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This is a book guide for Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth!
Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
Publication date: April 21, 2026
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Print length: 352 pages
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Book description:
Meet Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick: eighty-one years old, gloriously grumpy, fiercely independent, and never without a hot cup of tea―or a cutting remark. She minds her own business in her quiet Melbourne suburb, until a neighbor turns up dead and the whispers start flying.
Because Elsie hasn’t always been Elsie. Once upon a headline, she was Mad Mabel Waller―Australia’s youngest convicted murderer. But was she really mad, or just misunderstood? Either way, she’s kept her secret buried for decades.
Enter seven-year-old Persephone, a relentless little chatterbox who has just moved in across the road (armed with stickers, questions, and no sense of personal boundaries); Joan, who appears to have it in for Elsie; and a healthy dose of public interest―the cops are sniffing around, and the media is circling like seagulls at a picnic.
So Mabel does what she’s always done best―she takes matters into her own hands.
Is she a cantankerous old lady with a shady past? A cold-blooded killer with arthritis? Or just someone who’s finally ready to tell her side of the story?
About the author:
Sally Hepworth is the New York Times bestselling author of ten novels, most recently Mad Mabel. Sally’s novels have been called “darkly charming” and praised by authors Emily Giffin and Liane Moriarty as “totally absorbing” and “fiction at its finest.”
Sally’s novels have sold millions of copies worldwide and been translated into over 30 languages.
Sally lives in Melbourne, Australia with her family.
You can find out more on her website here.
Find all of Sally Hepworth’s books here
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