Mad Mabel was a book I kept seeing everywhere and that made me very curious. I’m normally a little more careful with hyped books, but something about this one made me want to pick it up right away. So I was very grateful for my early copy. Today I want to tell you about Mad Mabel and what I thought.
A big thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ALC to read and review. This doesn’t affect my opinion in any way.
From Sally Hepworth, the New York Times bestselling author of The Soulmate and The Good Sister, comes a twist-filled, darkly funny mystery about the two kinds of people no one ever expects to be murderers: little girls and old ladies.
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.
Review
When I heard about Mad Mabel, I wasn’t really sure what to expect but the synopsis caught my attention. I went into this book without many expectations, but it really blew me away. The fact that this was told in “now” and “then” chapters was the reason this made such an impact. Sally Hepworth wrote this story in such a way that you just had to keep on reading.
Elsie has been living on her street for sixty years and tries to mind her own business. People may see her as a bit grumpy. but no one knows her past. When a neighbor dies her past starts to come to light and things being to change for Elsie. It seems like death follows in her path, but the how and the why is pretty tragic. Puzzle pieces are slowly revealed and I will say I really felt for this woman. Add a little bit of a mystery on this street and a little girl trying to find her way into Elsie’s heart and you get Mad Mabel.
I will say this is a hard review to write, because I feel like Mad Mabel is a book you need to know nothing about and just experience it as you read. Mad Mabel will pull a bit on your heartstrings and leave you on the edge of your seat. This story is more character driven than anything, but it’s exactly what this story needed. Hannah Fredricksen and Jenny Seedsman bring the past and present Elsie to life and I feel like it made this story even stronger. I laughed, was shocked, and even shed a few tears while reading this. I will be thinking about this one for quite some time.
Mad Mabel was nothing like I imagined, but in an amazing way! Have you read any books like that recently? I’m always looking for more reads that surprise me. Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!
