Jonathan Maberry: Patient Zero

Jonathan Maberry bring us the start of a new series where war and biological warfare take on a whole new aspect and the government is willing to do anything to stop it.

Joe Ledger knows that it is going to be an interesting week when he is forced to kill the same terrorist twice, and he knows that there is nothing wrong with his ability to kill. Joe is Balitmore Police detective who is about to get offered a once in a lifetime opportunity to become part of a sercet government agency, but Joe does not know if he really wants to be part of something like that, nothing short of blackmail will make him take the job. Though Joe may be the new guy on the block he takes a no holds bar attitude and this is going to be put to the test as Joe's, get his first assignment before he has even joined the DMS, to stop a group of terrorist from releasing a bioweapon against America.

Ah Zombies, the ever so popular choice for the paranormal genre this year, at least it is alot harder to romanticize zombies than it was vampire a few years ago. Sometime people need to just get back to the basics of scary.

This book is a really good action adventure book with some great action scenes, suspense with a touch of mystery and a side of zombies. I think that the action scenes were really well laid and thought out. I was not scratching my head attempting to figure out how the characters within the book got out of situations or completed their "moves". I think that Maberry has a great ability to write actions scene that flow smoothly and keep the reader entertained throughout.

I think this book could have been written without zombie and still been a really interesting read, but does having Zombie in this book what makes this book special, in this day and age, No (Zombies are the new flavour), but if you like Zombies it is all the more reason to read this book. I think what actually set this book apart from other is the realism that something like this is possible maybe not zombies per say (but you never really know) but humans have had the ability to formulate many deadly pathogens in the past and really what is to stop one like this from being created or discovered (you can tell by the research that Maberry did in this book that he was trying to make it as real as possible).

There are several interesting characters within this book that I hope in time that Maberry will take the time to explore them further in future books. I liked Joe Ledger as a main character. He everything that I like in this type of book, a deadly individual who does not hesitate, but with his own set or right and wrong morals. Joe probably would be on the verge of being a psychopath if he was not able to keep his "three sides in balance" The Cop, The Warrior and The Modern Man. I think that this was a very interesting way in explaining Joe's personality as well as his ability to get the job done.

Actually one of my favorite character was Toys. I think he is one of the perfect bad guys that you would never see coming in real life. He plays all his parts well, and you begin to see that he is the true manipulator of the people around him and of his life.  I wish there would have been more of him in the book. I also liked how the mind behind the pathogen was a woman and that woman came from a middle eastern extremist culture view on women, therefore, I thought it was an interesting aspect of the book.

I think that this is a well written book that any individual who is fan of action adventure genre with a USA vs the Middle East Extremist vibe to it  will enjoy this book. If you are not a fan of zombie books but like action adventure then think of this book as using biological warfare and that should get you past the Zombie part. I am looking forward to reading more about Joe and more from Mulberry. I think this was a really good read.

Enjoy!!!

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