I went into Mad Mabel expecting a cozy mystery very much in keeping with the style of the genre.
You know the kind, where a murder happens, a cute old lady dons her amateur sleuth hat and goes off to find the culprit, and all is right with the world again.
But author Sally Hepworth had other ideas. Instead, I got a rollercoaster of a story where my emotions were just all over the place.
By the end, I knew that Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick would be a character that stayed with me long after I closed the book.
So if you want something a little different from the traditional cozy, this is why you should read Mad Mabel.
Meet Elsie ‘Mad Mabel’ Fitzpatrick
The novel follows Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick, an 81-year-old woman who has lived on the same Melbourne street for decades and keeps mostly to herself.
People know her as straight-talking, if a little bit dour, but she has spent her life hiding a past that is about to become headline news…again.
When Elsie’s neighbor dies unexpectedly, and she finds the body, rumors start to fly that she killed him.
Some journalistic digging reveals that she is actually Mabel Fitzpatrick, the youngest person in Australian history to be found guilty of murder. Before you know it, the news crews are camped outside her door, and friends are keeping their distance.
So Mabel decides enough is enough and agrees to an interview with two YouTubers, finally giving her side of the story about what actually happened all those years ago.
Then and Now
The story moves between “then” and “now,” which works so well because it shows us both the frightened girl she once was and the sharp, guarded woman she has become.
A big part of the present-day story is her lifelong best friend, who has always been by her side, and an unlikely bond with seven-year-old Persephone, a chatty neighbor child who refuses to leave her alone and slowly chips away at Elsie’s walls.
What I liked most was that Sally Hepworth does not make Elsie simple. She is prickly, funny, suspicious, and often difficult, but she also feels deeply human, and I kept wanting to know what had happened to make her this way.
I also liked the friendship dynamic between Elsie and Persephone because it gives the book warmth without flattening the sharper edges of the mystery.
This is undoubtedly a more character-driven than plot-driven novel, and that is not a complaint.
I think if you want a cozy style of tension, a memorable older heroine, and a story that arrives with mystery and emotion, then you will probably connect with it most.
If you are expecting a straight whodunit, it may feel more layered and reflective than that, but I found that to be part of its appeal.
I Just Love Mabel
It is really tricky to sum up just why exactly I fell in love with Mabel. Even now, when I think back through the book, I get a little emotional.
I feel like I spent time with a woman people had judged for years without ever really knowing her.
That is what made the book stay with me, because it is not just about what happened in the past, but about how those stories get repeated, distorted, and used against someone over time.
There are a couple of twists, the first of which is obvious (no spoilers), but the second, revealed at the end, was more of a surprise. So too was that the two interviewers were genuinely good people and not out to do a hit job on Mabel.
Overall, be prepared for all the ups and downs of life. There are some laughs, some tears, some heartbreak, and some vindication, but if you close to the book and don’t love Mabel Fitzpatrick, then I don’t know what to tell you…
