Book Description 

Meet Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick: eighty-one years old, gloriously grumpy, fiercely independent, and never without a hot cup of tea—or a cutting remark. She minds her own business in her quiet Melbourne suburb, until a neighbor turns up dead and the whispers start flying.

Because Elsie hasn’t always been Elsie. Once upon a headline, she was Mad Mabel Waller—Australia’s youngest convicted murderer. But was she really mad, or just misunderstood? Either way, she’s kept her secret buried for decades.

Enter seven-year-old Persephone, a relentless little chatterbox who has just moved in across the road (armed with stickers, questions, and no sense of personal boundaries); Joan, who appears to have it in for Elsie; and a healthy dose of public interest—the cops are sniffing around, and the media is circling like seagulls at a picnic.

So Mabel does what she’s always done best—she takes matters into her own hands.

Is she a cantankerous old lady with a shady past? A cold-blooded killer with arthritis? Or just someone who’s finally ready to tell her side of the story?

Sharp, surprising, and wickedly funny, this is the unforgettable story of a woman who’s spent a lifetime being underestimated—and is about to prove everyone wrong. Again.

My Review 

When this book began with the discovery of a dead body, I thought this book was going to be one of those “cranky old lady solves a mystery” books. And that would have been fine, but as the story unfolded, it revealed itself to be so much more than that. 

Without going into too much detail, Elsie, our intrepid protagonist, committed a notorious crime in her youth. Upon release, she changed her name and lived in anonymity… until her neighbor turns up dead. Being recognized as “Mad Mabel” forces Elsie to confront the secrets of her past and the circumstances that led to her murder conviction. 

The narrative shifts between vignettes of Elsie’s childhood and the present day. One of the most fascinating elements of the book is that the reader doesn’t know the identity of the person Elsie allegedly murdered until almost the end. There are several moments in which the reader might say, “Oh, yes, this is it” only to find out that it is not indeed “it”. 

In the present day, Elsiel must contend with the unwanted attention regarding the revelation of her identity, but perhaps there is a silver lining to the situation. She has also attracted the attention of her young neighbor Persephone, who sees a friend in the cantankerous octogenarian and she will not be deterred. 

I would absolutely recommend Mad Mabel. This is my first book by Hepworth, but it won’t be my last. The characters are well-developed and the plot is fascinating. This is one of the best books I have read this year. It unfolded in a way that kept me riveted to my Kindle, reading as quickly as I could because I NEEDED to know what was going to happen next— in both time periods. I’m going to have to be super vague, but there’s also something unexpected that happens. And if that wasn’t enough, the last lines of the book left me sobbing.      

I received a digital ARC of this book from St. Martin’s/NetGalley.