It's 2040, and things are not going well in America. Malindi Simwanza is about to change that.

Congress has abdicated its authority, The Art of the Deal has replaced the Constitution, and the economy is in shambles. Desperate to avoid defaulting on the national debt, President Frederick Behring puts California, Oregon, and Washington up for sale.

Fixated on restoring the glory of its former empire, the British prime minister submits the winning proposal. There's just one problem: the British bid is funded by China, whose premier is secretly planning a military incursion into the West Coast. With more bluster than brains, the three leaders scramble for supremacy.

Only Malindi, a principled Zambian parliamentarian, refuses to let a new age of colonialism take root. She journeys from the White House to the British Archives to 10 Downing Street, seeking a long-lost piece of legislation from Britain's colonial past that could alter the events unfolding in America. Hours before the British are to take ownership of the West Coast and as China's military lurks in the shadows, Malindi uncovers the truth. She now must decide if revealing it will peacefully thwart their delusions of empire or trigger World War III.

Bill Burkland is the award-winning author of The Misconceived Conception of a Baby Named Jesus, a satire reimagining the events surrounding the birth of Jesus. Kirkus Reviews called the novel " . . . a fun, pithy sendup of one of the best-known origin stories." Publishers Weekly BookLife Prize awarded it a ten-out-of-ten for originality, noting that "Burkland packs immense humor and irony into his prose."The Splinter is his second novel and will likely offend as many people as his first. He's a bit of a troublemaker in that respect-he simply can't help himself. Yet despite his compulsion to poke the bear with one hand and stir the pot with the other, Bill has been married to his high-school sweetheart for over forty years. They have three wonderful adult children, each with equally wonderful partners, and a growing number of grandchildren.Prior to becoming a full-time author, Bill spent eighteen years as a senior manager and director at Amazon, with work assignments spanning the US, Luxembourg, and the UK. He held leadership roles in Amazon's Retail, Kindle, B2B, and Alexa organizations.