Bob Reiss / Ethan Black Books In Order

Publication Order of Conrad Voort Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Bob Reiss is a bestselling American author that writes both fiction and nonfiction. Reiss writes what some people might call eco-fiction. His books talk a lot about the environment, in particular, the Arctic.

+Biography
Bob Reiss has always been a journalist before anything else. He was born in New York City in 1951. It is also where he was raised. Reiss’ journey as a reporter began when he graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Journalism.

His determination to succeed as a writer was best manifested by his enrollment at the University of Oregon and eventual graduation with an MFA. Interestingly enough, Reiss had better luck as a journalist than he did as an author of fiction and nonfiction, at least at the start.

Bob Reiss must have been thirteen when he decided that he wanted to pursue a publishing career. Unfortunately for him, his first novel was terrible, and the publishers to which he submitted his manuscript told him as much.

It took Reiss over a decade to make any significant headway in publishing. During that time, he accrued an impressive collection of rejection letters, not only from traditional publishers but magazines as well.

Reiss only began making real headway in 1980 when Simon & Schuster finally released ‘Summer Fires’, making it his first successfully published novel. In typical Bob Reiss fashion, the book leaned heavily into environmental issues.

Journalism treated Bob Reiss far better. He definitely worked hard to get ahead. However, he found that the field of journalism was more inviting to his efforts, which is why he succeeded at becoming a copy boy for the Chicago Tribune at 19.

Reiss had to get creative to gain visibility at his place of work. His bosses did not simply decide one random day to send an inexperienced boy of nineteen to Northern Ireland to talk to the occupying British Troops.

Rather, Reiss photocopied a stolen press pass, attached his photo to it and then used his charm and wit to convince the soldiers in Northern Ireland that he was actually a reporter for the Chicago Tribune.

The author admits that he did not expect the ruse to work. In fact, he does not actually know why everyone he met was so quick to believe his story, or how he eventually wound up talking to the British Commander.

The experience was life-changing. Reiss was on the front lines of the conflict in Northern Ireland, witnessing firsthand as commandos engaged rioters. He even spoke to a few IRA members.

The article that eventually ran in the Daily Northwestern wasn’t quite up to Bob Reiss’ liking, primarily because it failed to take his personal experiences into account. However, Reiss still counted his time in Ireland as a victory because it gave him a taste of the journalistic lifestyle and he found that he wanted more.

Journalism did not necessarily spark the author’s interest in fiction. Bob Reiss had attempted to produce his first fiction novel several years earlier because he knew quite well that he had a talent for storytelling.

His time as a journalist merely exposed him to the world. Reiss was a senior at Northwestern by the time the Chicago Tribune released the articles detailing his experience in Ireland.

By the time he finished his MFA, the author had done quite a fair bit of traveling. And life after college led him to even more exotic destinations, this including the Amazon rainforest, Sudan, Somalia, and Antarctica.

Over the years, Reiss’ work has been published in resources like The Washington Post Magazine, Rolling Stone, and the Smithsonian to mention but a few. The author has also made appearances on shows like ‘Dan Rather Reports’, ‘Morning Joe’ and ‘Good Morning America’.

It isn’t always easy to track Bob Reiss’ work. The articles, essays, and books he publishes under the Reiss name are easy enough to find. But he also has a tendency to operate under pen names.

There’s James Abel under whose pseudonym Bob Reiss wrote a series of science-based bio-thrillers that included ‘White Plague’. Then there are novels like ‘The Broken Hearts Club’ that he wrote under the Ethan Black pen name, not to mention all the work he has published as Scott Canterbury and R Scott Reiss.

Bob Reiss does not mind being called an activist, a label he attracts because of his eco-fiction. Reiss believes that everyone has a responsibility to leave the world better than they found it.

That is all Reiss wants to do. Other people file lawsuits, hold up signs on the sides of roads and engage in conversations with the people in power. Bob Reiss is a writer. That is where his talents. So he uses his gift to make his readers think carefully about the way their choices affect the world.

+Black Monday
Doctor Gregory Gillette is a microbes specialist working with the Centers for Disease Control. Gregory is also humanity’s last hope.

The end begins with planes falling out of the sky in Europe. At first world leaders lay the blame for the catastrophe at the feet of terrorists. But then cars and ships and other machines begin to fail.

And then those in power realize the truth. A genetically engineered microbe designed to destroy petroleum has been unleashed on the world. And if Gregory doesn’t act fast, society will be plunged into another dark age.

+The Side Effect
When the head of a powerful pharmaceutical company is found dead on the same night that the president resigns, Mike Acela leaps into action. Mike was the company’s chief of security.

He was supposed to keep his employer safe from all his enemies. But clearly, he failed. So now Mike has to find the perpetrators. The former FBI Agent must use his street smarts to discover the truth behind his boss’ murder.

But the more Mike digs, the more complicated the case gets. The pharmaceutical company was clearly hiding something, a secret related to project HR-109. And that probably got Mike’s employer killed. But could Lenox Pharmaceutical’s scientists have found that was worth killing for?