If Joe Ledger was a TV series, Code Zero is that episode mid-season where the producers try to save money by revisiting previous episodes and using flashback scenes to fill up time. That's not necessarily a bad thing as Code Zero does a good job of tying the previous five books together as Joe and Echo Team must face their past as someone calling herself Mother Night is reviving old horrors.

Unfortunately, this splits the story's narrative in two as we get present day Echo Team trying to figure out what's going on and all the flashbacks to previous events to help fill in the history on Mother Night. Also unfortunately, I just didn't like the Mother Night part of the story, which felt like it takes up half of the book. Since I listen to the audio book, I can't tell for sure if Mother Night's back story really took that long or just felt that way because I didn't like her character much. She is wicked smart and I can see why she'd be recruited by the DMS. What I don't get is how it took so long for people to catch on to what she was doing before they kicked her out and didn't think at all that she might have survived her "death". It was a very creative use of her hacking abilities though to thwart Mind Reader.

The present day portion of the story is engaging. You just can't go wrong with macho man Joe Ledger doing his thing to save civilization from psychopaths and weird science experiments! I also liked that we got more into Church's character and STILL he's able to remain fairly mysterious. Very well done Mr. Maberry!

Hopefully this is a temporary lull in the series and the next installment will be back to giving us a new threat for Joe and the DMS to overcome. ( )

[a:Jonathan Maberry|72451|Jonathan Maberry|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1275853898p2/72451.jpg] pisses me off. Seriously, the Joe Ledger series shouldn't be this good. It really shouldn't. I can't tell you how many other series I have given up on because they started to become the same damn story over and over, or because you knew no one would die, or could predict the plots, etc.

Not this series. It is consistently excellent. Yes, it's hoo-rah, flag-waving, macho action, but it's damn good hoo-rah, flag-waving, macho action.

As long as Maberry keeps tossing out books like this, of superior quality, then I'll keep reading them. I absolutely love this series. ( )

I've revised my rating from 4 to 4.5/5 stars, rounded up to 5 for Goodreads/Amazon.

The Joe Ledger series is a perfect example of how a great audiobook narrator can add to the magic of good writing. When both are combined together as they were in CODE ZERO? It's close to perfection.

Mother Night was an excellent, well drawn character with all kinds of evil levels. Her plans to lead Joe Ledger and his team on a wild good chase worked so well, I was genuinely afraid that I was going to have to say goodbye to a few beloved characters.

Did I have to do that? You'll have to read CODE ZERO to find out! I will say this: that ending had me driving down the highway legit crying.

Highly recommended, (but you should probably read the preceding books in the series first!)

I bought this audio book with my hard earned cash because Joe Ledger, Jonathan Maberry and Ray Porter MADE ME! (I could NOT continue waiting for each volume from the library.) ( )

woah..... ( )

woah..... ( )