An investigation into Nova Scotia’s 1992 Westray coal mine disaster

Winner of the City of Dartmouth Book Award, runner-up for the National Business Book Award & shortlisted for the Evelyn Richardson Award for Nonfiction.

On May 8, 1992, twenty-six men went underground to work the night shift at the Westray coal mine in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. They never came back. The massive explosion that claimed their lives the next morning sent shock waves around the world.

Calculated Risk (Nimbus Publishing) is the only comprehensive account of the worst mine disaster in modern Canadian history. It recounts the stories of the miners who died and the families they left behind, as well as the corporate and political machinations behind the development of the ill-fated mine. The product of two years of research and featuring exclusive interviews with key figures in the tragedy, the book exposes the safety lapses, political intrigues, and business decisions that culminated in disaster.

Banner image: The shattered main entrance to the Westray mine after the explosion. Source: Report of the Westray Mine Public Inquiry

Copies available from AbeBooks, Biblio, or from the author

Reviews

“A damning account of the Westray tragedy … a stunning book that proves that Jobb can dig as well as any Pictou County miner …. a powerful indictment of expediency taken to a senselessly tragic conclusion.” – The Globe and Mail

“An excellent book …. investigative journalism as it should be: meticulously researched, judiciously reported, and enthrallingly written.” – Canadian Book Review Annual

“I couldn’t put the book down, mainly because of Jobb’s ability to portray the people in the tragedy, from the miners themselves to blame-denying managers, bureaucrats and politicians.” – Financial Times of Canada

“Jobb … has meticulously documented the story of greed, politics and dependency that led to the Westray tragedy … you can feel – even taste – the gritty life of miners in an unsafe pit …. In effect, Jobb has done the inquiry’s task.” – Books in Canada

“A thorough, coherent and compelling case history of the Westray disaster, befitting (Jobb’s) reputation as one of the country’s best crime writers.” – Atlantic Books Today

“Jobb spins a tale of horrors … a triumph of reporting … a Herculean amount of research and interviewing … Jobb has ransacked so many files so thoroughly, and asked so many men and women so many penetrating questions that whatever the public inquiry eventually reveals may well seem like an anti-climax.” – Harry Bruce, Halifax Chronicle Herald

“An important book …. A lot of hard, dogged work has gone into putting together this anatomy of a disaster.” – Sunday Daily News

“Saddens and outrages … a solid, readable primer on the coal-mining disaster that has dominated Nova Scotia public life.” – Canadian Forum

“With painstaking diligence, Jobb pieced together a complex story that begins long before an explosion ripped through the mine …. It’s a tale of lax safety, wrenching heartbreak and a project driven to disaster by politics and greed.” – The Canadian Press