The last spike was driven in the transcontinental railway in 1885, satisfying a commitment made to British Columbia by the Canadian federal government. The railway would unite the Confederation, open up new lands for colonization, and provide greater access for industry and trade. Fifty years later, in June 1935, hundreds of unemployed men took to those same rails in what was dubbed the On to Ottawa Trek.

Given today's tiresome climate of post-9/11 "national security" paranoia, this fictionalized account of post-WWII spying shenanigans potentially provides a healthy reminder that such a mindset has its foundation in the Cold War era. The Kremlin Betrayal posits the idea that Stalin was murdered by his own colleague (contrary to the historical recorded death of natural causes). Author Leon Berger presents this assassination as the result of Stalin's own well-documented obsession with the rewriting of history, coupled with the Western world's desperate fixation upon undermining the Soviet state and its leader.

The story centres on a gift that Stalin gave Hitler and that Stalin now wants returned so that any hint of friendship between the two is erased.