Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth [Book Review]

Elsie Fitzpatrick has spent decades hiding her past, and the seven-year-old across the road is not helping. Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth is a mystery with a grump worth rooting for.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

I have a soft spot for difficult old women in fiction.

Give me an eighty-one-year-old who is cranky, suspicious of everyone, and fiercely independent, and I’m already interested. Tell me she’s also spent most of her life hiding the fact that she was once known as Australia’s youngest convicted murderer?

Fine. You have my attention.

Sally Hepworth’s Mad Mabel is being sold as a thriller, and sure. There’s a dead neighbor, a police investigation, and plenty of reason to wonder what Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick can do. But I’d call it a character study about what happens when one terrible label follows you for the rest of your life.

Elsie is more than strong enough to carry it.

Meet Elsie, Whether She Likes It or Not

Elsie is eighty-one, fiercely private, and perfectly happy to be left alone.

Then seven-year-old Persephone moves in across the road and has no respect for that arrangement.

Persephone shows up with questions, stickers, and the confidence only a small child has.

Elsie isn’t interested, but Persephone doesn’t care.

This could have turned unbearably cute fast, but Hepworth keeps it out of sentimental territory. Elsie stays sharp-edged. Persephone stays a child, not a tiny therapist sent to heal an old woman with whimsy. Their friendship becomes one of the book’s warmest parts.

Then there’s the small matter of the dead neighbor.

Once the police start asking questions and the media comes sniffing around, Elsie’s carefully controlled life starts to crack. She’s been keeping a secret for decades.

Once, she was Mabel Waller.

And Mabel Waller was convicted of murder.

Past and Present

The book moves between Elsie’s present-day life and Mabel’s childhood, showing how a young girl became “Mad Mabel.”

Dual timelines usually make me impatient. One of them tends to feel like the vegetable you have to eat before dessert. That didn’t happen here.

The past chapters change how we see Elsie in the present. Piece by piece, we see the loneliness, instability, and trauma that shaped her long before anyone decided who she was.

It’s not constantly grim. There’s real tragedy here, and some of it is painful, but Hepworth keeps enough humor and warmth in the mix to keep it from turning bleak. It also makes Elsie’s prickliness feel like armor.

“Mad” Is a Convenient Word

What I found most interesting was how the book handles labels.

Once someone has been called dangerous, unstable, or monstrous, how often does anyone ask what happened before that? Not often enough.

Newspapers turn Mabel into a headline. As a result, people she doesn’t even know get to decide she’s either frightening or fascinating. And decades later, the name “Mad Mabel” still carries more weight than it should.

More Character Study Than Thriller

This is where reader expectations could get a little messy.

If you pick this up expecting a fast, twist-heavy thriller with constant danger, the pacing may surprise you. The mystery is there, and it’s satisfying, but Hepworth spends a lot of time on Mabel’s childhood and Elsie’s loneliness.

That worked for me. Elsie is strong enough that I didn’t mind the book lingering with her, and I think it’s better for it.

The Family You Don’t Expect

There’s something quietly moving about how the book handles loneliness.

Elsie has spent years convincing herself she doesn’t need anyone. It’s easier that way. People disappoint you, and then they leave.

Then this deeply private woman ends up surrounded by people who keep showing up anyway.

None of it erases the damage of her past, and she doesn’t turn into a cheerful grandmotherly figure. Thank goodness. What they give her is something she’s rarely had: people who see her as a whole person instead of a headline.

Final Thoughts

Mad Mabel works. There’s murder, secrets, and questions about what Elsie did. But what stuck with me was the loneliness, the childhood trauma, and living with a bad reputation.

Elsie is funny, frustrating, and occasionally exhausting. I adored her.

Hepworth tells a story full of guilt and injustice without losing its warmth. The mystery kept me interested, but Elsie is what made me care.

I’d recommend it, especially if you like mysteries built around complicated characters instead of nonstop twists.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced reader’s copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.