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)

Oddly entertaining!

Would have never guessed I would enjoy Zombie genre, but this is well written and well performed!

Outstanding

story was great....Performance was great...Highly recommended. an absolute pleasure to listen to. story was very captivating.

It gets better as it goes along

Awkward begging-lead is annoying only-at-first. Tighter-narrative & characters get progressively better 35-40mins in to the end

Zombie & Spy Thriller in one!

Part CIA thriller, part zombie apocalypse, ‘Patient Zero’ provides a great mix of zombie action and spy vs. terrorist entreat to create a unique type of book. There is a lot of action and the story moves well from place to place. The characters are likable and real, not just stone faced killers you sometimes get in these novels, but I wish Joe’s smart mouth continued a bit more throughout the book to bring just that touch of humor. A great read for zombie and thrill seekers alike.

The performance was really really good, but during some of the fight sequences Mr Porter was a bit monotone and Ben Stienish. Other than that he was top notch.

Way better than I would have guessed

This is my first zombie novel. Were it not for the zombies, it would be a classic terrorist thriller -- a pretty good one. So the zombies just added a bit of scary humor to the story, without really distracting from it. The science as written was pretty accurate (but taken to the next degree to make it unreal). I plan to read the next in the series. There are some good laughs, some creepy bits, and a few times when you are desperate to find out what happens next. The reader is perfect, too.

hooked

awesome book, not your typical zombie story. I'm officially hooked. just purchased the next in the series.

Most scientific zombie theory

I usually avoid zombie tales but this book is an exception. Fast paced and scary. Great narration, I look forward to more Joe Ledger novels.

Goddamnit! Now I have another series to binge

This is a great story fleshed out (no pun intended) with great detail.

Ray Porter does a fantastic job of narration.

I'm now aiming to listen to any of Jonathan Mayberry's books and anything that Ray Porter narrates.

One if the best

I've not written many reviews, but this book, story and performance was just amazing. I you are a fan of apocalyptic fiction, this is hands down one of the best books ever written. Just phenomenal.

Like an alternate reality prequel to Walking Dead

I normally don't go in for zombie stuff, but my daughter "coerced" me into watching the Walking Dead with her and now I'm hooked on it. Clearly without Joe Ledger that is what would have come to pass!! (Normally I hate spoilers, but if you're reading the review of a book obviously about zombies and the first in a detective/spook series, you pretty much have it already.) Remarkably this book even makes The Walking Dead quite believable.

I'll definitely go for the next book in the series, as I learned to like these characters pretty easily. The narration if perfect for the characters and the genre. As cool as the old Dragnet no nonsense dialogue except with emotion. It's definitely a can't-put-downer and has helped fill the gap until the onset of the next season of The Walking Dead. Enjoy!