It is set in the oilfields and oil sands fields of Alaska and Canada and includes a considerable amount of technical detail on the operations.

As bodies and equipment damage mount up, Brady and his two investigators play a hunch and finally expose the men they believe to be responsible.

Producer Peter Snell who made Bear Island was the one who suggested MacLean set a novel in the area near Lake Athabasca.

[1] The Los Angeles Times called it "sterile, ponderous, preposterous, ungrammatical, repetitious, ridden with cliches and devoid of suspense.

"[2] The New York Times said " aside from the old master's handling of the mise en scene he is not at his best here "arguing the lead characters "are sketchily and unappealingly drawn, and the people they deal with are cardboard cutouts" although it liked the ending "So we wind up in fine style, but only after a plodding start.