The Split by Kurt Schlichter: Kelly Turnbull is back, baby!

Ordinarily, I hate when reviewers use phrases like

 “pulse-pounding action.” But with The Split — 

as with every Kelly Turnbull novel — it fits.

book review by Dianny at Patriot Retort

I spent the weekend reading Kurt Schlichter’s latest Kelly Turnbull novel The Split. And, boy, was it worth waiting for.

The Split is the sixth installment of Schlichter’s cautionary tale about what would happen if America continues down the road of the Us versus Them cultural divide. And given how much Us versus Them is going on in the country today, his fictional cautionary tales are beginning to look less and less fictional.

This became especially obvious during the early days of the pandemic. I wrote back in April 2020 that the Wuhan Panic is making Schlichter’s novels look more like non-fiction. And now with the Biden* Administration’s push for so-called “equity” and racial bean-counting, the purge of wrong-thinkers from the military, the Critical Race Theory insanity, not to mention the Delta Variant scaremongering along with Vax Mandate Panic, the Kelly Turnbull novels are downright prophetic.

Now, while The Split is book 6 in the series, it is in actuality the second story from a chronological standpoint.

The first book published People’s Republic, is chronologically the fourth.

Am I confusing you unnecessarily? It’s confusing. So I’ll just lay out the books for you in the chronological order of the action:

Crisis
The Split
Indian Country
People’s Republic
Wildfire
Collapse

Crisis was released last fall and The Split follows where Crisis left off.

People’s Republic, though published first, drops you into the middle of the tale – where America has long split into two separate countries – with the Blue States breaking off to become the People’s Republic of North America, and the Red States remaining the United States of America.

Crisis and The Split take you back to the beginning.

Now, understand, the Kelly Turnbull novels aren’t pages and pages of exposition explaining how things happened. Schlichter doesn’t waste your time with Lord of the Rings-style endless explaining. He just airdrops you in and lets you see it for yourself.

And that’s what makes these novels so awesome. You don’t have to slog through page after page of backstory before you get the action. The action slams headlong into you the minute you hit page one.

Every single Kelly Turnbull novel is like that. And The Split does not disappoint in that area. It hits the ground running from the very first page and doesn’t let up until Kelly Turnbull says his trademark final words, “Stop talking.”

Now, for those who haven’t read any of the Kelly Turnbull novels (shame on you!), just a brief bit of background for you.

America has reached the point where it has become hopelessly divided. So the Red and Blue states meet in St. Louis and form a treaty officially splitting America in two. But since the People’s Republic is the quasi-Marxist Utopia envisioned by the Squad, it begins to unravel rather quickly.

Kelly Turnbull, former special forces in the old United States, is a special operator enlisted to carry out covert missions in the Blue. His objective is often to hasten the inevitable collapse of the weaker People’s Republic in hopes that eventually the two severed halves of the country can once again be united.

I’ve often described him as a blend of Mitch Rapp and Snake Plissken from Escape from New York.

In The Split, the divide is still relatively new – having just taken place in Crisis. And Kelly Turnbull is sent north to the Blue to retrieve a program designed by a somewhat crazy Harvard professor that can manipulate the upcoming elections in the People’s Republic.

To carry out his mission, Turnbull finds himself teaming up with a former talk radio host still stuck in the Blue, and a band of Irish bank robbers from Boston’s Charlestown.

There’s plenty of action, and, since Kelly Turnbull can’t make it through a day without shooting someone, plenty of exciting gun battles.

I don’t want to get into much more detail than that because I hate spoilers. But I will say, if you already read Crisis, you’ll really enjoy finding out what happens to Merrick Crane III. And if you haven’t already read Crisis, shame on you!

I know I’ve said this before about the Kelly Turnbull novels, but I’m going to say it again. When I see reviewers use phrases like “pulse-pounding action” I tend to roll my eyes because it’s almost never true. But in the case of the Kelly Turnbull books, there’s no other way to describe them. Once you start reading, you can’t stop. The action is so exciting, at times I find myself gripping the book like I’m hanging on for dear life. There was even an occasion when I was reading Collapse, that I was muttering under my breath, “Come on! Hurry! Hurry!”

These books are so exciting that, dare I say it, there is non-stop, pulse-pounding action.

Kelly Turnbull is such a great blend of taciturn operator and unflinching man of action, I confess I’m a little enamored with him.

What can I say? I’m a girl!

And, yes. As is the case with the Kelly Turnbull novels, there are some cameos of real-life people in The Split – from Don Lemon to Danang Dick Blumenthal to Eric Swalwell (and even a little whimpering Mitt Romney thrown in for good measure).

The Split is action-packed, rip-roaring fun. You will love it.

Now, if you haven’t read any of Kurt Schlichter’s novels (what’s wrong with you?!), I recommend you start with Crisis, then move on to The Split. While reading them in the order they were released is perfectly tickety-boo, it’s kind of nice reading them in chronological order.

And, as I always tell you with Schlichter’s books, do not skip the Preface. Trust me on that one.

I’ve reviewed all six of the Kelly Turnbull novels, so if you haven’t read them yet (for shame!), take a few minutes to read up on my reviews for a little added background.

I reviewed People’s Republic HERE.

Then I hit on it again, along with Indian Country and Wildfire HERE.

Read the Collapse review HERE.

And read the review for Crisis HERE.

The Kelly Turnbull novels are only available through Amazon – both in paperback and Kindle format. Check out all six HERE.

One of these days, I would love it if some clever conservative filmmaker turns the series into a slew of films – or a miniseries. But you want to know something? You don’t need to see the action on film to get the excitement. That’s the beauty of Schlichter’s writing. The action is right there on the page, and it’s riveting, exciting, and, yes, pulse-pounding.