4 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Leave it to Fielding to give us readers this juicy suspense filled book that she’s so good at!

5 families - all living in the same Cul-De-Sac. All have secrets of their own.
1 person dead
Whodunit?

This is a terrific domestic/neighborhood drama filled with suspense that will keep you guessing throughout. Everyone is hiding something. Who can you believe?

I love the multiple POV‘s. We learn a lot about all of these individuals and their secrets. This one was especially hard to put down and that ending? Super satisfying! Loved it!

I would definitely recommend to anybody who enjoys this genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for my advanced copy to read and review.

Who doesn't like Joy Fielding, read all of her books and this one is another great read. Can't wait for the next book!

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, ​and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.
In a quiet cul-de-sac called Carlyle Terrace, a shocking incident disrupts the lives of its diverse residents one July night. As secrets unravel and gunshots echo, the true nature of each neighbor is exposed, with tragic consequences. While I was initially engaged, the abundance of characters made it challenging to keep track. Although marketed as a domestic drama and mystery, it lacked the intense thrills I expected. However, Maggie's compassionate nature stood out amidst the less likable characters, and the ending offered satisfying closure. Recommended for fans of domestic dramas and mysteries, this book delivers twists and turns on Carlyle Terrace.

This was a little bit of a soap opera set on a cul de-sac in Palm Beach. You know from the beginning that someone has been shot. I enjoyed the story.

Fans of wacky neighborhood drama would love this one! Talk about dysfunctional! Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for review

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This is a story about a neighborhood who-dun-it, and we find out there will be a death after we get to know about all these neighbors aka suspects.
Everyone in the cul-de-sac owns a gun, but who deserves to be shot the most? And is that the person that gets killed?
I enjoyed the backgrounds and getting to know these characters and hoping some made it and others didn’t 😵
One thing I did not like:
The author is not so subtle against gun ownership. She incorporates statistics, school shooting commentary and other facts to convince us there is no room for gun ownership in a community setting. In our own homes as well? Are you kidding me? 😡
She portrays those who own a gun as mentally unstable with less than average decision making skills particularly on when to handle a gun and what reasons to have one nearby, demonstrating poor judgement calls and provoking dangerous situations. Are you effing kidding me?? 🤬
Sounds like an agenda and it turned me way off.
The story was great but I had to knock off a star for the authors ridiculous agenda nonsense!

A domestic suspense novel set on a cul-de-sac full of mostly unlikeable characters who all have issues and access to handguns. The author did not shy away from some hard-to-read topics (DV, PTSD, etc) and I got more and more uncomfortable and tense as I was listening to this audiobook.

This was not my first by this author and won't be my last! I appreciate that she was able to develop the characters and even though there were so many, I was able to keep up with them all. I also liked that we find out at the very beginning that something awful happens and a neighbor dies, but we don't know who. The tension slowly builds as we find out that all of the neighbors have secrets and some are worth killing for.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Fantastic read!
Five houses on the cul-de-sac, and we know from the beginning there will be a gunshot. We are then carefully introducted to the families in each house and this is done so well. There are a lot of characters, and the author makes it easy to keep them all straight. We learn there is someone in each house who is likely to be shot, and let's face it, we wouldn't cry over any of them. We also find out there is at least one gun in each home.

So the story is set into motion and off we go. Throughout the story we learn more about each character and family, and try to deduce who will be the shooter and who will be the victim. Eventually some of the people we don't like turn out to be not so bad, and some turn out to be monsters. Most of the characters are more complicated than one-dimensional, and we are constantly kept holding our breath, exhaling, and guessing.

The end is satisfying, as well as the epilogue where everything is wrapped up well. It took me two days to read this one, and I really enjoyed it.

I wholeheartedly recommend this one, it's an easy 5 stars from me.

Joy Fielding has a knack for suspenseful writing and Cul de Sac is no exception. This domestic drama is set in a small neighborhood in Florida that is full of guns, secrets, and intrigue. Each chapter gives the reader a glimpse into one of the family’s lives and I was invested from the beginning thanks to Fielding’s descriptive characterization (of what are mostly unlikeable characters). The book concludes with a satisfying and logical ending, which is a hard to come by for books like this. I enjoyed this read!

Thank you to Random House - Ballantine, Joy Fielding, and Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Cul-de-sac is a fun, twisty domestic thriller that kept me hanging on every word. I thought the book was fantastic. It grabbed me right from the start and I couldn't put it down. It was well written with a fairly large cast of characters that was easy for me to keep track of. I can't wait to read another book by this author.

