Frank must decide whether to keep his head down or stand up against his manipulative boss.

They told him to press the button. They didn't say what it would cost.

Frank Bargen isn't a hero-just a quiet bureaucrat good at keeping his head down. But when he's sent to The Basement as part of a covert government operation, he finds himself at the heart of a brutal system built on silence and fear. His job is simple: monitor the screens, and if things get out of hand, press the button.

But when "out of hand" becomes a front-row seat to sanctioned cruelty, Frank faces a choice that could destroy what little remains of his family-and his conscience.

As lies mount and the machine grinds on, Frank must decide: stay safe and complicit, or risk everything to expose the truth.

A gripping political thriller with moral weight and haunting relevance, this is a story about what it takes to wake up-and what you risk when you do.

Details

ISBN13: 9781922329813
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 316
Edition:
Publication Date: 27 Jun 2025
Publisher: Alkira Publishing
Publication City, Country: Australia
Dimensions (cm): 22.9(H)x15.2(L)x1.8(W)422
Weight (gm): 422

Author Biography

Reviews

'A book for our times, Shadows Beneath the Surface is an unsettling story of unchecked power and control, the drugging effects of rampant capitalism, and the violence that lies beneath the surface of male entitlement. In Frank Bargen, we have an agreeable everyman who discovers how easy it is to allow fear to make you an accomplice to tyranny. Only Frank has more strength than people give him credit for, and he can't outrun his conscience, and that is about to make Frank very dangerous indeed.' - Kelly Rigby, fiction editor and writing coach.

'Shadows Beneath the Surface is a suspenseful, fast-paced Stephen King of a thriller set in a dystopian future Australia in which military grunt Frank Bargen grapples with personal and national demons rooted in the present and embodied in his demonic military superior.' - Louise Branson, former foreign and war correspondent for the London Sunday Times and the Canberra Times and author of The Inconvenient Journalist.