Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
Publication Date: April 21st 2026 by St. Martin's Press & Macmillan Audio
Pages: 336
Audio Book Length: 9hrs 20min
Narrators: Hannah Fredericksen & Jenny Seedsman
Source: Publishers
Rating: ★★★★★
My
Thoughts:
I read Mad Mabel several months ago, devoured it in
one sitting on a flight, and was absolutely riveted. My re‑read on audio
somehow made it even better. The emotions hit harder the second time around. I
laughed, I cried, and I raged at the injustices woven through the story.
Thankfully, that heaviness is balanced with sharp, perfectly timed humor.
Elsie, the gloriously grumpy eighty‑one‑year‑old at the center of it all, had
me laughing with her blunt observations, yet her history broke my heart.
Elsie Fitzpatrick lives a quiet life tending her roses,
gossiping with her best friend Daphne, and tolerating Persephone, the seven‑year‑old
neighbor who refuses to leave her alone. But everything changes when Elsie
discovers the body of her ninety‑three‑year‑old neighbor. Long‑buried secrets
surface, Elsie’s past comes roaring back, and her carefully ordered world is
thrown into chaos.
Mad Mabel left its mark on me. It’s easily one of my
favorite reads of 2026. I’m still thinking about it!
I read an e‑copy first and then listened to the audiobook,
and I can wholeheartedly recommend either format. Jenny Seedsman voices Elsie
in the present, while Hannah Fredericksen brings Mabel’s past to life. Both
narrators deliver incredible performances, handling a wide range of ages,
genders, and emotional tones with total ease. The audio truly was perfection!
5 Stars
Book Description:
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.
