Reacher and Vaughan discuss Despair, learning that the town is controlled by a crazed evangelist named Jerry Thurman.

Reacher encounters Lucy Anderson, a young woman searching for her missing husband, who was a soldier stationed at the secret military base.

Reacher confronts Judge Gardner, forcing him to reveal the town's secret: the metal recycling plant is actually a front for a clandestine operation involving illegal weapons manufacturing and military experimentation.

Nothing to Lose features several similarities to David Morrell's 1972 novel, First Blood, including the fact that the lead character (a former soldier) is mistaken for a loiterer and harassed by local law enforcement.

Morrell's novel was popular in its time and was the inspiration for the hugely successful 1982 film First Blood starring Sylvester Stallone, released to international acclaim.

Andy Martin of The Independent described the writing of the main character to be like "the great Philip Marlowe pulp tradition, nuanced with a dash of Rambo and Bruce Willis.

"[3] Peter Millar of The Sunday Times found the novel to be "as gripping and readable as any in the Reacher series", though he considered the main character to be a "socially dysfunctional, second-rate Superman".