When the zombie outbreak reached Spanish Shanty, Florida, Rip and his best friend, Rodney, and their friend from their favorite bar, Mo, were ready to defend themselves and those they loved. Discovering the zombies didn’t like water and wouldn’t walk through it, they and others left behind when the area was evacuated, gathered together, and made the local water park with its expansive Lazy River, their home base and safe zone. Over the course of that tragic summer, the denizens of the Lazy River became a family, and Rip found the woman of his dreams.

Davia had grown up in Russia and immigrated to the United States as a young woman. Together, they were the king and queen of their small, safe haven. Together, she and Rip hunted zombies and protected the family with an awful but magical efficiency: he with his machete, “Santana,” and she with the deadly poleax dubbed “Putin.”

But when relief arrived and as the All-Clear came, Rip and Davia were separated and lost touch. Rip, Rodney, Mo, Davia, and the rest of the Lazy River survivors went back to what was left of their lives and homes: business as usual. But the summer and the circumstances had changed them, they couldn’t just go back, and things would never be the same again. It could never even be the same as it had been that summer when life and death were the only things that mattered.

Or could it?

APOCALYPSE YESTERDAY is a very different zombie story and post-apocalyptic tale. While the zombie outbreak and action during the crisis may be somewhat familiar, it is the aftermath that makes this book a stand-out in the genre. The story rolls on what happens emotionally afterward to these hometown heroes, these regular guys from various walks-of-life that stepped forward and took control when the crisis occurred.

The crisis and devastation in the story occur in one summer, and recovery appears to happen quickly as cities are liberated from the wandering zombies. The book’s present-day action is set near the end of the following October. Already businesses are up and running, evacuees have returned and are back at their 9-to-5s, and even the downtown coffee shop run by the hippie couple is going great guns. I enjoyed how the author incorporated well-known persons in the events and, cleverly, ran through a succession of political figures as one president after another succumbs to the zombies in this relatively short timeframe.

As I read, I held my breath as Rip, Rodney, Mo, and the coked-up A-10 pilot from the nearby Air Force base they encounter consider a plan to return to the glory days of the past summer. I didn’t want to put the book down until I knew if they’d really go through with it. I recommend APOCALYPSE YESTERDAY to readers that have enjoyed zombie apocalypse stories in the past but are ready for something entirely different in the genre.