Joe Ledger Series

Joe Ledger is the name of an ongoing series of bio-terrorism thriller books written by Jonathan Maberry, beginning with the 2009 Patient Zero. The series also includes several short stories, audio originals and novellas.

The first three books in the series were optioned for a potential television series on ABC and a pilot was written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach.^[1] It was not picked up for a full series.

Synopsis

The series follows the titular Captain Joe Ledger, a former Army Ranger and Baltimore Detective. Joe is hired by a clandestine, investigative agency known as the Department of Military Sciences (DMS). The DMS is a shadow agency formed for the purpose of pursuing technologically advanced threats to the US and the world at large by terrorists. Threats encountered throughout the series range from designer pathogens that create zombies to transgenics used for ethnic cleansing.

Characters

Echo Team - Current Members

• Captain Joseph Edwin 'Joe' Ledger- Call sign "Cowboy"Main character. Before being recruited by the DMS, he was a detective for the Baltimore Police Department and an Army Ranger. These professions have helped him control his rage issues following the rape of his ex-girlfriend Helen in high school, who ultimately committed suicide.
• First Sergeant Bradley 'Top' Sims- Call sign, "Sergeant Rock", former Army Ranger. Lost his son Henry while his daughter Monique lost both legs during the War in Iraq.
• Harvey 'Bunny' Rabbit- Former Force Recon, call sign "Green Giant."
• Lydia Ruiz - call sign, "Warbride", was in the navy's first covert group of women SEALs.
• Sam Imura - call sign "Ronin". Team Sniper to replace John Smith after The Assassin's Code.

Echo Team Members	Patient Zero	The Dragon Factory	The King of Plagues	Assassin's Code	Extinction Machine	Code Zero	Predator One	Kill Switch	Total
Captain Joe "Cowboy" Ledger	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	8
First Sergeant Bradley 'Top' "Sgt. Rock" Sims	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	8
Master Sergeant Harvey 'Bunny' "Jolly Green Giant" Rabbit	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	8
Chief Petty Officer Samuel 'Skip' "Joker" Tyler	N								1
Second Lieutenant Oliver 'Ollie' "Scarface" Brown	N								1
Sergeant Robert 'Big Bob' Faraday		N	N						2
Joey Goldschein			N						1
DeeDee "Scream Queen" Whitman			N						1
Khalid "Dancing Duck" Shaheed			N	N					2
John "Chatterbox" Smith			N	N					2
Lydia "Warbride" Ruiz				N	N	N	N	N	5
Pete "Prankster"					N				1
Ivan "Hellboy" Yankovich					N	N			2
Sam "Ronin" Imura					N	N	N	N	4
Duncan 'Dunk' "Bad Wolf" MacDougall						N			1
Noah "Gandalf" Fallon						N			1
Montana "Stretch" Parker						N	N	N	3
Brian "Hot Zone" Botley							N	N	2

Other DMS Members

• Dr. Rudolfo Ernesto 'Rudy' Sanchez y Martinez- Joe's psychiatrist and best friend. He is a religious man and gets recruited into the DMS.
• Mr. Church- Head of the DMS. Very little is known about Mr. Church. He has only one living relative. He likes vanilla wafers and usually wears tinted glasses to hide his eyes, and gloves on his hands following the events of Predator One. He is also known as the "Deacon", "St. Germaine", and many other names--all as false as "Mr.Church."
• Major Grace Courtland- A former SAS soldier who later was recruited into the DMS. She is also a love interest for Joe Ledger. Killed by Conrad Veder during the Jakoby affair.
• Jerome 'Bug' Taylor- A playful hacker that works for Mr. Church and the DMS. He was hired after he hacked the DHS as his senior project to find bin Laden.
• Dr. William Hu- Chief Scientist for the DMS. He is called an asshole by many of the DMS staff and also described as having no soul. Shot and killed in Kill Switch.
• Dr. Circe O' Tree- The daughter of Mr. Church and holds multiple PhD's and Masters Degrees. She is the love interest of Rudy Sanchez, they marry in Extinction Machine

Enemies

• Sebastian Gault- A molecular biologist and bio-terrorist who helped fund the creation of the Seif al Din pathogen which created zombies. He does not want to destroy the world but be the richest man in it.
• Hecate Jackoby- Geneticist who helped create bio-engineered creatures to sell to the rich.
• Paris Jackoby- Brother of Hecate and also a Geneticist.
• Eris- Leader of the Seven Kings
• The Seven Kings- A secret society and enemies to the Bonesmen that orchestrates world events in order to profit financially. Uses misinformation and disinformation and has agents seeded everywhere, making it difficult to track them down.
• The Red Order/Knights- Group of Assassin Vampires that appear in the Assassins Code.
• Mother Night- Former DMS agent turned rogue bent on world destruction by using a bio-terror plot to infect everyone with a zombie flu.

Allies

• Violin- Member of Arklight and the Mothers of the Fallen. Former love interest of Joe Ledger., in a relationship with Harry Bolt.
• Junie Flynn- A woman who runs a conspiracy podcast show and has some alien DNA from a covert experiment. She is another love interest for Joe Ledger and later becomes Joe's girlfriend in Code Zero.
• Alexander 'Toys' Chismer- Former assistant/valet to Gault, then protégé of Vox, now on a path to redemption with the support of Church. Works with Junie at Freetech.
• Harry Bolt - CIA field agent, sarcastically and non-sarcastically known as the world's worst spy. Son of American legendary CIA Agent Harcourt Bolton. Develops a relationship with Violin in Kill Switch.

Bibliography

1. Patient Zero (2009)^[2][3][4]
2. The Dragon Factory (2010)^[5]
3. The King of Plagues (2011)^[6]
4. Assassins Code (2012)
5. Extinction Machine (2013)
6. Code Zero (2014)^[7]
7. Predator One (2015)
8. Kill Switch (2016)
9. Dogs of War (2017)

Shorts

• Countdown (2011, Number 0.5)
• Zero Tolerance (2011, Number 1.1)
• Material Witness (2011, Number 1.2)
• Deep, Dark (2011, Number 1.3)
• Dog Days (2011, Number 2.1)
• Changeling(2011, Number 2.2)
• Mad Science (2011, Number 4.5)
• Borrowed Power (2013, Number 4.6)

Collections

• Joe Ledger: Special Ops (2014)^[8]

References