This is book 13 of a supposed 30 I am going to read this year, and the next 17 are going to have a heck of a job if they are to be better than this.

By far, my favourite book of the year so far - and that’s saying something as I’ve enjoyed a lot of the books along the way.

It’s hard to pinpoint just what it is about Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry that made it so brilliant. Perhaps it was that I read it in just two sittings, mainly outside in the sunshine which helped but then again the nature of the story and relentless pace of the story surely made it anything but a chore to do so.

I always like to have a look to see how many chapters a book has when I first start out as if I’m thinking about getting through it in a week then I can plan how many chapters I need to read each night!

Patient Zero has roughly 125 chapters which was a little daunting to say the least - but the very first chapter sets the trend for the book as it’s about 4 lines long.

Not that every chapter is like that, but there are no really lengthy parts which drag on for dozens of pages before a break.

If you don’t like thrillers which hurtle along at breakneck speed then this isn’t the book for you - in fact you will likely hate it. But if you are a fan of everything fast-paced then this is definitely the story for you.

It is based in the modern day and centres around a cop in the US called Joe Ledger. He is ex-army and is now headed for greater things having been called up to the FBI, however events outwith his control take over his life which mean he will never reach the FBI, instead being recruited to a secret government organisation which noone has ever heard or - or will ever hear of.

Their aim is to essentially save the United States of America from terrorist attack, and the tale of them trying to do just that is what the book revolves around.

A threat has been identified which uses some form of biological weapon to infect people with a disease which ultimately means they cannot die. Yes, this book is a modern twist on the zombie stories of old as once these people come back from the dead, they have an insatiable lust for human blood and flesh yet are very hard to kill once-and-for-all, making them the ultimate killing machines.

The task force Joe becomes part of has the objective of hunting down any facilities housing these people ahead of the planned attack as well as also trying to work out who could be behind the whole thing.

Everything points to it being religious fanatics from the Middle East, but the sums behind the scenes don’t seem to add up - where would they get the money and knowhow to develop something like this?

Well, the one organisation who benefits most from a widespread disease is the drug company who first develops a cure. The author, Maberry, takes this one step further by having a drug company not only develop a cure but also be the ones behind developing the disease itself ensuring that it’s owner is set to make an absolute fortune.

I only hope that this is something purely from his imagination and isn’t commonplace in the real world!

We know all this from the start of the book by the way, I haven’t spoiled some big twist at the end so it’s still very worth your while giving the book a read!

I think what really made the book stand out for me was the narrative. There is a lot of fighting in the book - as there is in most action-adventures, especially those featuring the undead - and the descriptive way that Jonathan Maberry details exactly what is happening can wear you out just reading it.

It’s perhaps not for the fainthearted or the squeamish but I would highly recommend this to every other living soul - and even those few still out there who may not be living any more…