Thank you Harper Perennial, #partner, for the finished copy of Five Bad Deeds in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: December 5, 2023
Summary:
A gripping tale of revenge, loyalty, and the secrets hidden between the walls of the most beautiful home in town. Ellen Walsh has done something very, very bad. If only she knew what it was…
Teacher, mother, wife, and all-around good citizen Ellen is juggling nonstop commitments, from raising a teen and two toddlers to job-hunting to finally renovating her dream home, the Meadowhouse. Amidst the chaos, an ominous note arrives in the mail, People have to learn there are consequences, Ellen. And I’m going to teach you that lesson. Right under your nose.
Why would someone send her this? Ellen has no clue. She’s no angel—a white lie here, an occasional sharp tongue there—but nothing to incur the wrath of an anonymous enemy. She’d never intentionally hurt anyone. But intention doesn’t matter to someone. Someone blames this supposed “good person” for all the bad they’ve experienced. And maybe they have reason to? Because few of us get through life without leaving a black mark on someone else’s. Could the five bad deeds that come to haunt Ellen explain why things have gone so horribly wrong? As she races to discover who’s set on destroying her reputation and her future, Ellen continues to receive increasingly threatening messages… each one hitting closer to everything she cherishes.
My thoughts:
Caz Frear is an author I’ve been meaning to read for quite some time as I keep hearing how good her thrillers are, so when I saw this one, I just requested it, not even looking at what it was about. Luckily it was a stand-alone and not part of her series, though after really enjoying this one, I will definitely be checking her series out!
I’m always a sucker for books about any kind of revenge, drama and betrayal and this one has all that in spades! I loved how we begin at the end, and then start at the beginning where the pieces are slowly revealed. Ellen appears to be the perfect mom, at least that’s what she wants you to think, but someone is targeting her, sending her mysterious letters, letting her know that she will pay for what she has done. Will she figure it all out before it’s too late?
This book was all kinds of crazy, in a good way! It’s the type of read that becomes more unsettling the further in you get, where you don’t want to put it down because you just need to see where it is going to wind up. The characters are all over the place – some you love, some you immediately despise – and I just love these types of books because it makes for such fun reading.
This was an addicting, exciting read that I definitely recommend. It’s got all the hallmarks of a great thriller – short chapters, lots of twists, unreliable characters and tons of suspense.
