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Wicked Leaks
A Wickedly Funny Thriller about a Website Leaking Government Secrets, a Man Who Claims to Have Killed Princess Diana, and a Nurse on the Run for Her Life
Assigned to care for a terminally-ill patient who claims to have killed Princess Diana, nurse Kelly Carter dismisses him as nothing more than a delusional fantasist. But Monahan has proof, and directs Kelly to an abandoned garage, where she discovers a beaten-up white Fiat Uno with French license plates matching the description of the vehicle that has eluded the British and French authorities for decades. When the garage goes up in flames minutes after her visit, Kelly realizes that she's involved in something more dangerous than just caring for a patient.
Meanwhile, mismatched journalists April Lavender and Connor Presley are involved in the investigation of a shadowy website leaking nasty government secrets on a daily basis. When beastshamer.com threatens to reveal the truth about Diana's death, April and Connor begin to investigate in hopes of finding their next front-page story. After two deadly explosions lead them right to Kelly, all three set out to uncover the truth surrounding the death of the beloved princess—before Kelly becomes the next victim in a deadly cover-up that goes all the way up to England's MI5.
Assigned to care for a terminally-ill patient who claims to have killed Princess Diana, nurse Kelly Carter dismisses him as nothing more than a delusional fantasist. But Monahan has proof, and directs Kelly to an abandoned garage, where she discovers a beaten-up white Fiat Uno with French license plates matching the description of the vehicle that has eluded the British and French authorities for decades. When the garage goes up in flames minutes after her visit, Kelly realizes that she's involved in something more dangerous than just caring for a patient.
Meanwhile, mismatched journalists April Lavender and Connor Presley are involved in the investigation of a shadowy website leaking nasty government secrets on a daily basis. When beastshamer.com threatens to reveal the truth about Diana's death, April and Connor begin to investigate in hopes of finding their next front-page story. After two deadly explosions lead them right to Kelly, all three set out to uncover the truth surrounding the death of the beloved princess—before Kelly becomes the next victim in a deadly cover-up that goes all the way up to England's MI5.
- GenresFictionAdult Fiction
220 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2016
11 people are currently reading
361 people want to read
About the author
Matt Bendoris
6 books15 followersMatt Bendoris is a senior journalist with The Sun newspaper who is already making waves with his electric style of crime fiction writing. His first novel, Killing With Confidence, attracted fantastic plaudits, DM for Murder was described as 'riveting' by international bestseller Peter May and Matt is already working on his third book.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
February 6, 2021
While the background story is quite interesting, the characters were not interesting enough (or even all that likeable) to become invested in. P.S. We get it already...April is overweight and likes to eat. 🙄
August 28, 2016
This is the third novel I’ve read by journalist Matt Bendoris. I enjoyed them all, but I think this one is his best. The made-in-heaven team of April Lavender and Connor Presley are back, investigating stories and writing them for the Daily Chronicle newspaper, in so far as current press restrictions and other constraints allow (the book is bang up to date with the phone-hacking affair and all that came out of it).
The plot is as clever as they come, and Bendoris is a hugely entertaining writer. He has the happy knack of recounting serious events as if they were comedy, yet without trivialising them. His characters are as large as life, and the dialogue so perfect you feel as if you’re there. What’s more, you don’t ever want to leave.
I rarely give five stars, but this is a must read.
The plot is as clever as they come, and Bendoris is a hugely entertaining writer. He has the happy knack of recounting serious events as if they were comedy, yet without trivialising them. His characters are as large as life, and the dialogue so perfect you feel as if you’re there. What’s more, you don’t ever want to leave.
I rarely give five stars, but this is a must read.
November 13, 2016
Minds me of Christopher Brookmyre ... a mix of crime and dark humour. Will definitely look to read others by this author
February 11, 2018
Honestly, not my favorite read. If you want to know more about my thoughts, check out my book blog.
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August 7, 2017
This one just wasn't for me- too "madcap" - but it's well written and clearly carefully plotted. Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC.
September 8, 2017
Entertaining!
September 6, 2017
Wicked Leaks hits the shelves in the US in the week that marks the 20th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. I am sure that the timing is no fluke as events in Wicked Leaks will take readers back to that fateful August night in Paris and we get an insight into what may have occurred.
