Mad Mabel Book Review | Our July 2026 Read With Us Pick!

This is a spoiler-free sisters’ discussion of Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth — the next entry in our monthly reading series. We’re digging into judgment, aging, found family, and what it really means to be misunderstood, all wrapped in a mystery neither of us saw coming.

Two sisters, one book, two very different reactions in places — and that ending is still on our minds.

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Summary

Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick is 81 years old and has lived quietly on Kenny Lane for decades. Most of her neighbors have no idea she was once the youngest person convicted of murder in Australia — a past she’s spent a lifetime trying to outrun under a name that isn’t “Mabel.”

When a neighbor turns up dead and Elsie is the one who finds him, her old past resurfaces fast. The town starts talking again. Reporters show up. Rather than let anyone else tell her story, Elsie sits down with two young podcasters and tells it herself.

The book moves between that present-day interview and 1950s flashbacks to Elsie’s childhood, tracing exactly how a girl became a myth the whole country still whispers about. Along the way, her lifelong best friend Daphne and a stubborn seven-year-old neighbor named Persephone slowly crack open a woman who stopped expecting anyone to stay.

At its core, this book asks who gets to decide someone is dangerous — and how long a person can be punished for a label they never chose.

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Format Notes 

Katie read a paperback ARC, picked up secondhand at a used bookstore. Since chapters never cut off mid-scene, there’s no backtracking to remember where things left off — helpful when reading in short, scattered bursts.

Emily read the hardcover. The format worked well for the back-and-forth between timelines. With six kids in the house, she gets interrupted constantly — being able to flip back a page or two and instantly reorient herself kept her from losing the thread, even after a long gap between reading sessions.

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Review

First Impressions

Elsie could have gone either way for us as readers — cold and calculating, or someone worth rooting for despite her reputation. We landed on the same side almost immediately.

Katie

Right away, Elsie won me over. She read like your average little old lady from page one — nothing about her screamed “murderer” to me. Hard not to root for a sharp-tongued old woman from the very beginning.

Emily

Instantly. There was something in her voice — dry, tired of everyone’s nonsense — that made me trust her before I even knew her story. She didn’t feel dangerous. She felt misunderstood.

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Plot & Pacing

This isn’t a one-reveal book, and we both went in wondering how much we’d be able to guess ahead of time. Turns out, not much — and neither of us wanted to put it down long enough to find out.

Katie

Not even close on predictability — and this wasn’t a one-twist book. I got caught off guard more than once, all the way through. The chapters themselves were short and sweet, which made it dangerously easy to say “just one more” over and over. Every chapter kept me hooked, and I don’t think there was a single dull moment.

Emily

Agree. There were twists on the twists. Saw some coming. Others caught me completely off guard. The short chapters worked in my favor too. Even flipping back and forth between timelines, I never felt lost or bogged down — each chapter felt like its own quick payoff, which made the pages fly by faster than I expected for a book this meaty.

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Characters & Relationships

A big part of what makes this book stand out is who’s actually carrying it. Elsie is 81, and that’s not a detail Hepworth glosses over — it’s central to the whole story.

Emily

I’ve noticed more books lately with older heroes, and I’m here for it. When older adults get to be the ones who save the day, it says there’s no age cutoff for greatness.

Katie

 Refreshing, no question. How often does an 81-year-old woman get to carry a thriller? Bold, and honestly overdue. Elsie earns every bit of the spotlight. I don’t think just any author could pull this kind of thing off. Hepworth did a great job.

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Characters We Loved

Elsie isn’t the only reason this book works. The people around her — past and present — do a lot of the emotional heavy lifting too.

Elsie (Mabel): Prickly on the surface, but never once cold. She’s the kind of character who earns your trust slowly, then completely.

Persephone: The seven-year-old neighbor who refuses to take no for an answer. She’s the reason Elsie’s walls come down at all — proof that sometimes the smallest person in the room sees the clearest.

Daphne: Elsie’s lifelong best friend, and honestly one of the most low-key important people in the whole book. Their friendship is the emotional backbone of the story — the one relationship that stayed steady no matter what decade we’re in. Without spoiling anything, Daphne’s role ends up meaning a lot more than it first appears, and that reveal is part of what makes the ending hit as hard as it does.

Cecily (Cess) and Vanessa (Ness): Two more standouts who deserve their own mention. Cess in particular shows up wholeheartedly for young Mabel — she doesn’t play by anyone else’s rules, and she advocates for Mabel when nobody else will.

We couldn’t agree on a single favorite between the two of us, and honestly, that feels right for a book with this many strong characters.

