Patient Zero

December 1, 2008
While raiding a terrorist cell at the start of this exciting thriller from Stoker-winner Maberry (Dead Man's Song
), Baltimore PD Det. Joe Ledger shoots two .45 slugs into Javad Mustapha, killing him very dead. Four days later, while trying out for a secret government antiterrorist unit, Joe has to kill Javad all over again. It appears the terrorists have figured out a way to make zombies, and they're about to turn the legions of the undead loose on the world. Terrorist El Mujahid and his brilliant scientist wife, Amirah, who created the zombies, are working with villainous international businessman Sebastian Gault. That Sebastian and Amirah are having wild sex in the lab shows that loyalties within the group of conspirators aren't all they should be. Joe leads a team of elite fighters against the zombies, a job he performs with spectacular skill. Plenty of man-to-zombie combat, a team traitor and a doomsday scenario add up to a fast and furious read.

March 1, 2009
An exemplary police officer and former soldier is about to join the FBI when he's contacted by a shadowy government agency that makes him an offer he can't refuse. He accepts and learns that hidden forces are bent on destroying the American way of life, and only he and his elite force of handpicked combat specialists can defeat them. It's the plot of any number of B-list spy thrillers, but two things save Bram Stoker Award winner Maberry's ("Ghost Road Blues") novel from being a hackneyed cliché. First, the threat isn't bombs or hijackers but a manufactured plague that turns its victims into zombies. Second, readers get a view into the minds and motivations of protagonist Joe Ledger via his best friend and psychotherapist, lending the story extra depth. The villains, by contrast, are one-dimensional stereotypes of greed, lust, and zealotry. Maberry's web site (www.jonathanmaberry.com) shows release dates for two other Joe Ledger novels in 2010 and 2011. Recommended for medium-sized to large public libraries.Karl G. Siewert, Tulsa City-Cty. Lib.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2009
A dark, chilling and funny thriller about zombies from Maberry (Zombie CSU: The Forensics of the Living Dead, 2008, etc.).
Joe Ledger, a Baltimore cop on leave after killin g a suspected terrorist during a raid on a warehouse, just wanted to spend a day girl-watching at the beach. So when four FBI agents corner him as he's getting into his car and take him on a mandatory ride in their black SUV, he's a little miffed, especially since he's about to leave the department and join their ranks at Quantico. But any negative emotion he feels about being snatched up is soon dwarfed by what goes through his head when Mr. Church, head of the top secret Department of Military Sciences, locks him in a room a short time later and forces him to kill the very same terrorist he shot to death less than a week before. The whole thing is a recruiting test, and after Joe, an Army veteran and martial-arts expert, dispatches the terrorist —again —without hesitation, Church invites him to join the DMS, a government organization created to battle threats that fall outside the purview of other government organizations. Threats from zombie terrorists, for instance. Soon, Joe is leading a tactical team, as he and the rest of the DMS try to stop terrorist El Mujahid, his mad-scientist bride Amirah and Sebastian Gualt, their wealthy Western backer, from unleashing a plague that turns regular people, soldiers and terrorists alike into bloodthirsty, infectious zombies. The book is as fun and funny as it is chilling and thrill-packed. Joe is a fantastic character, full of compassion, real vulnerabilities and a deliciously dark sense of humor.

An immensely entertaining package.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)