maddening madness
Elsie Mable Fitzpatrick is 81 and has no time for anyone’s nonsense. It doesn’t matter if it’s a neighbor, or the police, or a 7-year-old girl named Persephone. She just wants to live a quiet life on Kenny Lane. But her neighbors just won’t make that happen. There is Joan, who writes her complaint letters where she always reminds Elsie that her son is a partner in a law firm. There is Ishaan, always ordering vitamins, and his yappy dog Nugget. There is new neighbor Roxanna and her inquisitive daughter Persephone. And there’s Peter—well, actually Peter is okay.
But when Elsie realizes that Nugget has been barking a lot, and there are vitamin deliveries stacked up at Ishaan’s door, she wonders if her neighbor is okay. She goes over to knock on his door, and he doesn’t answer. She manages to get in to his apartment through the back, and she finds him on his kitchen floor. She can’t find a pulse, so she takes Nugget back to her place and calls the police. And when the police show up to investigate the situation, they find something even more interesting than an old man on the floor of his kitchen. They find Mad Mabel.
Mad Mabel had been the youngest child ever to be charged with murder, back when she was just 14. She had spent several years incarcerated before she was allowed back into society. She had lived a quiet life. She has a best friend, Daphne, who had been with her through it all. Daphne knew all her secrets. But all the rest of the world knew is that she was convicted of one murder and suspected of others. When she was a child, people around her didn’t last very long.
As Elsie deals with the trouble her neighbor’s death has stirred up, she is also going back through her past, telling her story to a couple of podcasters. She had never spoken publicly before about her childhood, but she decided it was time to tell her side of the story. Slowly, she unwinds what happened with her little sister, her mother, a boy from school, her history teacher, her aunt, and, finally, her father. She tells everything that happened to her as a child, no holds barred.
The twists and turns of her story explain why she is so crusty today. But as she takes in Nugget and watches Persephone when Roxanne has to work, it’s clear that there is a good heart under all that curmudgeon crust. But when danger shows up in her neighborhood, Elsie has to decide how the story of Mad Mabel ends.
I have been a fan of Sally Hepworth for years, and Mad Mabel is the most impactful book I’ve read by her. This book is a roller coaster of emotions, with unreliable narrators and big surprises throughout. I thought it did start out a little slowly, but it more than makes up for that. This is a thriller that will stick with me for a long time.
I listened to Mad Mabel on audio, narrated by Hannah Fredericksen and Jenny Seedsman. who voice Elsie and Mabel. Both narrators did beautifully, with Elsie’s hard-fought wisdom and protectiveness and with Mabel’s youth and innocence. I am so happy I chose to listen to this audio book. It made the twists and the secrets and the revelations more powerful, and it kept me listening to the very end.
Egalleys for Mad Mabel were provided by St. Martin’s Press and an early copy of the audio book was provided by Macmillan Audio, both through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.
