Book Review: Patient Zero

A package arrived for me about two weeks ago from containing an Advanced Readers' Copy of a soon-to-be-released horror novel from author Jonathan Maberry. Not just any horror novel, for this one was to be packed from page to page with ZOMBIES. Nothing I enjoy more than reading about the living dead wreaking havoc somewhere in the world -- well, except for a spine-tingling, eerie ghost story.

"When you have to kill the same terrorist twice in one week, then there's either something wrong with your skills or something wrong with your world.

And there's nothing wrong with my skills."

Baltimore Detective Joe Ledger thinks that the two bullets he fired into the back of the terrorist Javad Mustapha during a warehouse raid should have done the trick. But when three government agents show up, escort him to a nondescript building and lock him in a room with the recently re-animated Mustapha, he discovers that he couldn't be further from the truth. Thanks to the results of his second meeting with Mustapha -- actually, a test to see if has the "right stuff" -- Ledger is recruited by the mysterious Mr. Church to join a new, ultrasecret organization known as the Department of Military Science, or DMS. Mustapha, now known as Patient Zero, is the first inkling of a new line of bioterrorism, one that can turn everyday people into zombies, and it's up to Ledger and the DMS to stop the threat before someone releases it in the U.S.

When I first began to read, I inwardly groaned at the quick portrait of Ledger -- and even his therapist Dr. Rudy Sanchez -- as mens' men, rugged, handsome and always on the prowl for a good-looking woman. Images of those semi-cheesy Sci-Fi Channel movies popped into my head. But, after Ledger and Sanchez come face to face with the new threat, something changes, a very subtle shift in both their attitudes, and my pre-conceived notions disappear. Each still has a bit of that he-man swagger, but it's rational, tempered by what they've seen, by what they know could possibly happen. And I found my self liking them, wanting them to succeed, cheering and fretting with each run-in with the zombies.

On the other side of the character coin, the villains in Patient Zero also started out as the typical "businessman out to make a buck no matter what" and Middle Eastern extremists. Sebastian Gault runs the world's largest pharmaceutical manufacturing operation, and together with the terrorist El Mujahid and his mad-scientist wife Amirah, he plans on introducing the new infection into the U.S., but for purely monetary reasons. But just like Ledger and Sanchez, just when I want to hate him, he realizes what El Mujahid and Amirah are really up to and takes action. Totally unexpected and a great twist, in my opinion.

The timeframe of the story runs only a few weeks, and Maberry creates a real-time feel with the pacing. Very little time elapses between Ledger's second run-in with Patient Zero and his first major zombie fight. The characters don't get a rest and neither does the reader! I was glued to the action, not being able to put the book down because I needed to know what was going to happen next. (I actually read the last 300 pages within a few hours last Saturday, in one sitting.) As for the "battle" scenes, the detailed settings, the cautious approach by Ledger and his team, the zombies themselves being ordinary people, the violent and bloody fights -- just amazing. And I will say, for a horror novel, Patient Zero does a nice job of adding a realistic political thriller into the mix.

I thoroughly enjoyed Ledger and the DMS and hope that this will be the first of many adventures. Oh, and if you're interested in reading a story connected to Patient Zero, St. Martin's Press offers a taste here: Countdown.

Image from Barnes & Noble.