Meet Mad Mabel.
Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick is eighty-one years old. She's lived on her idyllic street, Kenny Lane, for sixty years--longer than anyone else. Aside from being a curmudgeon who minds everyone else's business, few would suspect that Elsie has a past that she has worked exceedingly hard at concealing. Because when it comes to murder, no one ever suspects little girls or old ladies. And Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick, once a little girl and now an old lady, has a strange history of people in her life coming to a foul end.
When a new little girl (talkative, curious, nosy) moves into the neighborhood and stops at nothing to befriend Elsie, her carefully-constructed life threatens to come crashing down as the secrets in Elsie's past start coming to light. Who was "Mad Mabel" fifty years ago? Who is Elsie Fitzpatrick today? And if the past has a habit of repeating itself, who has the most to lose?
Told with Sally Hepworth's twists, humor, charm, and heart, MAD MABEL is novel that weaves past and present together--through the power of justice and redemption, and all the way to its stunning conclusion.
Mad Mabel by Australian author Sally Hepworth takes place in one of my favorite settings...Australian. Yup its on my bucket list.
Told in two timelines, one that follows Mabel in her senior years and the other taking me back to her teenage life. I really enjoyed how those perspectives slowly came together.
In the present day, Mabel carries the nickname 'Mad Mabel,' at first I was not entirely sure what to believe about her. Is she unreliable? Misunderstood? Or is there more going on beneath the surface? I loved how the story gradually peeled back those layers instead of giving me easy answers.
The past timeline shows the early death of Mabel’s mother and how deeply that loss shaped her. You can feel how her grief turned into anger, loneliness and that desperate need for connection and friendship. Watching those formative years unfold gave so much context to the woman she becomes later in life. It added emotional weight to the twists because they didn’t feel shocking just for the sake of it, they felt earned.
Mad Mabel is a layered story of grief, secrets and how easily a woman can be labeled without full disclosure. There were definitely some well-placed twists that made me rethink what I thought I understood and I appreciated how the dual timelines connected in a way that felt satisfying rather than rushed. I found myself fully invested in Mabel’s journey from beginning to end.
This was a hybrid read for me, I highly recommend both the reading part and audiobook.
My thanks to Macmillan Audio and St. Martin's press for advanced copies in exchange for a honest review.
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