“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.” This opening line in Jonathan Maberry’s bio-terrorist thriller “Patient Zero” sums up the novel quite perfectly.

Patient Zero follows Baltimore detective Joe Ledger as he gets recruited to work for a secret branch of Homeland Security called the Department of Military Science, which is trying to battle against a deadly bio-weapon engineered to turn humans in to zombies. Yes, that’s right, zombies.

The book spans the events of three days as a group of terrorist tries to engineer a deadly prion disease to be released in Washington D.C. and infect the country.  Joe Ledger must deal with his inner demons as he leads his team through countless zombie attacks and the disasters that they leave in their wake.

“Patient Zero” is a top choice book for anyone looking for a fast-paced thriller. One of the best aspects of the book is that it is so perfectly written you feel like you are trying to shoot your way out of a zombie-infested video game. Maberry’s talent is how well he depicts the violent hand-to-hand combat scenes that fill this book.

While the book is a combination of horror, violence, military and fantasy, it also has an undertone of deep emotion that balances the gory nature of the story. The emotion comes from the well-developed character of Joe Ledger who has to cope with the horror and death that has been thrown upon him.

Not only does Maberry keep the book fresh through his interpretation of zombies (which are very overplayed right now), but his use of humor with his characters keeps the book light and fast paced. Another great part of the book is that it switches points of view between Joe Ledger and the psychotic billionaire villain behind the zombie outbreak.  Getting a glimpse in to the psyche of this deranged character and his army of followers just adds to the many layers of this heart-racing thriller.

This is just the first book in Mayberry’s series of Joe Ledger books. “Patient Zero” is followed by “The King of Plagues,” “The Dragon Factory,” “Assassins’ Code” and “Extinction Machine.” As an avid Maberry fan, the books just get better, and no, they are not all about zombies.