This was a rollercoaster ride. I tore through this. It kept me guessing almost until the end. There are so many despicable people in this book doing so many awful things, you really don’t know who to trust. There was not one likable character and I’m okay with that.
Thanks too NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy in exchange for a honest opinion. 3.5⭐️

This is my first book by Caz Frear and I was really looking forward to it but I just couldn’t get into it that much. I wasn’t wild about the characters and I found myself getting confused throughout. Maybe it’s just not for me. Thanks to NetGalley for this early release even though it’s out now.

What a fun ride FIVE BAD DEEDS was. What on earth did Ellen do?! That’s what you’re wondering while reading this book. This was a multiple POV story with a MC that clearly wasn’t showing all her cards.

There were a lot of characters at play in this book so you really don’t know who the culprit is which is always awesome. Let’s just say Ellen had no shortage of people that would have wanted to seek revenge. There wss lots of misbehavior in this book for everyone which made for a juicy read.

This was a fast read with super likable unlikable characters. The kind you love to hate! I’d recommend this to anyone seeking a fast read and for fans of the thriller genre.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This one started off a bit slow. It picked up speed about midway through and was good for the rest of the story. However the characters were flat and there was no real development of plot or cast.

Five Bad Deeds was an incredible thriller. This is a standalone which was so fun to breeze through. It had me on the edge of my seat the entire read and I was intrigued the whole time. Overall, a great thriller book!

Ellen Walsh seems like the kind of woman who has it all or, at the very least, is on the verge of attaining it. Married to the doting Adam, she’s the mother of beautiful teenage Orla and twin toddler sons Kian and Max. Their family lives in a charming suburban town called Thames Lawley, only an hour or so outside of London. They’ve just landed their dream house and are planning extensive renovations. While Ellen waits to hear about becoming head of the English department at a high school nearby, she works as a tutor, attempting to instill a passion for literature in teenage minds.

But Ellen is not the perfect wife and mother that she seems. She is a woman with secrets, and five things that she’s done – that she knows now were selfish or inconsiderate or just plain wrong, no matter how well-intentioned her reasoning at the time – are coming back to haunt her. When she receives a threatening note, she tries to play it off as being just a cruel prank. After it becomes clear that someone is fomenting a relentless campaign of intimidation and fear against her though, Ellen will have to figure out who it is and put a stop to their cruelty before it escalates into the unimaginable.

For it isn’t just about the shame and humiliation that would inevitably accompany the exposure of Ellen’s secrets. Someone could get seriously hurt, and Ellen knows she’s already harmed far too many people in her lifetime, even some of the ones she loves the most:

QUOTE
<i>This is all my fault</i>, I realised.

In her early adolescence, when Orla had needed a more intuitive style of parenting, the twins had been challenging babies, stealing my time and my sanity. Orla had got her first period the same day the boys were due their 6-in-1 vaccines, and as Kian had been grouchy afterwards, and Max biblically wrathful, I’d barely had time to acknowledge her milestone.

I’d failed her then and many times after. Suddenly it was overwhelmingly plain to see.
END QUOTE

As Ellen tries to fix her life and mend her relationships, she’ll have to sift through a long list of suspects who might have it in for her. There’s Jason Bale, the local police constable who always seems to be watching her. There’s her own sister, Kristy, a former model who’s been living with her since events in Ibiza that they still don’t talk about. There’s her friend, Nush Delaney, who’s grown ever more brittle since a contentious divorce. Ellen quickly realizes that most of her relationships are fraught with unspoken tension, as she evaluates everyone around her:

QUOTE
Few people are [all bad]. Few people are all good either. When it comes right down to it, we’re just a mishmash of roles, and we can’t be good at all of them. You’re generally a top-notch friend but an impatient sister. An A-star colleague but a B-minus wife. I mean, only an hour ago, we had to listen to Nush insist <i>again</i> that while her ex, Tom, was undoubtedly a faithless cockroach of a husband, he was “such a wonderful father to Jasmine in so many ways’ (as though the construction of one rocking horse in 2007 made him the Lord of All Dads.)
END QUOTE

Ellen, like most of her circle, is quicker to judge than to confess vulnerability, leading to a pressure cooker of emotions that threatens to explode and fracture all their psyches and relationships at any moment. But even as petty and self-absorbed as these people can be, who among them would stoop to violence to make Ellen suffer? And, perhaps more importantly, why?