I LOVED this book. It's not just a thriller, it's the story of families and neighbors, and how people interact with and see each other. Yes, it starts with a murder right off the bat, and while I was reading it I wanted to know the ending, but it never felt rushed or boring on the way there. Full of sympathetic characters (and others you will NOT like), this book is so much different than your average "whodunit."

I'm just not interested in reading about graphic depictions of domestic abuse and rape. Especially, within a thriller. Everything seems disrespectfuly done.

Fielding did such a great job twisting her characters together and I was fascinated equally by them all! I loved their stories and I have strong opinions about them all! I relate especially to Maggie with her teenage daughter. Watching each neighbor as they grew and learned and the choices they made was just fascinating!

I really enjoyed this book. There were many different character’s points of view, and it kept my interest the entire time. I really liked the ending as well.

I absolutely love Joy Fielding. The Cul-de-sac was a page turning thriller. I could picture each neighbor and their complex problems. Like neighbors in real life some of the neighbors I loved others I would hate to live near. Great ending thanks Netgalley.

Cul-de-sac by Joy Fielding


The book literally opens with a bang. On a normal, quiet Cul de sac where five families live, their lives are forever changed.

Someone was shot and murdered on a hot sultry summer night in Florida.

The reader instantly knows who died, but not who did it.

The book takes the reader on a wild ride, trying to figure out who did it.

Was it Maggie or her husband Craig? Surely not their two children.

Was it Nick or Dani his wife?

Perhaps grandmother Julia or her grandson, also suspects.

Also on the list Olivia or her husband Sean. Or neighbors Aiden and Heidi.


Such a diverse group of people, at times the story kept flipping around from one family to another, I got dizzy and took notes on who was who.

Would the killer be revealed?

To divulge that would be a spoiler so I won't go there.

I will say that this story kept me reading and wanting to know who did it. Wanting to learn more about the families, and why would someone kill?

I do read my fair share of thrillers and mysteries and the author is a favorite of mine so this book comes highly recommended for an afternoon or evening.

4******








My thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for the complimentary e arc in exchange for an honest review.

review posted @ Netgalley, Goodreads, amazon and Wordpress.com.

I've been a fan of Joy Fielding for a long time, so of course I was excited to read Cul-de-sac. This book grabbed me from the very beginning, and I had such a hard time time putting it down because I really wanted to know which character would be killed (and find out if it was the one I hoped it would be). The characters were well-written and easy to empathize with, and Fielding did a great job of making me hate certain characters (especially Nick). I liked that the story was told from the perspectives of several different characters, and I loved the ending. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for giving me the opportunity to read and review this amazing thriller. : )

A great domestic thriller which unfolds through multiple POVs. Even with the considerable cast of characters, I found them well developed and easily discernible. Set in an idyllic Florida cul-de-sac, someone is going to die in the middle of the night. It was enjoying to get to the know the 5 families and I found myself rooting for many of them.

I wasn’t sure what to think when I started this book. There are several POVs and it took me a minute to get into it. But once I did - oh boy! I loved the characters development and especially Maggie. The ending was good and I hoped I guessed it right - and I did! But that didn’t take away from my enjoyment.

I will say there some hard topics. Domestic abuse, sodomy, rape, guns, PTSD. But, it all fit with the story and I really thought she did a good job!

I really liked this one. I recommend it. I’m just sorry I didn’t finish it sooner! 4.5 stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (Only because I was a little worried about the multiple POVs at the beginning)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy.

3.5 stars!

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?"

The story begins in a cul-de-sac of five homes, where a gunshot goes off late one night. The book backtracks to 2 months earlier, introducing the reader to the 5 families who live on the street. Each family has its own set of problems, and potential reasons to be the location of the shooting just two months later.

There is a war vet and his new wife with his busy body mother in one home, a rich surgeon and his dentist wife hiding a nasty secret in another. A newly single mother and her two kids live in the third house, and in the fourth is an elderly lady who lives with her troubled young adult grandson. Finally, an alcoholic husband recently laid off from his job who is hiding a secret of his own, and his wife and kids live in the 5th house.

The novel unfolds family secrets in each home, and as the neighbors come together and get more intertwined, even more secrets unfold.

In my opinion, this book would be more considered a domestic drama/mystery rather than a thriller. It wasn't much of a page turner, more of a slow burn. It is definitely a character-driven storyline. Don't expect your pulse to race, but if you prefer well detailed characters and a slow burn leading into an ending crescendo, then this book is for you.

I did enjoy this book, although I have to say I prefer a little more "thrill" in books like this. That said, I was curious enough to finish the book, as I wanted to know who was behind the shooting and who got shot. There was enough intrigue and reasons that any one of the houses could be the subject of the shooting, and so the end really was exciting in that respect.

This book would be great for fans of Little Fires Everywhere.

Special thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for this advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.