This book is one-of-a-kind. The suspense and mystery is that of top notch quality. You won't be able to turn the pages fast enough. The story will grab you by the throat and not let go until the very end. Fast-paced, this book holds no punches - and them twists.. wow.

I enjoyed this gripping tale of revenge, loyalty, and the secrets.
This book didn’t disappoint. It kept reading because I had to know what happened next. I loved these characters and the twisty turns of the plot.
Five Bad Deeds was very intriguing and entertaining.
Well Written and completely engrossing. I was shocked by all of the reveals.
I thought it was a very original storyline as well and I loved the mystery.
A tense, twisted and entertaining story.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Harper Paperbacks for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Five Bad Deeds starts with Ellen Walsh in jail. The story then goes back to months prior to the incident. I found this a very slow burn. The story does pick up but it took a while to get there. Ellen receives an ominous note that there are consequences to her actions and she is going to be taught a lesson.

The clues of what Ellen actually did are slowly revealed. There are multiple points of view from different narrators. I found all of them unlikeable! The slow burn suspense casts doubt amongst them all.

This book had some twists and turns and kept me engaged once the story picked up. An overall good revenge story. I am a fan of Caz Frear's Cat Kinsella series.

3.5/5 stars rounded down. A big thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks, Harper Paperbacks for an advanced copy of this book!

Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

This was an interesting read with many twists and turns that are then categorized into "bad deeds". We follow multiple people's perspective, but we really focus in on Ellen. Ellen is married with children, close friend group, and a needy sister. At times you may think all of these people are rallying against her, what is really happening in her world. Who reported to child protective services? Why did her tutoree go missing? Why is her daughter so angry? It starts of a bit slow for me, but really picks up mid way especially until the very end!

Caz Frear can weave a story. A story full of unlikable characters, but you get so invested in the story, you can’t wait to know where it’s going to go.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book.
Could not get into this one. At all. Hated all the characters right from the start. The multiple POV was too much. I loved this author's Cat Kinsella series but this standalone definitely was not for me.

A very slow start. Had a hard time getting into this book.

A bit confusing at times…too much side chatter for my taste.

This one fell flat for me -- meandering plot, really obvious antagonist, just not my cup of tea. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read it.

This was a hard book to read for me. I didn't like the characters and while this isn't a deal breaker, in this case, it didn't work for me. I just didn't care and the book was long and confusing at times. It had some elements I liked and i did plug through it. I think others will enjoy the humorous style more than I did. I have heard her other books were better so will try this author again

What did I just read?! I LOVED this book! If you love books with lots of friendship drama and betrayals, you’ll love this one!

The premise was so unique. Suburban mom, Ellen Walsh, receives a mysterious threat letting her know that she will pay for what she’s done. Slowly the clues are revealed making for an explosive ending! Each section of the book was divided into her five bad deeds. This book had everything I love in a good thriller: short chapters, twists, suspense, multiple points of view, unreliable characters, suburbia trope, etc. definitely pick this one up when it comes out in December!

CAZ FREAR IS A LEGEND. I love her voice so much. It's hard to stand out in the thriller genre but the Cat Kinsella books and Five Bad Deeds have a spark that jumps off the page.

Five Bad Deeds is Ellen's story, told by Ellen, her sister, her daughter, and her two closest friends. The prologue kicks off with Ellen in jail for a serious crime and with no one by her side. Then we jump back a few months, when Ellen starts receiving anonymous threats that someone is going to ruin her life like she ruined theirs.

That sounds pretty standard, but what makes this unique is that 1) Ellen is dimensional- she has it all together except she's kind of a mess sometimes, plus she's self-aware and funny; and 2) Ellen has done 5 Bad Deeds - interspersed throughout in flashbacks- and one of them is the reason why her life is being ruined. I had no idea who villain was but I was having so much fun I didn't even try to guess lol.

This is already one of my favorite books of the year. I read this in like 2 days, which is very fast for me because I have young children who are determined to throw my Kindle in the bathtub. Thank you Caz Frear, Harper Paperbacks, and Netgalley for letting me read this early!

Welcome to Thames Lawley. “Feel safe! Be safe! Stay safe!”

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.

Frear explores themes of alcoholism, infidelity, and revenge in this twisty domestic suspense thriller. Multiple suspects are considered, all harboring their own secret hatred towards Ellen. However, Ellen is hardly innocent. The slow burn suspense casts doubt on multiple suspects. Will you guess who is targeting Ellen before she does?

Unfortunately, I was able to correctly guess the bad girl/guy and the motive early on, despite the intentional distractions. Additionally, the constant shortening of the characters’ names is unnecessary and distracting. For example, “Ads” for Adam, “Jas” for Jason, and “LaLa” for Orla. Within this ARC, there is also some discrepancy as to Jason’s relationship to Gwen. This aspect is confusing, but hopefully will be reconciled by the publication date.

Five Bad Deeds will appeal to those who enjoy domestic suspense thrillers by Shari LaPena, Sally Hepworth, Jamie Day, and Melissa Adelman.

