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!

This is my first Caz Frear novel after hearing great things and honestly this one took me a bit to get into. The opening grabbed me right away as we are introduced to Ellen Walsh but from there the pacing slowed down until the last 35-40% of the book. The slow burn while not for everyone did fit the story as Frear does an excellent job unfolding the characters and give you a good bit of depth to each one. In the end I did enjoy this book quite a bit and recommend a read!

Thank you NetGalley, Caz Frear and Simon & Schuster for this ARC.

This book falls under unlikable characters domestic thriller where the mystery isn’t really worth all the drama.

I was originally intrigued by the premise of an ominous note delivered to the protagonist but unfortunately it didn’t grab my attention like I had hoped.

Thank you to Netgalley for an early copy to review.

To the outside world, Ellen Walsh is a model citizen: doting wife, loving mother of three and teacher. But Ellen has secrets, she has done some bad things! When someone starts sending her sinister notes, Ellen is afraid of losing all she holds sacred. I thought the premise for this story was so fun, I love a good revenge plot! Thank you Netgalley, Harper Perennial and Paperbacks, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on December 5, 2023.

This was a very layered domestic thriller and I had so much fun reading it.

Ellen has a seeming normal life. She is raising a teenage daughter and two younger kiddos. She works in education. She is renovating her dream home… but something is lurking behind the curtain.

She starts getting targeted by someone… she is getting letters that warn of her impending doom. Someone is out there making life incredibly difficult for her at every turn and she doesn’t know who.

We are taken through this winding tale of how she wound up in this predicament, who is involved and how close to home it could potentially be…

I thought this was really entertaining. The characters, both good and bad, are all so intriguing. There were moments I thought I knew where we were headed, only to have the rug ripped from under me. This was twisty and diabolical and I really enjoyed it.

Compared to the amazing Cat Kinsella books, this was quite a disappointment. Frear's upcoming novel, Five Bad Deeds, focuses on Ellen, who is a frazzled mom of three who is basically a good person. Or is she?

The setup of this novel is really intriguing! I love the idea of digging deeper into a not-so-perfect character and unearthing their flaws. But I still have to LIKE them! I ended up thoroughly disliking Ellen, and every other character, by the end of this book. These are all incredibly shitty people who walk all over the people around them for their own benefit. I felt like I was reading chapter after chapter of pettiness and malice and revenge. This kind of reading can be fun, but it certainly wasn't what I expected from the author of the excellent Sweet Little Lies. I think while reading this book, I composed several shouted speeches I'd have made to Orla, Adam, Gwen, Ellen, Zane, Kristy, Nush, and Orla again. They're all just awful.

This book still features Frear's immersive writing style and interesting characters, which did keep me coming back. Objectively, I do think this is a well-written book, and I enjoyed it for what it was. I just wish maybe my expectations hadn't been set so high for this author. I'll certainly keep reading her novels, though!

Domestic thriller set in the UK about a wife/mother who receives a note in the mail telling her she’s going to pay for what she’s done. As a reader you find out the “five bad deeds” from her past and untangling the mystery kept me on the edge of my seat. Every character is unlikeable and unreliable and they all have a motive to be the blackmailer. The way this all tied up was sooooo incredibly satisfying to me.

[arc review]
Thank you to Harper Perennial for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Five Bad Deeds releases December 5, 2023

Are you more likely to remember the hundreds of good deeds a person does? Or the one bad one?

This was very heavy on being a family drama and lacked a lot of suspense to be a convincing mystery.
Ultimately, I don’t think I was the target demographic for this one and it left a lot to be desired.

The Asian punchlines stuck out like a sore thumb to me and quite honestly were stereotypical and racist.

1.<i>“Ellen doesn’t blink, although Adam knows she’s conflicted about the price tag. On the one hand, his wife loves things: expensive things, showy things, things she could only dream of owning when she was growing up. <b>On the other hand, and to his slight annoyance, she can sometimes lean a little Chairman Mao</b>.”</I> Because China equates to cheap, right? OKAY.

2.<i>“It means they’re a progressive start-up.” Kristy snaps, leaping to the defense of the company, who if she does end up working there will soon be deemed “worse than North Korea” for simply suggesting she turn up on time.”</I> The setting is London and the company is popcorn… I don’t know why North Korea was the first thing this author chose to reference when those are two wildly different spectrums.

Ellen is surprised to receive an anonymous letter threatening revenge. She considers herself a good person and does not know why someone would want to threaten her. Is it possible they have a reason from her past?

This was such a great twisty tale. It did take some time for me to get into it but once I did was hooked. It’s the type of book that will keep you up at night reading and telling yourself one more chapter. It’s a good revenge story but you won’t know the who, why, or what of it for a while. I loved how there are actual five bad deeds which are woven into the story.

“Maybe some people are destined to be the ocean. Others to be the storm.”

Five Bad Deeds comes out 12/5.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Paperbacks, and Caz Frear for this ARC of Five Bad Deeds.
On initial review of this book’s synopsis, I was immediately intrigued to see where the book might take me. Sadly, on top of extremely unlikable characters (and for no valid purpose), I found this book to be extremely disorganized and confusing. Oddly enough,I had no issues recalling each character despite several POVs, but the writing style felt very clunky to me. I had a difficult time keeping up with the story and even felt like the plot was unclear for most of the book (without the synopsis I would have been entirely lost).
Lastly, I was a bit let down by the ending, a thus this read was just not for me.
2 ⭐️

I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

To borrow a phrase from Reddit, everyone sucks here! (Which, to be fair, I think is the point) Though the book shifts narrators, our ostensible protagonist is Ellen Walsh. When we meet her, she’s serving a jail sentence, and the novel takes us back to a few months earlier to explain why. This is one of those tactics that is used *constantly* in limited series TV shows - this big exciting moment and then a smash cut to “three months earlier”. It’s less annoying on the page, and at least here we don’t have any flash forwards. It’s a straightforward journey after the opener.

Ellen is one of those people who is always SO BUSY. And she just can’t stop telling you how BUSY she is. No one in the entire world has ever had to juggle as much as her. Again, I don’t think we’re supposed to find her terribly sympathetic, and when we hear from some of the other characters, they seem to feel the same way: Ellen loves talking about Ellen. She and her husband Adam have just purchased The Meadowhouse, which is Ellen’s dream home…except she wants to completely gut and renovate it. Ellen grew up fairly poor, and she’s always wanted a big fancy house and a big fancy life, and thanks to wealthy in-laws, it’s finally in her sights. The only problem is she’s started getting threatening messages. These messages keep threatening to expose some nefarious “something” that she’s done. And while we eventually learn that Ellen is no saint, the person sending the messages definitely has an ulterior motive themselves.

This was…fine. It kept me entertained - I think having multiple narrators helps. Ellen is pretty insufferable, so being stuck with her the entire time would have been too much. Not that the rest of these fools are any better, but it’s at least a change of pace.

Five Bad Deeds
by Caz Frear
Pub Date: December 5, 2023
Harper Perennial
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
New author for me- but I did enjoy this mystery/Thriller. A little slow paced and long since I guessed the mystery near the beginning of the book. Topics of alcoholism, infidelity and revenge are explored in this book and multiple suspects are considered. I didn't like how she shortened characters names and the characters were unlikeable.
Synopsis:
Ellen Walsh is in jail. But how did she wind up here? She is a good wife and mother to teenage Orla and adorable toddler twins. She and her husband Adam just bought their dream house in posh Thames Lawley and are getting ready to do major renovations. But someone is out to get her. Who is setting her up and why? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

.3 stars