Five Bad Deeds is a remarkably astute observation of modern morality and the seductive allure of stifling one’s feelings in the pursuit of getting along. It can sometimes be a bit tedious, reading about not-so-great adults doing poorly thought out things while assuring themselves that the consequences of their actions are somehow the fault of others, but Caz Frears packs this suburban thriller with enough jaw-dropping twists to keep readers hooked throughout. From the very first page, where we realize that Ellen is in prison, to the bittersweet ending, the book is a rollercoaster of both emotion and action. Told from the perspective of multiple residents of Thames Lawley, this novel will keep you guessing till the end.

This novel completely surprised me with the ending. I really enjoyed the characters; they were decidedly human complete with flaws. There is a big lose end that I wish had been resolved, but otherwise a great read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this author's first two books in her Cat Kinsella series, so thought I'd give this stand-alone novel a try.

Ellen Walsh, teacher and mother of three, came from humble beginnings. Now though, she lives in a beautiful home in an affluent small town neighbourhood. It is an enviable 'chocolate box' house. Her husband's wealthy parents lent them the money to purchase the home. Ellen is planning a major renovation of the house and that on top of her tutoring jobs, mothering boisterous twin toddler boys and a surly teenage daughter Orla, just about fills her days with enough drama to satisfy anyone. Ellen likes to think she leads a life that others might envy and she comes across as quite self-absorbed, yet she tries to be a good person... Now, Ellen's life is beginning to implode. Various unsettling events lead her to believe that someone out there is waging a vendetta against her. But why? What could she have done that would merit this?

"Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences"

Unbeknownst to her husband and friends, Ellen is tutoring Zane, a teenage boy, for free, after he was thrown out of school.

Kristy is Ellen's sister who lives in a small guest cottage in Ellen's back garden. Once a beautiful and well paid model, she fell upon hard times after a disastrous fall left her scarred. Unknown to Ellen, Kristy blames her sister for most of her misfortune... She is constantly borrowing money, wears Ellen's clothes, and generally uses her sister. Kristy likes 'bad boys' and is determined to bring them home. Most recently, she has moved her boyfriend Shay in with her.

Gwen lives directly across from Ellen in a new build. She is the single mother of a toddler girl. Her brother Jason lives with them now. He was once a high ranking policeman in London, but has chosen to work a lesser rank in the small town of Thames Lawley.

Nush, a friend and neighbour whose husband has recently left her and moved in with his younger girlfriend. Nush blames Ellen for this...

There are many themes running throughout this novel. Parenting being the foremost in my opinion. Also social climbing, guilt, revenge, marital discord, jealousy, and the cyclic nature of dysfunction.

I liked the flow and pace of the novel as well as some of the apt descriptions of suburban life and being a parent. "Saying anything to Orla these days is like probing an electric fence."

The characters were well drawn, but not remotely likeable. There was not one of them who I would wish to meet in real life.

The villain of the novel was a surprise, but the reason for the vendetta against Ellen seemed weak in my opinion. Also, I found the ending to be less than satisfying.

In summation, there were parts of this novel that I enjoyed, but personally speaking I much preferred this author's Cat Kinsella books.

3.5 stars rounded up for NetGalley

This book hooked me from the first page - I immediately had to know more. Ellen was an interested MC as she was severely flawed and often doubled down on her choices. I kept waiting to hear what big bad deed she must have done because I assumed it had to be unforgiveable. The angst between Ellen and Orla was so real - teenagers really can be awful to their parents for perceived slights. This was my first Cat Frear book but certainly won’t be my last.

I'll be honest, I didn't see a lot of the twists in this one coming, but it feels a bit scattered with way too many suspects and perspectives along the way. It picks up pace a bit toward the end, but it's overall a little long. It does open with an enticing first chapter and there are enough mic drop moments throughout the story that would keep me reading.

I absolutely adore Caz Frear’s
Cat Kinsella procedural mystery series, so I’m gravely disappointed to see her pivot to this sort of schlocky domestic thriller.

I assume Frear will return to the Cat Kinsella series eventually, but this one just felt beneath her talent as a writer, and hits on all the obnoxious themes that continue to put me off of this genre.

There’s nothing interesting about the characters or their world. They’re dull, they’re petty, they could be your own irritating suburban neighbor who never managed to develop a personality beyond terrorizing their own friends and family.

In these types of books we don’t even get the voyeuristic fun of the rich people behaving badly trope. Just a lot of petty squabbling in a dull setting that just makes everyone involved seem pathetic.

