At the dawn of the twentieth century, two Italian men arrived in Canada during waves of immigration. One, Rocco Perri, from southern Italy, rose from being a petty criminal on the streets of Toronto to running the most prominent bootlegging operation of the Prohibition era, taking over Hamilton and leading one of the region’s most influential crime syndicates. Perri was feared by his enemies and loved by the press. So great was his celebrity following the murder of his first wife and business partner, Bessie Starkman, a crowd of 30,000 thronged in the streets of Hamilton for her funeral.

Perri’s businesses—which included alcohol, drugs, gambling and prostitution—kept him under constant police surveillance. He caught the interest of one man in particular: Frank Zaneth, the other arrival from Italy. Zaneth, from the Italian north, joined the RCMP as an unlikely recruit and became its first undercover operative. His skills and determination took him on assignment across the country, but he was dogged in his pursuit of Rocco Perri and worked for his arrest until the day Perri was last seen, in 1944, when he disappeared without a trace.

Filled with original research and masterful storytelling, The Whisky King is a riveting portrayal of a notorious Canadian crime figure and the man who tried to bring him in.