Patient Zero

The Joe Ledger Novels, Book 1

By: Jonathan Maberry

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

From multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author Jonathan Maberry comes a major new thriller that combines the best of the New York Times best-selling books World War Z by Max Brooks and James Rollins’ Sigma Force Series to kick off the start of a new series featuring Joe Ledger and the Department of Military Sciences.

When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week there’s either something wrong with your world or something wrong with your skills - and there’s nothing wrong with Joe Ledger’s skills. And that’s both a good and a bad thing. It’s good because he’s a Baltimore detective who has just been secretly recruited by the government to lead a new task force created to deal with the problems that Homeland Security can’t handle. This rapid-response group is called the Department of Military Sciences, or the DMS for short. It’s bad because his first mission is to help stop a group of terrorists from releasing a dreadful bioweapon that can turn ordinary people into zombies. The fate of the world hangs in the balance.

Jonathan Maberry is the New York Times best-selling and multiple Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Ghost Road Blues, the first of a trilogy of thrillers with a supernatural bite. A professional writer and writing teacher, he has sold more than 1.000 articles, 17 nonfiction books, six novels, and two plays.

©2009 Jonathan Maberry (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Brilliant, shocking, horrifying, it puts the terror back in terrorist.” (James Rollins, New York Times best-selling author)

“Plenty of man-to-zombie combat, a team traitor and a doomsday scenario add up to a fast and furious read.” ( Publishers Weekly)

"Jonathan Maberry has found a delightful voice for this adventure of Joe Ledger and his crew: while the action is heated, violent, and furious, the writing remains cool, steady, and low-key, framing all the wildness and exuberance in a calm rationality (given an almost comic edge) that renders it as palatable as your favorite flavor of ice cream." (Peter Straub)

THIS BOOK

Absolutely love this book. the narrator is extremely talented and the story is perfectly put together. at first it's drab but the book builds a perfect foundation that keeps you HOOKED!

Great!!

Excellent story, well laid out, and great narration by Ray Porter. Doesn’t get much better!
I’m getting the next one right now!

Jonathan and Ray are a killer team!

I've been a horror enthusiasts since forever. (50 +years) one of, if not the best of the well over 200+ ive experienced. you might not regret it! 100%

Rating

Here's how I rate

On narrator
5= good read speed, good pronunciation, appealing voice/voices.
4= an issue with one of the above
3= many issues
1-2 I couldn't finish because of his voice

Story
5= good plot, keeps my attention, it doesn't ramble along
The rest follows a similar to narrator

It was a pretty good book, it seemed to slow down in a couple points but over all it was a good book. It seemed well thought out and planned.

Don't start this if you have anything to do...

This book is awesome. Kept my attention. narration was great. Character development throughout was top notch. I'll definitely be continuing on with the series.

Not your typical zombie story

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes, Maberry keeps the action moving and uses different points of view to keep the readers up to speed as to what all the different plot lines are doing. As the story reaches the climax, he brings all the plots together in some explosive action sequences, which almost feel as frantic as being there. Even the action scenes in the rising action are exciting and make you want to keep listening.

What does Ray Porter bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Ray Porter does a great job with this type of book, and he was the narrator in one of my favorite books that we listened to last year 14 by Peter Clines. He does an outstanding job with dry humor and sarcasm and when it's time to be serious, he cuts to the chase. His cadence is perfect and brings excitement and the thrill to the action.

If you could take any character from Patient Zero out to dinner, who would it be and why?

The titular hero in this case. Ledger has seen some crazy things both as a cop and now as part of the Department of Military Sciences. Hearing some of those stories would be really exciting and terrifying.

Any additional comments?

Really enjoyed the start to this series, and we're looking to hearing more of this series in the future and seeing what crisis Ledger and the DMS will try to stop next.

Good zombie thriller

Overall this kept my intense interest and did a great job describing things that I would imagine would be hard to capture in written form like detailed fight scenes. Love the characters and the reading was great.

i enjoyed the read very much.

good stuff. the story was interesting and narration was great. i recommend the joe ledger series of books.

Yes, that good!

What made the experience of listening to Patient Zero the most enjoyable?

It's a gripping, well told, well thought out story that is also surprisingly funny. I could have done without the smidgen of romance. I didn't feel like it added to the story in any more than the hero gets the girl kind of way.

What other book might you compare Patient Zero to and why?

This isn't my typical genre so I don't really have anything to compare it to.

What about Ray Porter’s performance did you like?

He is Joe Ledger. I loved the cockiness!

Way Better Than Expected!

I had this book in my library for about 2 years and kept passing it over for other books I assumed would be much better. Wow! How wrong I was. The narration by Mr. Porter was as good as any of the top readers I have come across. All of the characters were exceptional (in my opinion). The story line? Was about as unique as anything I have read before. It was just an excellent story. Now, if you are one of "those people" who sit there and say, "that is not realistic", "that is not possible", "that is just wrong and he did not research it enough", "no way it could happen like that", or "he missed a comma", then first of all I feel sorry for you and secondly, can you just read the book and stop your attempt at grading the novel as if you are an English Lit professor or a first rate editor. I have always assumed that "those people" must have written the best novel never published and think their work is better than just about every book they have read since and are just angry. Here is a tip, your book most likely sucks and every book you have read IS better than yours. So, take the day off and just enjoy whatever book you happen to be reading……with love.