack systemically destroying entire villages. By the time she arrives, the devastation has begun to spread into a holocaust of horrifying proportions that test the mettle of U.S. and Canadian military units, and the brutal bounty hunter they have employed. Wanata's ancient and cataclysmic mission goes terribly wrong, when during the full moon, he turns into a mortal human and is forced to become familiar with those he must punish. It doesn't take a silver bullet to kill him and he knows it. Even when he is a wolf, he thinks as a highly intelligent human, and must use his wits to survive against those he seeks to destroy. Inexorably Savannah and Wanata converge into a spine-chilling conclusion that is fresh and original and violent. The writing is taut and gripping. John Harvey tells his suspenseful, episodic drama through the eyes of Savannah and Wanata in such a cunning way that the reader is left in a state of unrelenting tension-anxiously craving for a sequel.