Katie‘s Favorite Character

Cecily. She’s fiercely protective of Mabel and doesn’t conform to society’s expectations. When Mabel can’t speak up for herself, Cess does it for her.

Emily‘s Favorite Character

Persephone. Who doesn’t love a little girl who fully inserts herself into your life on a daily basis, whether you asked for it or not?

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Writing Style & Atmosphere

Books like this live or die on tone — lean too far into either the humor or the heaviness, and the whole thing falls apart. We think Hepworth found the balance.

Emily  

This worked for me. If a book leans too far into one thing — too dark, too sweet, too anything — it loses me. Hepworth kept switching gears just enough that neither mode wore thin.

Katie

Worked perfectly for me. Too light and you lose the stakes. Too heavy and you lose what makes you care. This story is built on wrongful judgment and childhood trauma — it needs some teeth.

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Standout Moment

No spoilers here, but there’s a moment (or two) in this book that completely recontextualizes everything that came before it. This is the part we keep circling back to in conversation.

Katie

No spoilers, but one relationship in this book isn’t what it looks like. And a second reveal, tied to someone from Elsie’s past, changed how I saw her completely.

Emily

The moment Elsie finally lets someone see past the “grumpy old lady” act stuck with me — and again, no spoilers, but it’s the kind of scene that reframes everything you thought you understood about her.

The Ending

And then there’s the ending. We won’t say more than this: it’s a cliffhanger, and it worked on both of us.

Katie

That final cliffhanger completely got me. I closed the book and just sat there for a minute, already wanting to know what happens next.

Emily

Same. It’s the kind of ending that makes you immediately want to talk to someone else who’s read it — which, lucky for me, I had Katie for.

Themes & Takeaways

Beyond the mystery, this book left us both thinking about something bigger — how easily a person gets defined by one story other people decided to believe.

Katie

It made me think about how quickly we size people up based on a single story we’ve heard about them, instead of asking what actually happened. I think we all know better, but most of us are still guilty of it.

Emily

For me, it was a reminder that the people who show up quietly, over and over, matter more than the ones who talk the loudest about caring.

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Final Thoughts

Emily

For me, this one earned every bit of the full 5. I haven’t stopped thinking about Elsie since I closed the book, and that’s really the only metric that matters for me.

Katie

I don’t hand out 5 stars easily. It takes a book that completely knocks my socks off and leaves me on a reading high for days after. Very few earn that from me — so 4.5 is already high praise in my book. I’d hand this to anyone who loves a character study as much as a mystery — especially readers who’ve ever underestimated an older woman.

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Loved the book and want to keep talking? We put together 20 discussion questions for Mad Mabel — perfect for book clubs or anyone still thinking about that ending. 👉 Discussion Questions: Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

Would you have trusted Elsie right away, or would it have taken time to win you over? Share your thoughts below.

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Ready to dive in? Here’s where you can grab your copy.

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If you’re still hanging around Kenny Lane and not quite ready to leave Elsie behind, here are a few places to wander:

Sally Hepworth’s Official Website
Discover more about Sally Hepworth, her backlist, and what she’s working on next.

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Follow Currently Booked on Instagram
Join cozy book chats, find beautiful quotes, and soak up all the reading vibes.

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More Magical & Bookish Reads on Currently Booked

Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books – A small town, a controversy, and a community far too quick to decide who’s in the wrong. If Elsie’s story made you think about how fast judgment spreads, this one will hit close to home.

Yesteryear – A woman confronting the gap between the life she’s presented to the world and the truth underneath it. If Mad Mabel‘s questions about identity and reputation stuck with you, this one digs into similar territory.

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Other Recommendations

If Mad Mabel worked for you, here are a few other books that explore wrongful judgment, small-town secrets, unconventional heroines, or characters carrying more history than anyone around them realizes:

• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
  A group of sharp, funny retirees who refuse to be underestimated, solving mysteries their community never saw coming from them. If you loved watching an older character take center stage, this delivers that same energy with a full ensemble.
• The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett by Annie Lyons
  An elderly woman, misunderstood by everyone around her, carrying a past she’s never shared — until an unlikely younger friendship starts to change that. Easily the closest emotional cousin to Mad Mabel on this list.
• The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise by Colleen Oakley
  An odd-couple pairing between generations that slowly turns into real found family, with more heart under the surface than the premise lets on.
• Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
  A tight-knit community, a death that unravels everyone’s carefully kept secrets, and a story that asks how well we ever really know our neighbors.