'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.' Police officer Joe Ledger, martial arts expert, ex-army, self-confessed brutal warrior is scared. The man he's just killed is the same man he killed a week ago. He never expected to see the man again, definitely not alive, and definitely not as part of the recruitment process for the hyper-secret government agency the Department for Military Sciences. But the DMS are scared too: they have word of a terrorist plot straight from a nightmare - a bid to spread a plague through America - a plague that kills its victims and turns them into zombies. Time is running out and Joe has shown he has the abilities they need to lead one of their field teams. And so begins a desperate three-part mission - to contain the zombie outbreaks, to break the terrorist cell responsible and to find the man in their own team who is selling them out to the terrorists. Patient Zero is astonishingly fast moving, incredibily violent and down-right terrifying thriller - a new breed of thriller of techo-thriller that plays on our fears of mad science.
Reviews
"24-with-Zombies. The plot is simple but completely gripping. The pace breakneck. One of the most exciting thrillers we've read in years and arguably the greatest zombie novel." (Sam Ashurst SFX )
"A well written, often insanely paced and utterly compelling piece of entertainment. But the real joy of this novel is the plot: occasionally implausible, but unfailingly gripping, it makes for the same sort of breathless guilty pleasure as reading a James Patterson novel." (Steve Robinson DEATHRAY )
"Scary, creepy, and gripping--PATIENT ZERO is 'Night of the Living Dead' meets Michael Crichton."--Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of Power Play
"Plenty of man-to-zombie combat, a team traitor and a doomsday scenario add up to a fast and furious read." Publishers Weekly
Patient Zero is a fast-paced thriller that's amongst the best of its genre, and which will win the writer many new readers, plaudits and perhaps awards - and deservedly so." (STRANGE HORIZONS )
"A fast-paced, creepy thriller that as prickly as a hospital needle and sounds a little too convincing. This guy is good." --Joe R. Lansdale
"A dark, chilling and funny thriller about zombies from Maberry (Zombie CSU: The Forensics of the Living Dead, 2008, etc.). Joe Ledger, a Baltimore cop on leave after killing a suspected terrorist during a raid on a warehouse, just wanted to spend a day girl-watching at the beach. So when four FBI agents corner him as he's getting into his car and take him on a mandatory ride in their black SUV, he's a little miffed, especially since he's about to leave the department and join their ranks at Quantico. But any negative emotion he feels about being snatched up is soon dwarfed by what goes through his head when Mr. Church, head of the top secret Department of Military Sciences, locks him in a room a short time later and forces him to kill the very same terrorist he shot to death less than a week before. The whole thing is a recruiting test, and after Joe, an Army veteran and martial-arts expert, dispatches the terrorist-again-without hesitation, Church invites him to join the DMS, a government organization created to battle threats that fall outside the purview of other government organizations. Threats from zombie terrorists, for instance. Soon, Joe is leading a tactical team, as he and the rest of the DMS try to stop terrorist El Mujahid, his mad-scientist bride Amirah and Sebastian Gualt, their wealthy Western backer, from unleashing a plague that turns regular people, soldiers and terrorists alike into bloodthirsty, infectious zombies. The book is as fun and funny as it is chilling and thrill-packed. Joe is a fantastic character, full of compassion, real vulnerabilities and a deliciously dark sense of humor. An immensely entertaining package" Kirkus Reviews
Author Biography
Jonathan Maberry is the Bram Stoker Award winning writer of, amongst others, Ghost Road Blues, Bad Moon Rising and Dead Man's Song. He is also an 8th level black belt in jujutsu and a 5th level black belt in kenjutsu. He is a professional writer of horror fiction and non fiction and martial arts manuals as well as being a creative writing teacher. He lives in the US with his his wife.
