Reviewed by Moz, August 2000 

Burnside: The Secret Files was written by K.M.Lock and published by HarperCollins International.  It is an original story based on the character from the popular British series The Bill.  The style of the book takes a little getting used to at first as it consists of video transcripts and taped phone calls, e-mails and recorded messages.  The one exception are the excerpts from the personal diary of Pauline Chambers; a television reporter who poses as a waitress/escort hoping to collect enough information to expose Peter Dawson, the owner of Silks nightclub, as the sick and evil pimp that he is.  But her path crosses with Frank Burnside's and she discovers that there is more to Silks nightclub than just prostitution and that Frank is involved professionally and personally.  On the way she falls for our hero (who can blame her) and things get a bit steamy!  But all the time she is deceiving him because there are cameras everywhere and he doesn't know it...kinky. 

The characters for the most part are pretty dark but Frank's sidekick in this, Hedges, shines as a good guy. As usual Frank Burnside is brave, mean, angry, funny, tanned and well dressed but there are some nasty characters like Dawson with his face lift, white suits and snakeskin boots and his female partner in crime, the fat and tarty Clare Miller, and would you believe Frank's brother Mal. I don't want to give too much of the story away but Mal Burnside is nothing like his older brother!  I found it really interesting to read about the Burnside family, not to mention the old days at Sun Hill.  There is a reference to the present Sun Hill mob too.  The story really moves along and is action packed. On a critical note I would've preferred it to be written in the traditional 'novel' form with the occasional transcript.  The characters and the plot deserved another fifty pages at least.  But because it was written as a series of files, when the files ran out...so did the story.  I would've liked an epilogue too.  I think any fan of Frank Burnside or The Bill would enjoy this book, particularly a viewer who remembers The Bill pre-1993. 

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