Rating: 3 stars

Baltimore detective Joe Ledger is having a bad week. A raid on a terrorist cell ended up with several dead terrorists, one of which was Javad Mustapha. With two .45 slugs in him, you'd think he would be very dead. But almost a week later, Ledger finds himself being recruited and tested for a newly-formed antiterrorist unit...and finds himself face-to-face with what should be a dead terrorist.

He looks dead. He certainly smells dead. Challenged to put the man in handcuffs, Ledger almost fails the final exam when Mustapha tries to rip out Joe's throat with his bare teeth. So what does one do when faced with such dire consequences? Kill him a second time, pass your exam, and get a new job as a member of an elite fighting unit for the Department of Military Sciences (DMS.)

To round out Joe's week from Hell, his first assignment isn't exactly something Homeland Security can handle. The famed terrorist El Mujahid -- along with his brilliantly insane scientist wife, Amirah -- have created an entirely new level of warfare. With the funding of a ruthless billionaire, Amirah has designed a bioweapon unlike anything ever seen before; one that can turn us ordinary folk into zombies. An army of "walkers" is about to be unleashed on the world unless the DMS can stop them in time.

Zombie fans will love this latest entry into the genre but beware: this is not a classic like "Night of the Living Dead." Maberry has created a creepy, horrific scenario of zombie hordes overrunning the planet but his world is not too far removed from our own. The author deftly plays on the fears we all deal with today; terrorism, greed and religious extremism walking hand-in-hand with mad science.

I do have a gripe or two, mainly because I expected action/adventure with zombie gore, not a heavy dose of military black-ops mixed with cop procedural. But if that's your game, I highly recommend this. Ledger is a character any mystery lover would enjoy; sarcastic, smart and a great detective. Add in his skills as an elite fighter, and you've got a brand-new superhero for the next installment.
-------------
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Pub. Date: March 2009
ISBN-13: 9780312382858