On a raid, Baltimore detective Joe Ledger, assigned to a counter-terrorism force, kills Javad Mustapha on a Monday.  On Wednesday, as part of his recruitment to the super-secret Department of Military Science (DMS), Ledger kills Mustapha again.  A terrorist group has a new biological weapon that not only kills, but it also reanimates the corpses.  The terrorists now use the living dead against us.  Thankfully we have Joe Ledger leading the DMS forces under the direction of the mysterious and powerful Mr. Church.
 
Patient Zero zips along at a brisk clip, and it has a fair amount of action and one-liners.  I liked it, and wanted to like it more.  Maberry has a great story with a killer premise, and he makes it seem almost possible that science could raise the dead.  One thing that dashed the story for me was the lead, Joe Ledger himself.  Very first chapter from the book:  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.  Okay, good point.  My problem, the main character, Joe Ledger, is a little arrogant.  Maybe more than a little.  Almost an asshole.  He speaks highly of himself a little too much a little too often.  One lesson in life is cool doesn’t advertise.
 
My second problem with Patient Zero, and the most glaring, is a plot twist at the end that I will not give away here, other than to say that the Secret Service and the FBI should, and would, probably know the guest list of a function (major American holiday celebration or not) that the wives of the President and Vice President would be speaking at.  And with the resources of Mr. Church and his DMS, it seems almost airheaded that such information was not known.  It really is a sour note in the book.
 
I was entertained by Patient Zero, though it was rather formulaic.  Personally I don’t think I care to read any future Joe Ledger adventures.  Unless he decides to visit Pine Deep….
 
3.5 out of 5
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