Oliver and his family are having a hard time in Fort William. His father brought them to the head of Lake Superior from Liverpool in the 1870s, imagining he could make his living as a book binder. Now, John Tait has been forced to sell family heirlooms and the family’s only horse. When his brother offers him a job in nearby Prince Arthur’s Landing, the two men come to blows – Oliver’s father does not want his family living in this wild mining town. The fight causes Oliver to stop speaking to his best friend, his cousin Bert.

Despair leads Oliver’s father to accept the most dangerous job imaginable. He joins a band of men carrying nitroglycerin overland to construction sites, a task that can only be done by hand. A gruff but kindly blacksmith takes Oliver on as a helper, but tension builds as everyone waits for his father to return. The story ends with a dramatic disaster that brings Oliver’s extended family together again.

The excitement of Thunder Ice will hold the attention of reluctant readers, but Acheson’s plot tends to show its seams in places. For example, when we are told that the town’s church bells can be rung as a warning, it is as if a large, flashing sign marked “watch this space” has been placed in the text. The minor characters, such as Campbell the blacksmith, and Miss Darbyshire, a saloon dancer, are more interesting and better developed than more important ones such as Oliver’s parents. Historical details are generally well integrated, but sometimes seem pasted on, especially when Miss Darbyshire, in a moment of prophetic inspiration, declares that the two feuding towns will merge someday into a place called Thunder Bay. But these problems will probably bother adult readers more than those in the intended audience. Younger readers may well be too caught up in Oliver’s desire to somehow buy back the family’s horse, and his concern over his father’s fate, to notice these flaws.