Mad Mabel: Book Review

 

Published 1 Oct. 2025

Oh, this was a fun read. I usually do not read thrillers because I find them populated with flat characters and formulaic plot lines. However, I very much enjoyed keeping company with Mad Mabel and a host of other characters. 

Hepworth does a great job fleshing out a complex protagonist.  I happen to think people in late life make very interesting main characters because of the decades of personal experience that inform their personalities. 

Mabel lives in a neighborhood with a handful of interesting people, including a tween named Persephone who insists on forming a friendship with our snarky titular character.  As we get to know Mabel as an older adult, we also get a series of flashbacks that tell out how Mabel earned the moniker "Mad."  When she was younger, she was adjacent to a number of deaths, and she was implicated in them even though she was just a child. 

Over the length of the book, we get some answers about what happened in years gone by, but we also learn more about contemporary Mabel and her neighbors.  It was both suspenseful and heartwarming--which is an interesting mix. 

Maybe I will pick up a few more thrillers that have older adults as the protagonist. 

Related: 

Books on Aging