How can I do multiple perspectives if one belongs to a secret culprit?

So basically I want to have 5 main characters for this year, and I was thinking that one would (possibly) turn out to be the bad guy/culprit. I'm wondering if there's any possible way I can use all of their perspectives while also not letting on which one is evil.

I think it's possible! The trick is to be subtle about it. Maybe give the "bad guy" a motivation that can coincide with his bad guy motives. Alternatively, you could tell the readers up front that somebody's the bad guy, then make them ALL look really suspicious.

I had something a little similar in last year's Nano. Character A was famous, but worked under a false name. The "bad guys" were trying to uncover his identity and kidnap him. Character B was a huge fan of character A, and first showed up at a fan convention theorizing on who A was. B then publicly announced his intentions to find A. Unknowingly, he became friends with A, and the POV switched between them and a third character. When A's identity was finally revealed to B about halfway through the book, the plot took a major twist and B kidnapped A because surprise, B was working for the bad guys all along. It sounds really obvious written out simply here but none of my readers/critiquers picked up on it. The very last person they expected to be a bad guy, secretly searching for A's identity... was the friendly guy who very blatantly said he was searching for A's identity in the very first chapter. Because of this, I could write "bad guy" acts from B's POV and they wouldn't look suspicious, too.

That was probably a lot more than you wanted to know about my old plot, but I hope it helped!

The video game Heavy Rain had four main characters you play as, and one of them was the villain. I can't go into the specifics off the the top of my head, but it did a pretty good job of hiding that until close to the end. So, it's definitely possible.

There's a children's book called "The Thief", it's all from the POV of the main character, and yet, his biggest secret is only revealed at the end, and you still get loads of feedback from him. You practically know the guy, right until the end.

James Patterson does this all the time in his novels. There are always 3rd person POV chapters written for the villain or culprit. And that works with mysteries as well. You're plot twist just needs to be great to pull it off

I think doing it 1st person might be I dont know how to say it, but it will seem like a purely back and forth battle between the hero and the villain instead of a journey of the hero to their dare to be great moment. Like you will spend more time trying to compare and contrast the two instead of telling the story and letting the villain be bad ass thru their actions and not how the fair against the hero. It that makes any sense.

Misdirect the reader's attention by making it seem like the baddie's suspicious behavior is related to something else? Like he's skulking around and lies about his behavior, while also having an affair. Let the reader believe it's affair-related...

If you go for it, make sure that the POV villain doesn't DESCRIBE their behavior as villainous or fiendish or anything. It's just that person's day-to-day thing. You could reference their activities obliquely; evil bad guy's association meeting turns into a meeting with coworkers, for example.

Maybe this POV character has a personality quirk in which he/she ALWAYS describes things strangely. This habit could extend to their 'evil' activities, removing the need for secretive behaviors.

If you can make the subtlety work, go all out.

I definitely want to do them all in 3rd person. Thank you!