This is the third book in the Joe Ledger series, and it causes nail biting, sleepless nights, and stolen moments, just like the first two. When I was done it prompted the following response – “Do I really have to wait another year for the next book? Noooooo!” I read all 496 pages in a week, because I could not put my Nook down. Every free moment, and there really weren’t a lot of them, I had my toy turned on and my attention solely focused on what was happening in and around Joe Ledger and the Department of Military Sciences.
If you aren’t familiar with Joe and the DMS here is some background:
Joe Ledger – Joe is a detective with the Baltimore police, and part of the Homeland Security counter-terrorism task force. He is not real big on authority, and generally not found of people who force themselves into other people’s lives. He is a jujitsu master and former Special Forces, though he would say he never did anything that special with them. His best friend is his psychiatrist Rudy. Joe shows up on the DMS radar after invading a warehouse with terrorist cell, killing many of them, saving the lives of some of his teammates. Now he heads up Echo Team, a bad-ass group of soldiers who have the latest in military toys, and they take on the world’s greatest threats.
Department of Military Sciences – This is a super secret division of the military that answers only to the President. It is run by Aunt Sally, with Mr. Church as her second in command. He is Joe’s direct boss. The DMS have access to the greatest minds in numerous fields, and the latest and greatest military and tactical toys available.
In the first book, Patient Zero, Joe joins the secretive DMS and battles zombies. In the second book, The Dragon Factory, Joe and his Echo Team go head to head with genetically engineered creatures and men. And in the third book, The King of Plagues, Joe is sucked back into DMS life, and he and his DMS supported team match technology and wits with a group of bad guys whose combined powers have let them run amuck for years. Here is the write up from the publisher, St Martins Press.
Saturday 09:11 Hours: A blast rocks a London hospital and thousands are dead or injured… 10:09 Hours: Joe Ledger arrives on scene to investigate. The horror is unlike anything he has ever seen. Compelled by grief and rage, Joe rejoins the DMS and within hours is attacked by a hit-team of assassins and sent on a suicide mission into a viral hot zone during an Ebola outbreak. Soon Joe Ledger and the Department of Military Sciences begin tearing down the veils of deception to uncover a vast and powerful secret society using weaponized versions of the Ten Plagues of Egypt to destabilize world economies and profit from the resulting chaos. Millions will die unless Joe Ledger meets this powerful new enemy on their own terms as he fights terror with terror.
Maberry has given readers another terrific thriller. His research into all the technical aspects of the novel is impeccable, using the science and technology available, sometimes stretching it a little, to take readers into a world they never imagined, making it plausible.
TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY, THAT IS THE QUESTION. This is a BUY BUY BUY! The King of Plagues is intelligent, thrilling, suspenseful, and scary with its subject matter. Simply, Maberry has rocked my world again.