Background & Literary Work
Reece Jones is a writer and a Professor of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. Reece was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Bangladesh before studying for his MS and PhD in Geography from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
When an ordinary man is thrust into the dangerous world of smuggling at America’s northern border, he finds himself at the epicenter of debates about violent immigration policing.
Soon after businessman Bob Boulé opens the Smuggler’s Inn, a quirky bed and breakfast directly on the US-Canada border, refugees, drug traffickers, and ICE agents all trust him with their secrets. The refugees tell Bob heartbreaking stories of persecution and death, leading him to question his core beliefs about right and wrong. The drug traffickers and ICE agents try to recruit Bob to their side in the dangerous game of smuggling at the border. Bob is forced to make a series of risky decisions that draw him deeper and deeper into the murky border underworld. There are car chases, drug deals between the Hells Angels and the Sinaloa cartel, and over a thousand people who slip quietly across the border to safety in Canada in the dead of night. Bob’s secret world eventually comes crashing down and he endures two stints locked up abroad. After a violent confrontation with a Border Patrol agent, Bob's case goes all the way to the US Supreme Court whose landmark decision in Egbert v. Boule paves the way for the apparent impunity of ICE agents on American streets in the second Trump presidency.
SMUGGLER by Reece Jones and Greg Boos is "a most anticipated book of 2026" according to Inkstick Media and will be published in fall 2026 with Prometheus Press. HBO has optioned the TV and film rights for a scripted series.
Reece is represented by Julia Eagleton of Parnassus Circle and Michelle Kroes and Michelle Wiener of Creative Artists Agency.
Reece has written four earlier award-winning books along with four edited academic books and over two dozen journal articles. NOBODY IS PROTECTED (2022, Counterpoint) tells the story of the Border Patrol's expansive authority to operate deep inside the United States using racial profiling to target American citizens and immigrants alike. WHITE BORDERS (2021, Beacon) traces the relationship between race and immigration in the United States from Chinese Exclusion to the Trump era. VIOLENT BORDERS (2016, Verso) takes readers on a journey to hot spots of global migration to make the case that borders are inherently violent. BORDER WALLS (2012, Zed) draws on interviews with people impacted by walls built by the United States, Israel, and India.
Contact Reece Jones: reecej at hawaii.edu