Secret City

The Capital Files

By: Steve Lewis, Chris Uhlmann

Narrated by: Henry Nixon

A high-stakes trilogy condensed into one fast-paced thriller and the inspiration behind the global smash-hit TV Drama Secret City.

When seasoned journalist Harry Dunkley is slipped a compromising photograph of a federal MP one frosty Canberra morning, he knows he is onto something big. But the deeper Harry investigates, the more he realises that this photograph is merely the hint of a larger conspiracy at work, and a secret its guardians are willing to kill to protect. In this riveting trilogy, the national capital becomes a battleground as Australia is snared in a dangerous dance with superpowers America and China, and war looms ever closer.

©2018 Chris Uhlman and Steve Lewis (P)2019 W. F. Howes Ltd

Critic reviews

"'House of Cards, Canberra style... Political insiders Steve Lewis and Chris Uhlmann bring biting wit and behind-the-headlines insight to this sharply observed novel." (Sunday Canberra Times)

Miserable technical issues

I already knew I would enjoy the story because I've seen the Netflix series based on the books. The narrator's voice is fine, but the volume varies from a whisper to full out yelling. A small amount of variation adds to the experience, but much of the dialogue is people murmuring requiring the sound level to be turned up to maximum. Any ambient noise where one is listening makes it impossible to hear the dialogue at all. Just a second later, the narrator is yelling at the top of his voice. It makes the entire experience miserable. How did the director and audio engineers to not recognize this issue and decrease the variation?