Book Review: Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

Lacey Christiansen



March 29, 2026

Mad Mabel - An ARC Review

There are two kinds of people no one suspects of murder: little girls and old ladies. Sally Hepworth’s Mad Mabel leans into that truth with wicked humor and emotional depth, crafting a story that’s both sharp and unexpectedly tender. Think suburban drama meets vintage noir — with an eighty-one-year-old heroine who’s equal parts nosy neighbor, tragic figure, and absolute icon.

This post may contain affiliate links. If you click on them and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Hype Report

Get Hyped!
Mad Mabel is coming April 21, 2026!

Aesthetic

The Cover

The cover of Mad Mabel that I saw when browsing for ARCs on NetGalley stopped me mid-scroll. Chic vintage vibes and a bold color palette meet an adorably chunky swashed serif font. The bright green glasses pop against the complimentary red tones of the rest of the illustration. There is even a tiny Easter egg on the cover design (once you read the book, see if you can spot it)

Interior

Mad Mabel was read as an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) and was an uncorrected version so I cannot accuratly assess the formatting for the final released product.

Did the design affect whether I bought the book?

Yes, I requested the Mad Mabel ARC because it he cover made me look at it and then the description hooked me. I’m so pleased to have been selected as an early reviewer. (I was not compensated in any way for my review of the unedited digital arc copy)

Summary

In Short

An elderly woman who was once the youngest person in Australia to be convicted of murder tells her side of the story.

From the Publisher

There are 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.

Character Analysis

The main character, Elsie/Mabel, is complex and beautifully flawed. The character develops over the course of the story as does the reader’s attachment to her. The other characters are each as deep as they need to be to move the very character driven plot along. Some characters have a lot of depth, others are typecast so the reader understands their role in the story is tertiary.

There are two kinds of people no one ever expects to be murderers: little girls and old ladies.

Writing Style

Dual timeline storytelling at its finest. The reader sees both the young Mabel in her formative years leading up to the murder in question and Elsie (using her middle name post conviction) as an elderly woman who is suddenly thrust back into the spotlight. The voice of the narrator is laugh out loud in a quiet room (startling your dog) – hilarious. But also tugs on the ol’ heartstrings to make a well rounded story.

Themes

Themes of different types of abuse litter the pages of Mad Mabel. There is a lot of trauma.

The importance of found family vs blood relations flows within the narrative of Mad Mabel. Hepworth pokes at the complexities of these relationships to see how they react.

Friendship pulses as an important developmental theme throughout the main character’s life. It anchors all of the other themes and acts as a thread that runs the length of Mad Mabel’s tale.

Critical Evaluation

Hepworth includes some heavy themes but manages to avoid anything terribly graphic by making excellent use of subtext. The foreshadowing in Mad Mabel is subtle, but set the stage for a grand reveal in the plot twists at the end of the book.

Personal Opinion

Mad Mabel is worth your time. Hepworth blends humor with relatable human interaction. She created a heartfelt but not too heavy story about trauma and murder alongside found family and friendship. This is the first book that I have read by Hepworth, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Refreshingly different premise handled expertly.