After Twilight: Walking with the Dead [Book Review]

Genre - Horror
Year Published - 2008 (Published by Permuted Press)
Length - 267 pages
Written by Travis Adkins
Rating: 5 Skulls

Plot Summary:
     At the start of the apocalypse, a small resort town on the coast of Rhode Island fortified itself to withstand the millions of flesh-eating zombies conquering the world.
With its high walls and self-contained power plant, Eastpointe was a safe haven for the lucky few who managed to arrive.
     Trained specifically to outmaneuver the undead, Black Berets performed scavenging missions in outlying towns in order to stock Eastpointe with materials vital for long-term survival. But the town leaders took the Black Berets for granted, on a whim sending them out into the cannibalistic wilderness. Most did not survive.
     Now the most cunning, most brutal, most efficient Black Beret will return to Eastpointe after narrowly surviving the doomed mission and unleash his anger upon the town in one bloody night of retribution.

After twilight, when the morning comes and the sun rises, will anyone be left alive?

Review:
This book is the sequel to Twilight of the Dead. It is not 100% necessary to read the first book (though I would recommend it) as Adkins does a superb job of telling you all you need to know in the first 10 pages.
Within the Prologue is a newspaper article titled 'The Dead Walk'. The article explains that the deceased are becoming re-animated, with little to no cognizance. Survivors of attacks fall ill within a matter of hours, then they die, and they too are re-animated.
The only way to kill the re-animated is to destroy the brain or separate it from the body...

About 5 years have passed since the zombie outbreak took place.
This entire book takes place in one single day (from the dawn to the twilight of July 4th)
Adkins' writing never slacks, and he keeps up a steady pace, which makes for a fast read.
He devotes entire portions of the book on each of the main characters and their backgrounds, giving them just enough depth where you will actually care about what happens to them.
Adkins' also includes maps, newspaper articles, military documents, files, diaries, etc, which really helps focus on the "reality" of the story.
He also brings to vivid life the undead - or "skin-eaters" as they are called in the book.

Adkins has great character development skills (both past & present) and he is very descriptive in his writing. He is one of those writers where you feel as if you are really there, in the story.
He is also great with the emotions, relationships, and struggles of the characters that he has created.

If you are a fan of zombies, then this is a must-read!

Jason