But how do events from 1997 come to the attention of a nurse from Glasgow in 2016? Could her latest patient – receiving end of life care for terminal cancer – really have lived the dangerous life he hints at? It all starts from a chance headline splashed by the papers as they revel in the latest scandal revealed by the website beastshamer.com. The nurse, Kelly Carter, cannot believe that her patient may know something about Diana’s death, but when he sends her to a Glasgow lock-up garage and she sees a white Fiat Uno (like the one that went missing after that night in Paris) she starts to worry. When the car explodes in a fireball she becomes caught up in a deadly game.
Wicked Leaks is a brilliant thriller which keeps a frenetic pace from the time that Kelly realises that her life and that of her family is in grave peril. The body count will rise and the reader cannot help but be gripped by her predicament.
Away from Kelly’s drama the Reader gets to reunite with the returning journalistic duo of Connor Presley and April Lavender – the odd couple of the print world. Connor and April are great characters to read about, the young and savvy Connor trying to keep April calm in the face of change as the older woman remains too set in her ways to cope with the changes her employers keep forcing upon them. The dialogue between the two had me laughing aloud in places – it is a hard act to balance tension in one chapter yet keep a companionable humour running through the next scene but Matt Bendoris handles it with apparent ease.
I am in the fortunate position that I get to read many great books each year – Wicked Leaks is one that stood out this summer. I love how the has author mirrored actual events into his story, the scandal reveals, the conspiracy theories and the brilliant, brilliant conclusion which still makes me….well I can’t tell you as “SPOILERS”. But for a book called Wicked Leaks am I allowed to blab?
So very readable, so much fun and then quite suddenly dark and shocking – everything that a good thriller should be. Highly recommended.
But how do events from 1997 come to the attention of a nurse from Glasgow in 2016? Could her latest patient – receiving end of life care for terminal cancer – really have lived the dangerous life he hints at? It all starts from a chance headline splashed by the papers as they revel in the latest scandal revealed by the website beastshamer.com. The nurse, Kelly Carter, cannot believe that her patient may know something about Diana’s death, but when he sends her to a Glasgow lock-up garage and she sees a white Fiat Uno (like the one that went missing after that night in Paris) she starts to worry. When the car explodes in a fireball she becomes caught up in a deadly game.
Wicked Leaks is a brilliant thriller which keeps a frenetic pace from the time that Kelly realises that her life and that of her family is in grave peril. The body count will rise and the reader cannot help but be gripped by her predicament.
Away from Kelly’s drama the Reader gets to reunite with the returning journalistic duo of Connor Presley and April Lavender – the odd couple of the print world. Connor and April are great characters to read about, the young and savvy Connor trying to keep April calm in the face of change as the older woman remains too set in her ways to cope with the changes her employers keep forcing upon them. The dialogue between the two had me laughing aloud in places – it is a hard act to balance tension in one chapter yet keep a companionable humour running through the next scene but Matt Bendoris handles it with apparent ease.
I am in the fortunate position that I get to read many great books each year – Wicked Leaks is one that stood out this summer. I love how the has author mirrored actual events into his story, the scandal reveals, the conspiracy theories and the brilliant, brilliant conclusion which still makes me….well I can’t tell you as “SPOILERS”. But for a book called Wicked Leaks am I allowed to blab?
So very readable, so much fun and then quite suddenly dark and shocking – everything that a good thriller should be. Highly recommended.
January 1, 2018
I didn't see it coming. So much so, I spent the day reading to finish it! Now to go to Scotland!
September 8, 2017
This book moves quickly. The first few chapters moved almost a little too quickly - each chapter is just a few pages long, and the point-of-view changes from one chapter to the next. And there are plenty of characters - Kelly, Monahan, April, Connor, police investigators, other staff at the newspaper, Kelly's family members, some of Connor's friends, April's crazy dramatic Italian quasi-fiance Luigi, Monahan's associates, a disturbing male nurse in a psychiatric ward . . . there are lots of characters in the book. This made it hard to really develop an understanding of the characters and their circumstances. For the first few chapters, I had to flip back to remind myself who everyone was. Once I got everyone straight, it was smooth sailing.
