“Mad Mabel” by Sally Hepworth

We’ll be reading “Mad Mabel” by Sally Hepworth for November’s book club meeting!!

Come join us for some fun discussion, as always the goal is to build community so no pressure to have finished the book!

Description:

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

Eighty-one-year-old Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick has lived on the same quiet street in Melbourne for sixty years. Sharp-tongued, fiercely independent, and notoriously nosy, Elsie seems like an ordinary, if rather grumpy, elderly woman. But she’s spent decades hiding a dark secret.

Long before she was Elsie Fitzpatrick, she was known as “Mad Mabel”—Australia’s youngest convicted murderer.

When a curious seven-year-old girl moves into the neighborhood and an elderly neighbor turns up dead, Elsie’s carefully guarded past begins to unravel. As police investigate and old secrets resurface, Elsie must confront the story she’s spent a lifetime trying to escape.

Was Mad Mabel truly a murderer, or is there more to her story than anyone ever knew?

Darkly funny, suspenseful, and full of unexpected heart, Mad Mabel is a twist-filled mystery about secrets, judgment, friendship, and the possibility of redemption.