Each person, no matter how exemplary their life or how nice they are, probably has at least five deeds that, taken out of context, could be considered bad, a situation Ellen Walsh knows all too well in Caz Frear's exceptional Five Bad Deeds. Those seemingly innocuous actions--a photo on social media that makes a person look drunk, an accident-prone child, a bogus complaint about drunk driving--can make it seem as if a person is out of control.
Frear (Stone Cold Heart; Sweet Little Lies) quickly ramps up the fear factor in Five Bad Deeds after Ellen receives an anonymous note warning that "SOONER OR LATER EVERYONE SITS DOWN TO A BANQUET OF CONSEQUENCES." Before long, this teacher and mother of three discovers that someone has launched a social media campaign against her. Many of the posts are by trolls who don't exist, but that doesn't stop social services from investigating her home to see if her children are in danger. Then the police inquiry begins after the disappearance of a 17-year-old student whom Ellen tutors. That the teenager is from an underprivileged home while Ellen and her husband, Adam, live comfortably, adds to the gossip of alleged classism in her small town outside of London. As events take a deadly turn, Ellen takes a closer look at friends and relatives, including her sullen teenage daughter, who may have a grudge against her.
Five Bad Deeds skillfully taps into the ennui of small-town life, frenemies, and jealous relatives resentful of another's good fortune, including a child angry at parental restrictions. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer