Mad Mabel - Sally Hepworth - ★★★★

AUTHOR: Sally Hepworth

GENRE: Contemporary Fiction

PUBLICATION DATE: April 21, 2026

RATING: 4 stars.

In a Nutshell: A mystery-drama with a geriatric character in the lead. Good leading duo, interesting storyline, some good twists (though I guessed every single one of these well in advance. 😐) Character-driven. Too many coincidences. Too much of a tragic background for one character. Didn’t like the final chapter. Works well enough when you want an entertaining work that seems light even in its darkness. Recommended. DO NOT READ THIS AS A THRILLER!

Plot Preview:

Eighty-one-year-old Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick isn't your typical old lady. She is tall, fit, foul-mouthed, and happier alone than interacting with her neighbours, whom she barely tolerates. Oh, and unknown to most others on her street, she is also “Mad Mabel”, who was Australia’s youngest murder convict at age fifteen. Elsie’s quiet life is interrupted when an old neighbour dies suddenly and someone in her vicinity discovers her old identity. Elsie once again finds herself at the centre of a murder investigation. So when she gets a chance to reveal her side of the story, she grabs it.

The story comes to us in Elsie’s first-person perspective from two timelines: ‘Now’ and ‘Then’.

Whatever books/stories I tried from Sally Hepworth’s pen did not succeed greatly with me because I kept reading them as thrillers. After sufficient warning from many friends that her books are more like domestic dramas than thrillers, I ignored the official genre tag and went into this reading without any thriller/suspense/mystery expectations. That made a big difference to my experience.

The blurb somehow makes the story sound more devious than it is. A part of it even made me wonder if this novel would be similar to Samantha Downing’s “Too Old For This”, another popular 2026 book with a geriatric killer. Thankfully, the two books are poles apart. I preferred ‘Mad Mabel.’

Bookish Yays:

🤩 Elsie. Not your typical fictional old lady, whether physically or behaviourally. The story makes you feel sorry for her even as you wonder if her past was true and if she was actually a killer. I love the way her love for Anne of Green Gables is woven into her past arc.

🤩 Seven-year-old Persephone. Elsie’s adorable little neighbour whose banter with Elsie is one of the highlights of this book.

🤩 Elsie’s developing friendship with Persephone and her existing secure friendship with Daphne. I love how Elsie calls her narration “a love story of platonic female love” and stresses how female friendships aren’t given their due importance. Quite true!

🤩 The other secondary characters of the book, be it Elsie’s neighbours or the YouTubers who want to interview her. Even though all these people don’t have much page time, they are rich in personality as well as diversity.

🤩 Nugget the dog – not always as adorable as his name but with a bark much bigger than his size. He was fun!

🤩 The storyline, with a good mix of comedy, drama, mystery, tragedy, coming-of-age, and many more themes. Despite the wide range of topics and emotions, the book doesn’t feel cluttered.

🤩 The exploration of the meaning of family, both birth and found. Nicely incorporated.

🤩 Crisp, fast-paced chapters with some good cliffhangers at the end of a few of them.

🤩 The plot structure, with the dual timeline neatly furthering the narrative. For once, both timelines were equally interesting to me.

🤩 The humour, especially in the ‘Now’ timeline. Elsie’s sarcasm makes the book feel like almost a dark comedy.

🤩 The way the book highlights the dangers and mental trauma of labelling young children as “mad’ or anything else that is derogatory. I appreciate this.

Bookish Okays:

😐 The ‘Then’ timeline is gripping enough, but also depends on too many coincidences and farfetched negativity. When everything bad happens to a single character, it kills the realism.

😐 The predictability of the twists. I foresaw all the important twists much before they were revealed. Luckily, I wasn't reading this book as a suspense or mystery, so I wasn't *that* bothered. But it was a bit disappointing to find no genuine surprises coming my way.

😐 While Mabel isn't an unreliable narrator, she is a restrained narrator. She reveals just as much as is necessary at that point of her interview, and talks about the hidden gaps only when prompted. This creates a few too many secretive skeletons in her closet.

Bookish Nays:

😒 The last chapter. I don’t understand why it had to be there. To some extent, it links to the main ending, but it also feels like an overly deliberate and manipulative way of adding one final twist. The book could have easily done without this chapter.

Overall, I think going in with the right expectations helped me a lot in enjoying a Sally Hepworth book for the first time. As a suspense thriller, it fails miserably, but as a domestic drama, it offers enough moments of entertainment and covers most of the common human emotions.

Recommended to readers who enjoy general character-driven fiction or emotional fiction. Do note that some of the events in Elsie’s youth are somewhat triggering. Check out the content warnings online.

My thanks to St. Martin's Press for providing the DRC of “Mad Mabel” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.