My Works
The Impossible Detective
Twelve year old Abani Singh shows up at the Manhattan home of private detective Mark St. Johns, dubbed "The Impossible Detective" by New York Magazine, due to his record of solving impossible cases. The distraught girl claims to have witnessed a self driving car hit a man, back up, run him over again and flee. "No one believes me!" she cries. Mark doesn't either at first. Film rights to RKO.
The Last Spy
RECENTLY RE-RELEASED, this Washington Post best selling novel takes place as the Soviet Union collapses, and pits Russians against Russians in Washington without any US citizens ever finding out. If you like the TV hit "The Americans," you'll like a novel that the NY Times said, "powerfully evokes the espionage agent's mind-set of distrust, and piles the insecurity created by the Soviet coup onto the already treacherous state of being a spy within a system of spying."
Bought outright by Paramount pictures.
The Coming Storm... Extreme Weather And Our Terrifying Future
SECOND EDITION OUT NOW. 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. This non-fiction 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.
THE FOUR NOVEL JOE RUSH SERIES
Bob's four book Joe Rush series, written under the name of James Abel, stars former Marine and bio-terror expert Joe Rush, who travels the world combatting new microbial danger. The background for these books comes from Bob's own experiences in the Arctic, Somalia, Sudan, the Amazon rainforest and Washington DC on the political end. Over the years, Bob has reported on dangers that may come from newly evolved, weaponized or re-emerged microbes. He's visited bio-labs at Fort Detrick and NYU. He's moderated sessions at National Academies of Sciences meetings on emerging diseases, and interviewed Pentagon officials about new dangers as climate warms. The real world provides the background. The novels take it a step further. What if?
"The author has a gift of creating page turning fiction that reads like non-fiction." - Associated press
"Believable...hard driving...fast, well written entertainment wrapped around something to think about." - John Sanford, #1 best selling NY Times author.
"Relentless action and suspense." - Alex Berenson, #1 New York Times best seller
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.
To complete this non-fiction book, 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 sought to drill for oil in Arctic seas. 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. Russia lies only 30 miles from Alaska, the Bering Strait is becoming a new Panama Canal for world commerce, and military planners fear war in the 21st century may erupot over Arctic recourses.
To get this story Reiss spent time with scientists, diplomats, military planners, indigenous whale hunters and politicians at the highest levels of Washington. He traveled to remote villages and sailed on a US icebreaker for weeks. He reported back from a Norwegian war room under a mountain. He visited the northern most human settlement in the world. In the book, the 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 surprises. The Eskimo and the Oil Man reflect issues dividing every American community wrestling with the balance between energy extraction and environmental protection.
William Reilly, chairman emeritus of the World Wildlife Fund and former EPA Administrator, said of the book, "Reiss has taken a highly charged and divisive subject and gotten inside the lives and values of the principles with empathy and insight."
Retired Admiral Gary Roughead, former Chief of US Naval Operations, said, "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."
THE FIVE NOVEL DETECTIVE CONRAD VOORT SERIES
Written under the pseudonym of Ethan Black, Bob's detective Conrad Voort series consists of five highly recommended novels about New York City's wealthiest cop, whose family has worked in law enforcement since the Dutch first settled the city, who lives on land granted to the Voorts by the American Continental Congress in gratitude for their contribution during the American revolution, and whose cases, published in the novels, "The Broken Hearts Club", "Irresistible", "Dead For Life", "All The Dead Were Strangers", and "Dead For Life", garnered rave reviews.
“First rate.” -Denver Rocky Mountain News
“At once diabolic and heroic.” --People Magazine
“Black writes nearly perfect thrillers.” --Library Journal
"One of the best page turners of the year." - Amazon.com
"Gripping...fast paced...riveting...Black's timely thriller addresses questions of terrorism and government corruption with intelligece and flair." - Publishers weekly starred review
"Shocking and Steamy" - Book of the Month Club selection
"Thrilling, ultra hip and completely engrossing." - Mademoiselle
"Stunning...fast paced...It shocks...It steams...It terrifies..." - Washington Post
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. In this novel, optioned by Paramount, 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 or available as an e-book)
Black Monday
A plague that will cause the death of millions. A plague that will destroy countries. A plague that will plunge the world into a dark age. A plague that will make nobody sick.....