Kelly Turnbull Books in Order
Part ofKurt Schlichter Books in OrderSee the Kelly Turnbull series by Kurt Schlichter in order, with book summaries and tips on the best reading path through this near future action saga.
Last updated: December 24, 2025
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Publication Order
9 books
Panama Red
by Kurt Schlichter
2025
Panama Red sends Turnbull after a mysterious assassin known as Circe, a blue operative who leaves dead Americans behind around the world. The hunt takes him from Dublin and Texas to Panama City and a radicalized town inside the People's Republic, blending nonstop firefights with grim humor.
Overlord
by Kurt Schlichter
2023
Overlord finds Turnbull chasing a rogue general who has fled into blue territory seeking revenge and power. With his dog Gibson and a small team, he fights through West African jungles, postwar London, flooded highways near New Orleans, and a high risk mission tied to an invasion of Manhattan.
Inferno
by Kurt Schlichter
2022
In Inferno, the seventh Kelly Turnbull book, the war between red America and the People's Republic burns across the continent. From the new capital in Dallas to occupied San Francisco and the Pacific Northwest, Turnbull leads brutal campaigns meant to decide whether the country can ever be reunited.
The Split
by Kurt Schlichter
2021
In the sixth Kelly Turnbull novel, America has fully broken into a constitutional red republic and an authoritarian blue People's Republic. Turnbull must smuggle out an unstable math genius whose election software could decide who rules, dragging him into heists, guerrilla fights, and double crosses from Cuba to Canada.
Crisis
by Kurt Schlichter
2020
Set just before the final split, Crisis brings Kelly Turnbull back from overseas to work with a small task force trying to stop the slide toward open civil war. He hunts a hard left terrorist leader behind attacks on Capitol Hill, radical enclaves in Minneapolis, and a last stand in the California desert.
Collapse
by Kurt Schlichter
2019
As the socialist People's Republic starts to fall apart under shortages and unrest, Collapse sends Turnbull and an elite team deep into blue territory to help end the war. Chinese meddling, internal purges, and a climactic fight for San Francisco push the fractured country toward possible reunification.
Wildfire
by Kurt Schlichter
2018
Blue America is on the brink of chaos when retired operator Kelly Turnbull is pulled back in for a supposedly simple job in Siberia that turns out to be a setup. To stop a massive jihadi plot, he infiltrates the People's Republic's secret police, fighting from Mexico City and Germany to a ruined Pentagon.
Indian Country
by Kurt Schlichter
2017
This prequel to People's Republic sends Kelly Turnbull back into the blue states to help trapped citizens resist a tightening, politically correct police state. Training ordinary people into a fighting force, he clashes with his former Special Forces mentor and a regime willing to use escalating violence.
People's Republic
by Kurt Schlichter
2016
People's Republic launches the Kelly Turnbull series in a United States that has split along political lines. Sent into the decaying blue stronghold of Los Angeles, Turnbull must infiltrate a surveillance state to complete one last extraction mission and confront what the revolution has done to ordinary lives.
Series background & context
The Kelly Turnbull novels imagine a near future United States that finally comes apart under the pressure of culture war, bad leadership, and mutual distrust. The country splits into a red remnant that keeps the old name and a blue successor state called the People's Republic of North America.
At the center is Kelly Turnbull, a former special operator from the red states who has spent his life in hard places. He is competent, ruthless when he thinks he has to be, and more comfortable on a mission than in a meeting. Through his eyes readers see cities, borders, and battlefields where politics has turned into open force.
In People's Republic and Indian Country the focus is on infiltration and resistance. Turnbull is sent into the blue states to extract key people and help ordinary citizens push back against a rigid, politically correct security apparatus. The books sketch food shortages, propaganda, and a clumsy secret police, but also show how quickly people adapt to new rules when there is no easy way out.
Later entries like Wildfire and Collapse zoom out to show the wider strategic picture. Blue America is fraying, foreign powers are circling, and Turnbull is asked to take on missions that move from Siberia and Mexico City to the ruins of San Francisco. The tone is part military thriller, part satire, with detailed weapons talk, big explosions, and side swipes at everything from media habits to academic jargon.
With Crisis and The Split, the timeline bends back and then forward, filling in how the split happened and what it looks like when two rival American nations sit side by side. Turnbull works with small teams trying to head off civil war, hunts domestic terrorists, and later dives into covert operations around contested elections, border clashes, and proxy fights from Cuba to Canada.
Newer books such as Inferno, Overlord, and Panama Red push the story into full scale war and global maneuvering. A rogue general, foreign adventurers, and shadowy killers all cross Turnbull's path as battles range from West Africa and London to New Orleans causeways and urban strongholds inside the People's Republic. The series stays fast, bloody, and politically blunt, but underneath the firefights it keeps circling one question, what happens if the arguments Americans are having now finally spin out of control.
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