Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
5 Stars
352 Pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Release Date: April 21, 2026
Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Drama, Relationships, Family Dynamics, Dysfunctional Families
Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick, 81, lives on Kenny Lane in Melbourne, Australia. She has a hidden past but someone on the lane has discovered the secret. Persephone, seven years old, needs to interview an old person for a school project. She has decided Elsie is the person she wants to interview. She calls her Elsa like the character in Frozen. When Elsie’s neighbor, Old Ishaan, dies and Elsie is the one to find the body, she is questioned by the police about her contentious relationship with him. A couple of young YouTubers approach Elsie and ask if she would allow them to share her side of the story.
The story moves from the past to the present. As a child she was known as Mad Mabel. She was tall with red hair and did not fit in with the other kids at school. It seems like she has the worst luck of all. People around her tend to die in unusual circumstances.
The book has a fast pace, the characters are well developed, and it is written in the first-person point of view. The relationship between Elsie and Persephone is wonderful. As the story flows, you can see how their relationship affects the two of them. After reading the book once, I reread it to see the nuances I missed the first time through. If you like books with an elderly cranky woman as the main character, you will enjoy reading this one.
