Five Bad Deeds

Starred review from October 9, 2023
In this devastating suspense novel, Frear (Shed No Tears) cycles through the perspectives of married couple Ellen and Adam Walsh and a cluster of their neighbors and relatives to examine the sometimes suffocating bonds of small-town England. Ellen, a well-meaning teacher and mother of three, receives an enigmatic letter warning her that “sooner or later, everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.” The threat is followed by the exposure of Ellen’s eponymous bad deeds, beginning with the leak of drunk photos on Facebook that lead to a visit from Social Services, before escalating to a police investigation into her alleged affair with a 17-year-old student who’s gone missing. With her life on the brink of collapse, Ellen races to answer one question: why is someone doing this to her? Frear keeps readers on their toes from the start, but what elevates this above standard genre fare is the freshness and acuity of her language: a friend who ends an affair reminds Ellen of her own young son, “all puffed up and proud that he’d tidied his toys like I’d asked”; a McMansion “seemed to hang back from the rest of the village with the slightly embarrassed air of someone who knows they’ve overdressed.” This is a must-read for fans of Tana French and Gillian Flynn. Agent: Marilia Savvides, 42MP.