It’s spring, 1963 in the “Nickel Capital of the World.” Nineteen-year-old Jake McCool is about to undergo a rite of passage—his first shift underground in a hard rock mine. But the Cold War is at its height, and Jake is also about to become a reluctant participant in a bitter interunion battle fueled by the global struggle between two ideologies in the wake of the Second World War. So is his girlfriend, Jo Ann Winters. Together the couple are swept up in a web of intrigue; at its center is a terrible secret that will haunt their relationship for the rest of their lives, as their hometown becomes not only one of the world’s greatest hard rock mining centers, but also the epicenter of the Cold War in North America. In this fast-paced novel set against the little-known historical backdrop of a true-life battle that included vicious beatings, riots, and worse, author Mick Lowe posits a provocative premise: that the U.S. government sponsored a ruthless covert operation to destabilize a strategic community in the heartland of its closest ally, Canada.

Mick Lowe's profile page

Mick Lowe is a prolific journalist, writer, and newspaper columnist, and the author of the Canadian true crime classic Conspiracy of Brothers: A True Story of Bikers, Murder and the Law. Born and raised in Nebraska, Lowe emigrated to Canada in 1970. He moved to Sudbury in 1974 where he became an avid student of that city’s turbulent labor history. He lives in Sudbury, Ontario.