Bob Reiss

The Eskimo and the Oil Man...the battle at the top of the World for America's Future

The Arctic century is upon us. A great jockeying for power and influence has erupted between nations in the high north. At stake is trillions of dollars in profit or loss, US security, geopolitical influence, and the fate of a fragile environment as well as the region's traditional people. As the ice melts and oil companies venture north, the polar regions are becoming the next Saudi Arabia, the next Panama Canal.

Reiss spent 3 years traveling to the US high north to tell this story through the eyes of two men, one an Inupiat Eskimo leader on Alaska's North Slope, the other the head of Shell Oil's Alaska Venture, which seeks to drill for oil offshore in 2012. Their tale is set against the background of an undersea land rush in the Arctic, of Russian bombers appearing off Alaska's coasts recently, of rapid changes in ice that will effect millions of sea mammals and effect the day to day lives of every American, in their cities and towns and also in their pocketbooks.

To get this story Reiss spent time with scientists, diplomats, military planners, Eskimo whale hunters and politicians at the highest levels of Washington. He traveled to remote villages and sailed on a US icebreaker. Shell hopes to drill off Alaska in 2012. The Mayor of the North Slope seeks to protect his people's 4,000 year old culture yet guarantee them income. The story begins as a fight and in the end the Eskimo and the Oil Man reflect the issues dividing every American community wrestling with the balance between energy use and environmental protection.

Oil policy will be a huge part of the 2012 Presidential election. Read this behind the scenes story in America's high north, which has received some excellent reviews like the following.

"Reiss has taken a highly charged and divisive subject and gotten inside the lives and values of the principles with empathy and insight. "The Eskimo and the Oil Man" is a most illuminating contribution to issues that will become more important as new discoveries follow drilling offshore."

- William Reilly co-chair of the Deepwater Horizon Commission
Chairman Emeritus of the World Wildlife Fund
EPA Administrator 1980 - 1993

"Bob Reiss captures the expanse, the challenge and the potential of the changing Arctic and the clear need for a bold national strategy to realize the promise of this extraordinary frontier."

- Gary Roughead, Admiral U.S. Navy (retired) former Chief of Naval Operations

"The engrossing narrative depicts the struggle to reach a drilling decision that will benefit Shell while protecting the Inupiat way of life...(a) balanced portrayal of the quandary."

- Publishers Weekly

"(A) brisk revealing account...An on-the-ice view of the struggle over offshore oil exploration in Alaska."

-Kirkus Reviews

The Coming Storm... Extreme Weather And Our Terrifying Future
From the back rooms of the White House to the slums of India, the author spent a year traveling the world, to tell personal stories of the victims of climate change, the scientists researching this dangerous phenomenon, and the politicians battling over what to do–or not do–about it. The book directly links global warming with extreme weather around the world. It offers solutions and shows how curbing global warming will save lives, money and avoid future wars.

(Hyperion publishers, 2001)

Black Monday
Governments collapse, armies disintegrate and neighbors fight neighbors as the world goes cold turkey from oil withdrawal. A genetically engineered microbe has infected the oil supply. Food can't be delivered. Planes fall from the sky. Cars stop in their tracks. The novel focuses on one group of survivors living in a small street in Washington DC, and on the efforts of one of them, a CDC microbe hunter, to solve the crisis. A best seller in Europe. Film rights to Paramount. (Simon & Schuster 2007)

The Side Effect

What if a drug company developed a miracle drug but decided to keep it for themselves? Lenox Pharmaceuticals has stumbled on an astounding discovery - a drug that heightens human intuition to an almost supernatural degree. Now a battle has erupted a the highest corporate and government levels for control of the drug, while average people don't even know it exists. (Bantam Dell 2006)

Dead For Life

“Splendid. Great writing. Great suspense. Great action. Wonderful reading.”
“An astoundingly accomplished story.”
“Conrad Voort is not your garden variety detective.”
“An intense, intelligent thriller.”
(Simon & Schuster 2003)

All The Dead Were Strangers

“First rate.”
“At once diabolic and heroic.”
“Black writes nearly perfect thrillers.”
(Ballantine 2001)