Overall, this book felt really long since I figured out the plot early on and tired of the very unlikeable characters. Since the ending is over the top and implausible, it didn’t win me over.

3.5/5 stars rounded down

Expected publication date: 12/5/23

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper publishing for the ARC of Five Bad Deeds in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, Netgalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks, Harper Paperbacks for the copy of Five Bad Deeds by Caz Frear. It took me a long time to get into this book because the writing never grabbed me and it felt like the story didn't start for a long time. If you don't mind a slow start and a long story, but love a surprising end, this is the book for you. For me, it never really kept my interest.

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, declaring: People have to learn there are consequences, Ellen. And I’m going to teach you that lesson. Right under your nose.

I am a big fan of Frear's other work and was looking forward to reading this, but the plot felt a bit silly for me. It was a quick, easy, and fun read, but I just couldn't take the plot seriously.

The precis, and points in the book, gives the impression that Ellen has no idea what she's done, but there is also a ton of exposition and needless build up about Ellen knowing exactly what she has done. Every character in this was pretty insufferable, and the 'bad guy' became apparent about 60% of the way through,

Multiple POVs of the characters, and differing POVs when in that POV, made it hard to get into the story and stick with it. One last bone to pick - in chapter 34, Ellen says "When me and Gwen went out for a cigarette." I simply cannot believe that any respectable English teacher would use such improper grammar.

It’s not really a good sign if I have to immediately put a book down and come back to it later. I just couldn’t get into this group of people, so I read a couple other books then came back to this one.

The second time, I was just as confused. It took me over halfway through the book to understand why I was reading about these random people in the first place. There are multiple POVs, but the main character is Ellen - a mother of three who has just moved into their new house. She and her husband are planning renovations, but drama soon gets in the way.

Ellen gets a nasty letter one day, letting her know that someone is watching. Her “bad deeds” are catching up to her, but these are the most G-rated bad deeds in the history of thriller books. An offhand comment or two are not things I would consider would push someone to trying to ruin another person’s life, but here we are in this book.

Basically, the house that Ellen and her family just met has a lot of significance to the community, and one person in particular. Someone is jealous of their home, their money, and is getting revenge. Ellen hasn’t really committed any crimes though, so this was totally washed out and had a very random feel to it.

Towards the end, I started to get into the book a bit more, just because I was curious how it would end. I was surprised - but not in a good way. It was more of a “I just read over 300 pages for THAT?!” surprise. I found this very disorganized and cluttered with characters that weren’t necessary, and the plot’s premise was quite weak. This is listed as a mystery/thriller, but the only mystery was why I was supposed to care about any of the characters, and the thrill was finally ending it. This was just not the book for me. 2.5 stars.

(Thank you to Harper, Caz Frear, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)

I was completely sucked into Five Bad Deeds by Cas Frear! Fast paced and breathtaking. Cannot recommend this enough as the perfect summer thriller read!

I wanted to love this...and I hated every single character. I do think that was the intention, but honestly these women (and men) made my skin crawl with every point of view.
I will continue to love Frear despite this stand alone.

Told in multiple POVs, this thriller of a novel is set in suburbia where the web of secrets is thick and sticky. Everywhere you turn someone is hiding something new. I loved this one quite a lot as we navigated throughout the lies and misgivings. Truly a great read.

five bad deeds is about a woman name ellen, who becomes the target of someone’s revenge mission… only she can’t figure out who is behind this or what she’s done. her 5 bad deeds that she’s committed are introduced sporadically throughout the story.

we have multiple narrators, so you get to hear the story from different points of view. i’m not sure what it was exactly that didn’t do it for me. I felt like it was a slow burn and it just didn’t grab my attention. it was an interesting plot, but I feel like it could have been executed better.

I was not a fan of the ending. when I found out the motive behind everything, I was disappointed. it just didn’t seem quite realistic to me between the motive and execution of things. and the fifth bad deed i’m not sure I even understood honestly.

thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

This was a fun one, centered on Ellen who seemingly has it all, but is being threatened by an unknown person for reasons unknown that lead you to believe she is hiding a lot more than she is sharing. The story is told I’m various POVs, from Ellen herself to her friends and family members.

Ellen is kind of a likable character, though the difference in situations told from both her perspective and others’ was really interesting to me; it was fascinating to see different interpretations of the same story. I didn’t think she was all that great of a wife, and her oldest child was a spoiled awful brat, but this all just made her seem like a real person. I liked how so many of the characters ended up being different from what I expected; some in a good way and others in a bad way. The mystery is sound, with a multitude of potential villains from which to choose. When the villain was exposed, I wish there had been more bread crumbs laid, though I thought the author did a great job of explaining how it all got to that point and I was able to recognize some subtle breadcrumbs from previous chapters. I do think the “5 bad deeds” theme was underdone, and had to separate myself from the title while reading. The ending was mostly satisfying to me, though I did walk away with a couple unanswered questions.

Overall, this was an engaging and enjoyable read. I haven’t read any other books by this author but would definitely pick one up, and would recommend this one to those who like domestic/psychological thrillers. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.