I read the first Joe Ledger novel a while ago, Patient Zero. I'm not a thriller or horror fan, but I'd heard such good things about the novel. So tried it out. I have to admit, it certainly kept my interest! From the first page, I hung on and couldn't put the darned thing down - although at times I had to... only to haul the trade paperback with me wherever I went to sneak in a page or more. Awesome tension, non-stop action with just enough dialogue and descriptive narrative to satisfy me.

The second Joe Ledger novel, Dragon Factory, kept my interest in the same way. You can't read a Maberry novel without realizing how good of a job he does fleshing out his villains. As a reader, I *loathed* them -- but they aren't just caricatures. The details of how they came to be such dastardly villains made sense, motivating their actions. Again, I snuck in paragraphs or pages of reading when I should have been spending time doing other things. Arrgh.

So I saved the 3rd Ledger novel for a while (selfishly, I had to devote all my time to my own book's release and promotion, LOL) before realizing, "Hey! It's on my TBR pile, and I need to finish the series!" I had a few days open - and knew it would be a "quick read" by the mere fact that I would never be able to put it down. So I started it off... and was proven right once more. Poor Joe - all he wanted/needed after the heartbreak ending in Dragon Factory was a bit of R&R. But he was dragged back into the "terrorist" fight in the nick of time, because Maberry upped the stakes even more with his ingenious "Seven Kings" warfare. He also gives us another beastly villain, and ties up all three novels quite nicely. No spoilers here, of course, although what some reviewers might say is a "spoiler typo" and "how can people miss that?" wasn't missed by my eagle eye. I've read too many mysteries -- and it only verified my guess of one of the Kings' identities. That didn't bother me. I was too curious to see how things would turn out. And I loved the twist at the end with an interesting reveal about Church's character - again, no spoilers from me.

In fact, I would say the King of Plagues is THE BEST of the three. Why? Because of the "larger world scope" and Tolkien-esque treatment of "this is only a battle we're in, and the war is far beyond us" philosophy. I totally zoned in on that and agreed - anyone with a solid history background would recognize that as the truth in reality. Take Afghanistan - the British were fighting (and losing) along the Pakistan/India/Afghan border back in the 1800s, and that's only one example. I applaud Jonathan Maberry for addressing the issue in his fiction.

So go get the ENTIRE SERIES now. And don't miss out on the freebie offer of a short story featuring Ledger. That's also worth more than a quick skim! I see that The Assassin's Code is coming out in April 2012. I'll probably use it as a reward after finishing my own next novel. That gives me plenty of time. Clearly I need to write faster to keep up with such a prolific author. I'm curious if Maberry ever sleeps.

Guess I'll have to ask his wife.