The King of Plagues

The Joe Ledger Novels, Book 3

By: Jonathan Maberry

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 16 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Saturday, 0911 hours — A blast rocks a London hospital and thousands are dead or injured.

1009 hours — Joe Ledger arrives on scene to investigate. The horror is unlike anything he has ever seen.

Compelled by grief and rage, Ledger rejoins the Department of Military Sciences, and within hours he's attacked by a hit team of assassins and sent on a suicide mission into a viral hot zone during an Ebola outbreak.

Soon Ledger and the DMS begin tearing down the veils of deception to uncover a vast and powerful secret society using weaponized versions of the Ten Plagues of Egypt to destabilize world economies and profit from the resulting chaos. Millions will die unless Ledger meets this powerful new enemy on its own terms as he fights terror with terror.

Take another thrill ride with Joe Ledger.

©2011 Jonathan Maberry (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“A fast-paced, brilliantly written novel.” (Brad Thor)

good book

good book, easy to listen too, made time at work go by faster.
wasn't boring. wasn't boring at all

It's a great story…

But the comment here is about Porter.
The greatest comment about any narrator is about they disappear. That is the listener hears the story without any notice that it is being read. The story simply exists in one's perception. Characters are distinct and exact, there is no awareness that they are anything but present. There is no repetition of voices and each is appropriate to the character in both tone and accent.
This is Ray Porter. The only time I know he is there is when I am once again amazed by his talent.
This talent is perennial, but the Ledger series is a great exhibition of it.

Very fun and exciting!

This was an action packed thrill ride. Very little down time and it brings in a lot of info from the previous books. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, despite the main character being so good at everything, and I'm ready to start book 4.

Joe Ledger is the man!

This was another great Joe Ledger story. No breaking ground here but very entertaining. Ray Porter gives another great performance as usual.

Still a good series

I think I'm addicted to Johnathan Mayberry and Joe Ledger. It seems like just when you think there can't be anything more, suddenly there is! Ray Porter narrates these books and I love the way he reads. If you like this kind of book, you'll love the series.

Thought provoking and engaging

It’s rare that a book on any topic can keep one’s interest from start to finish, without skipping through a couple of pages of bland dialogue, but Jonothan maybury does just that

Another great story

Kept me engrossed to the end. Highly recommend. Got my husband interested in this series. Can’t wait for next one!

Better Than The Second Joe Ledger

I was disappointed by the second Joe Ledger book Dragon Factory and almost didn't read this one. But, I was such a fan of Dust and Decay and Rot and Ruin (absolutely fantastic btw) that I decided to give this one a shot.
I don't think it was as good as Patient Zero but it is damn close.

More, please!

Top notch fiction. Maberry is my new addiction! The narrator is superb!

Brings a story arc to the bad guys

The King of Plagues brings back some baddies from a prior book as the Department of Military Sciences discovers the existence of the Seven Kings. They are a powerful cabal bent on causing chaos throughout the world and profiting from it. The Seven Kings use their knowledge of the upcoming chaos they will cause to make money on various fronts as wars and catastrophes impact the world markets. Ruled over by "The Goddess" there are seven members of the cabal each with an adviser who acts as their "conscience." It turns out that they have a vacancy and are in need of a new King of Plagues.

The DMS lost a major member at the end of The Dragon Factory and the impact of that loss is evident as Joe Ledger is still on a leave of absence when this one starts. Joe is grief stricken and trying to find a way to cope with yet another loss in his life and he has been off active duty for a while. Of course a new threat causes Mr Church to coax Joe back into action and when he returns Joe brings along a new companion, Ghost. Ghost is a white German Shepard who is trained in many capacities including bomb sniffing and combat. Ghost is also an excellent judge of character and plays a key role as Joe's new partner. Echo team also has also added some new members while Joe was gone, including John Smith, the best sniper in the world. John's code name is Chatterbox, since he barely talks at all, but when he brings down the Hammer of God on someone he never misses. Circe O'Tree is another new character introduced who brings her skill set over to the DMS as a terrorism expert.

A terrorist attack in a London hospital kicks things off as the Seven Kings start to implement a new wave of chaos involving their new King of Plagues. By coercing individuals that work in key locations around the world the Seven Kings are recreating a modern version of the Ten Plagues from the Bible. These attacks are perpetrated by ordinary people in vital roles at these key locations and this combined with social media manipulation from The Goddess starts to position the Seven Kings as a powerful force to be reckoned with. However, another rival cabal starts feeding information on the activities of the Seven Kings to the DMS and Joe and team find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place. It starts to become obvious that the DMS is being used as a tool for one rival to take down another but they can't ignore the threats being orchestrated by the Seven Kings and they must stop them at all costs.

Now that the bad guys are starting to have a story arc of their own the series is gathering some momentum as key players on various points of the moral compass vie to gain the upper hand. Mr. Church and Aunt Sally, the two key leaders of the DMS, clearly have a nebulous past of their own and every bad guy that shows up knows about them and fears what they are capable of. This adds a nice layer to the overall series and makes it more engaging than just Joe Ledger and Echo team going around shooting people.

Ray Porter delivers another excellent narration and I continue to march forward in the series. It isn't the greatest series ever but it is entertaining and a nice change of pace within the genre. I do enjoy the random pop culture references made throughout each book and often chuckle when Ledger compares things in his "real world" to other fictional worlds.