The Moho Proviso

About the Book

In the late 1960´s, a government-sponsored expedition is mounted to investigate a mysterious region of the earth called the Mohorovicic discontinuity. Contrary to expectations, the source of all oil fields in the earth is discovered and thus justifies a controversial theory on the origin of hydrocarbons.  Some few key people, including executives of a Houston-based drilling company, the prime contractor; the President of the United States; one of his minions; and the head of the CIA agree to keep silent about the discovery.  It was not politically or economically expedient to find an unlimited source of oil available to any who could drill to that depth.  With falsified records and a vow of silence, the secret would be safe forever.  

But Arab-OPEC was flexing its muscles during the seventies, and Mackenzie Haber, the young chief geologist of the expedition, had been an unwilling conspirator and had periodically protested in vain against the cover-up to his boss, Fowler Fox.  Then in 1980, when A-OPEC declares Israel the target for annihilation with oil the price for Israel´s existence, Mackenzie believes surely now the conspiracy can be broken and thereby end the bullying tactics of the oil cartel.  But again he is thwarted, Fox refusing absolutely to change his position, fearful of bringing disgrace to the now dead President of the U. S. and possibly imprisonment to the remaining conspirators.   Fox tries to coax Mackenzie into continued silence by suggesting he will soon be retiring and wants him to take over the helm of the company.  

Undeterred by this promise, Mackenzie confides in a friend he had met while teaching a graduate seminar on geology. She is an Israeli astro-physicist named Teleah Davin, working on her doctorate in Houston.  He alerts her to the threat to her country, which has been kept out of the news, and desperate for ideas, he divulges the secret he had been holding for thirteen years.  Their mutual attraction acts as an additional spur to find a solution to both salve his conscience and save the State of Israel without wreaking havoc on himself, his firm, economic stability, the environment, or the U. S. government´s reputation.

On his own, Mackenzie, trying to locate the original proof of the oil find, the wireline record, first seeks out the classified files and then back-up testimony from others on the original expedition. But his efforts seem doomed to either frustration or downright failure as danger threatens from all directions, notably government watch dogs and a Mid-eastern terrorist organization.  

He finally gets the proof he needs through some dangerous burgling despite mysterious deaths and uncomfortably close calls.  After a pivotal encounter with an elderly astronomer at the university observatory, he takes a course of action that will have no ill effects, only positive ones.  Secure now in the knowledge that the Moho can act as a deterrent to further violence against Israel without holding the West hostage, Mackenzie is able to look clearly at his own prospects for the future.

J. W. Irelan was featured at a book signing at the Offshore Energy Center´s Ocean Star Offshore Rig and Museum in Galveston, Texas, on June 29. The author also gave a presentation and reading at the Rosenberg Library in Galveston on November 16 and signed copies of her book, and had another book signing at Hastings Book, Music, and Video Store on December 21. In addition, The Moho Proviso was reviewed by Gulfscapes Magazine.

About the Author

J. W. Irelan lives outside of Houston and has in the past worked on several newspapers and as a college English teacher.