Book Review: Jonathan Maberry’s PATIENT ZERO by Nancy O. Greene

Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

Patient Zero is an incredibly detailed, well-paced, action-packed novel. Maberry manages to pack a lot into roughly 420 pages, and yet there’s never a time when it feels like too much has been done.

Joe Ledger is a cop that is recruited by a special government unit whose sole purpose is to fight a new biological warfare weapon designed by religious fanatic terrorists. This new threat has the ability to turn living people into mindless killing machines, zombies. The technology behind the threat is explained in great detail and has more in common with something like the 28 Days Later rage virus in that the subjects don’t die, but their biological processes are turned against them while the virus protects itself by shutting down major organs and injured tissue.

While the novel focuses upon the good guys—the primary ones being Joe Ledger; Grace Courtland, a DMS agent; Mr. Church, the DMS leader, described essentially as a monster for the good guys; and Rudy Sanchez, Ledger’s therapist—the bad guys don’t get glossed over as cardboard cutouts.

While it doesn’t lack depth, it’s not an overly emotional novel—the demons are pretty much in the open, the characters are mostly straightforward in their thoughts and actions, and that’s a good thing here. With the threat the characters are dealing with and the established background they all have, it might be awkward to stop every fifty or so pages and to read about feelings for a hundred pages. That doesn’t mean that the characters don’t feel real. They do, but the complexities are covered in a condensed fashion, shown more in their interactions and in well-written, concise private moments.

The action is what Patient Zero is all about, and it flows like water. Four, five, six pages of highly detailed action go by so swiftly—as if on film rather than on paper—that the reader will have to catch his or her breath afterwards. It’s so much fun that it was disappointing to finish it and not have the next Joe Ledger novel within easy reach.

Another great thing about this novel is how it’s organized. Even though it switches from first person to third and changes viewpoints, there’s not a time when the story line is hard to follow. And each section has a distinct feel. You know when you’re in one character’s head verses another.

There’s also an interesting character here, a scientist obsessed with zombies. He has a collection of zombie memorabilia and makes references to 28 Days Later, Night of the Living Dead, et. al. But instead of being a likable wink-wink to the reader, he’s more a contrast to Ledger and is seen by the rest of the team as an annoyance that is “just useful enough” to be kept alive and informed. The characters in this novel take the situation fairly seriously as a real-world scenario, and in the real world the “cool” factor of a zombie apocalypse would wear thin quickly once people you care about turn. It’s an interesting mix. Because while the action is awesome, and Joe Ledger and the DMS kick terrorist and undead ass all over the place—and it is fiction—it never glosses over the fact that the zombies in the book being knocked off one by one were people with lives and families and friends. It doesn’t try to desensitize the reader to the gruesome reality of death, and in fact shows the impact that it has on each of the characters. But it all balances well enough that readers can still just enjoy the fictional, action-packed ride.

Overall, it’s a great read for those that like action-packed novels, zombies, and BFGs.

-Nancy