I did like the characters; they all played their roles admirably. And the premise, as I mentioned, so so believable. Is it feasible in my head that, somewhere, is a guy who's been involved with less-than-kosher, politically-motivated "deeds" that has evidence of all the wicked things he's done and whom the government would like very much to see disappear? And there's another guy who's trying to publish all these wicked secrets about the government and people in power on some kind of black-listed website? Yeah, I'd believe those things.
Also, the plot moves fast. There is no sitting around waiting to see which shoe falls first. Even when you think things will slow down or finally go to plan, that doesn't happen. This is a story where nothing is ever quite what it seems, which is wonderful - there were surprises up until the very end. I love books where you have to think and guess and it still isn't what you thought.
*I got an advance copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
I did like the characters; they all played their roles admirably. And the premise, as I mentioned, so so believable. Is it feasible in my head that, somewhere, is a guy who's been involved with less-than-kosher, politically-motivated "deeds" that has evidence of all the wicked things he's done and whom the government would like very much to see disappear? And there's another guy who's trying to publish all these wicked secrets about the government and people in power on some kind of black-listed website? Yeah, I'd believe those things.
Also, the plot moves fast. There is no sitting around waiting to see which shoe falls first. Even when you think things will slow down or finally go to plan, that doesn't happen. This is a story where nothing is ever quite what it seems, which is wonderful - there were surprises up until the very end. I love books where you have to think and guess and it still isn't what you thought.
*I got an advance copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
May 29, 2021
My daughter gave me this book to read, so I wasn't putting to much faith in it s sometimes are tastes in books don't jive. It took a few days to get into it but I didn't want to stop reading. I was completely fooled by Monahan, Totally surprised by the ending. The author very nicely finished up the loose ends to all the characters. Kelly Carter, nurse taking care of terminally ill patients didn't deserve what happened to her and her family , however she did triumph in the end. The reporters April and Connor
gave the book its humorous side, If you get your hoands on the book, ou will enjoy.
gave the book its humorous side, If you get your hoands on the book, ou will enjoy.
August 24, 2016
A fantastic read from cover to cover.
What a great new story in this series. I'd really enjoyed the first two, with high hopes for this third instalment.
I'm delighted to say that this is another fantastic read from Matt Bendoris.
The characters really come to life and the story has some great and unexpected twists.
I love when I choose a book that I find hard to put down. This one kept me hooked all the way through, with some great imagery and a real pace to the story.
What a great new story in this series. I'd really enjoyed the first two, with high hopes for this third instalment.
I'm delighted to say that this is another fantastic read from Matt Bendoris.
The characters really come to life and the story has some great and unexpected twists.
I love when I choose a book that I find hard to put down. This one kept me hooked all the way through, with some great imagery and a real pace to the story.
October 18, 2017
All the reviews said this is funny - I must have missed all those parts. Mediocre suspense. Characters change with no motivation and totally unbelievable. Meh.
January 12, 2018
Lots of twists and turns. Never quite sure who's a good guy or a bad guy, right up to the end. I could see myself trying his other novels.
January 26, 2018
3.5 stars. Absurd plot and preposterous character choices, but fun story.
May 20, 2018
This was silly book, but a fun read with some unexpected twists and turns. Two reporters stumble onto a story about classified files and the death of Princess Diana.
October 11, 2018
Good story, great characters and great ending!
February 28, 2022
I really enjoyed this book, there were lots of good plot twists, and the chapters were short so it was a fairly easy read.
September 27, 2023
3.5 stars
June 1, 2024
Brilliant book!!! Took a chance on this from a charity shop and boy did it pay off!! Now to get the previous two!
August 1, 2025
⭐☆☆☆☆ 1/5 stars
Wicked Leaks was a big miss for me. I found about 95% of it boring, with very little to keep me engaged. On top of that, there was a surprising amount of body shaming throughout the book, which made the reading experience uncomfortable and disappointing. I went in hoping for something sharp or entertaining, but unfortunately, it didn’t deliver.
Wicked Leaks was a big miss for me. I found about 95% of it boring, with very little to keep me engaged. On top of that, there was a surprising amount of body shaming throughout the book, which made the reading experience uncomfortable and disappointing. I went in hoping for something sharp or entertaining, but unfortunately, it didn’t deliver.
October 31, 2016
Fairly good book, funny, set around Scotland
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews