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 non-stop 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:
SOONER OR LATER EVERYONE SITS DOWN TO A BANQUET OF CONSEQUENCES.
Why would someone send her this note? Ellen has no clue. She's no angel - a white lie here and there, an occasional sharp tongue - but nothing to incur the wrath of an anonymous enemy.
Everyone around Ellen - her husband, her teenage daughter, her sister, her best friend, her neighbours - can guess why, though. They all know from bitter experience that while Ellen’s intentions are always good, this ultimately counts for very little when you’ve (unintentionally?) blown up someone’s life. 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 life, Ellen receives more anonymous messages, each one more threatening than the last . . . and each hitting closer and closer to home and everything she cherishes.
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Five Bad Deeds by Caz Frear was published on 11 April 2024 by Simon and Schuster. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour
This is the first of Caz Frear's books that I have read. I have no idea why, I've just looked up her other books and they sound just my thing. Of course, I've now purchased her first book!
I do love characters that are utterly despicable and you won't find a nastier, more self entitled bunch than in Five Bad Deeds. Frear's creations are just incredibly well done. Don't get me wrong, I'm fond of a nice person in the right setting, but for goodness sake, this crowd are deliciously devilish. I don't think the reader is supposed to like them, and whilst I have never written a book, or created a character, I'm positive it must be harder to create these obnoxious people than to draw the lovely ones.
Despite their toxicity, I was totally invested in this story and lapped it up in one day over the weekend. To be fair, the blurb doesn't give a lot away, so I'm not going to go into the details of the story, I will let future readers discover the ins and outs of it for themselves.
We do know that Ellen has begun to feel uneasy. It starts with an anonymous note that clearly shows that the writer knows more about Ellen than she is comfortable with. On the surface, she's a busy mum to toddler twin boys and a hormone raging teen girl. She and her husband have recently bought her dream house which needs total renovation, and a load of money. Ellen's background couldn't be more different to her husband. She was raised on a council estate with a house full of siblings, a pretty useless mother. Lots of studying, and a chance meeting with wealthy bloke changes her life.
What I loved most of all about this, apart from the total mystery of who wanted to harm Ellen was the relationship building between the characters. From Ellen's fraught and quite frankly toxic interactions with her teenage daughter Orla, to the faux friendships, passive aggressive comments and absolute gossip fest that makes up the remaining (mainly) female cast. It's beautifully done, and hearing from other characters's point of view adds such a depth. We hear their innermost thoughts, we see the real character, not just what they want us to see. All of it in its full, dirty glory.
It's a complex plot that slowly unravels with twists and unexpected reveals that left me totally shocked in places. Dark, sharp and perfectly created. I loved it. Highly recommended.
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as a headhunter before she started writing.
She hasn’t lost her enthusiasm for networking, and is a popular member of the crime fraternity.
She lives in Coventry with her husband.
Her debut, the number one bestseller Sweet Little Lies, was the winner of the Richard & Judy Search for a Bestseller Competition 2017 and went on to sell over 250,000 copies. It was followed by Stone Cold Heart and Shed No Tears, both of which feature her police detective Cat Kinsella.
Five Bad Deeds is her first standalone thriller.
X @CazziF
Instagram @cazzifwrites
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