I have a lot of respect for Frear as a writer, but she didn’t need to stoop to this. Let’s get back to the world of Cat Kinsella instead.

I love psychological suspense books! If you do as well, you're going to want to pick up Caz Frear's new book - Five Bad Deeds. That cover drew me in before I even turned a page. A house burning down? Hmm...
The residents of Ellen's neighborhood are a friendly bunch, helping each other out with childcare, a friendly face, meals and so much more.

Or so Ellen thought. She's confused when she receives a note telling her that "People have to learn there are consequences, Ellen. And I’m going to teach you that lesson. Right under your nose." Is it a joke? Who would do something like this?

And that's where things get going. We meet Ellen, her sister, her neighbors, her daughter and a few more - all through their own chapters. So, as readers we have access to that information and we're able to start putting the pieces together ahead of Ellen. But are we really putting them in the right places?

Frear plays with the reader, providing clues, twists and turns along the garden path to the final whodunit it. One minute I thought I had the who, how and why, only to be proven wrong again the next minute. I love not being able to figure out the answers before the final pages.

Now, the characters. I admit it - although I thought I should like Ellen, I couldn't. Or most of the cast of characters for that matter. I'll let you find out why - but suffice to say - everyone has secrets. Even in the nicest neighborhoods.

Frear has penned an excellent suspense book. If you too like this genre, Five Bad Deeds is a great choice.

This is a character centric, multiple POV novel and a ton of fun. While I do believe it's character centric, I don't think that means the plot isn't good. It gripped me and kept me fairly intrigued. For me, though, it was the characters we were reading from, some likable and some unlikable, that made me enjoy my time with this one.

It took me a while to get into this book. I had to put it down several times and return to it, hoping something would change and draw me in, as I am usually a fan of domestic thrillers. It unfortunately fell short. I could not connect with the characters, and I felt the plot was unclear and disorganized. While I was left disappointed, I do believe that there are readers that will enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Paperbacks for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

Thank you to the author and publisher for this ARC!

Personally, I'm pretty tired of books/TV shows/movies filled exclusively with unlikable characters. I feel like it makes the story drag in a way it wouldn't if I had characters that I enjoyed spending time with or that I could root for. That being said, I did enjoy the mystery central to the plot, and I liked that it was framed like a movie, where they show you at the beginning that the character is in jail and then go back and show how we got to that point. It made me wonder several times while I was reading how it could possibly end that way, keeping me invested in the plot's unraveling. I especially enjoyed the reveal at the end.

This was a drama packed mystery novel. The suspense was good and there were multiple narrators to help the story evolve and give perspective. There were a lot of characters and I got them confused at first, though. It took some time to start getting them straight in my head.

Five Bad Deeds begins with Ellen Walsh in jail. Why? Go back to Before and learn that Ellen is a seemingly perfect wife, sister, mother, teacher, volunteer and friend. So why does she receive an anonymous note telling her that she is going to be taught a lesson? A lesson that will fit the consequences of her part behavior? This begins the wild ride that is Five Bad Deeds, the talented Cat Frear’s latest thriller.

The complicated, multilayered plot will pull you in as soon as Ellen starts to wonder who the anonymous writer could be. There are possibilities. A sister. A wronged friend. A man whose secrets she deliberately revealed. Or even her daughter. As the “teaching” or punishments escalate and begin to affect her life, Ellen grows more desperate. She never suspects her tormentor until the final chapters.

While Ellen is not always a likable character, you will feel sorry for her as her carefully constructed life slowly, deliberately falls apart. The other characters shine, especially her sister Kristy and troubled young Zane Jackson. 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Perennial and Paperbacks and Cat Frear for this ARC.

This was such a claustrophobic and suffocating thriller. I could not get enough. I love the trope that we never know what happens behind closed doors, or behind picture perfect Instagram families. Read this one now!

I have read all of Frear's books and was excited to see a standalone. However, I did not enjoy this one as much as her previous novels. That being said, it did keep my interest and I enjoyed the way it was written with multiple narrators. I was not able to "solve" the mystery on my own and I appreciated the many twists. Ultimately, I feel like the story was overly complicated and I had a hard time believing Gwen's motivation.

FIVE BAD DEEDS was an engaging book from start to finish. A love a good revenge story and this one had it all. I will be recommending this to my customers.

Many thanks for my gifted copy!