Granite Veins

An Australian Snowy Mountains Thriller

Perfect for fans of Jane Harper, Chris Hammer, and Garry Disher

When journalist Ellie Kaplan inherits a cottage in Khancoban from a great-uncle she never knew existed, her father's immediate demand to sell it sight unseen triggers her investigative instincts. What is he so desperate to hide?

Inside the cottage beneath the celebrated Snowy Mountains Scheme, Ellie discovers decades of hidden documentation: journals, photographs, and scientific samples. Her great-uncle Nikolai Popov spent his life gathering evidence of a deadly secret—the deliberate exposure of migrant workers to uranium deposits during the Scheme's construction in the 1950s and 60s, followed by a sophisticated cover-up spanning three generations.

The investigation leads Ellie to Lena Popova, a geological engineer who disappeared in 1960 after raising concerns about worker safety and environmental contamination. Lena was family. And her disappearance was no accident.

With the Snowy Mountains Scheme's 75th anniversary approaching, powerful interests are moving to permanently seal contaminated tunnels, destroy remaining evidence, and eliminate anyone asking inconvenient questions. The town's apparent tranquillity masks decades of surveillance and suppression. Corporate greed. Cold War uranium extraction. And the calculated endangerment of a multicultural workforce, all buried beneath Australia's greatest engineering achievement.

Ellie has days before the tunnels are sealed forever. But some people will kill to keep the past buried—and she's already asking too many questions.

In the Snowy Mountains, some truths have stayed hidden for seventy-five years. And some secrets are worth dying for.