by Sally Hepworth
Well, I was pleasantly surprised to be so engulfed by this novel; I read it in one day. It was the perfect book for sitting on my balcony, sipping a beverage and reading until the sun set, and where I live that isn’t until 10:30 in the evening.
The first two sentences of the prologue are one of the BEST I’ve read in a while: “It’s interesting to note that there are two groups of people who are rarely, if ever, suspected of murder. These groups are elderly women and little girls. We meet Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick who is 81 years old. Elsie and her bosom friend Daphne are chit-chatting about the neighbours, an eclectic group of people who all will take part in the story in varying degrees. It seems no one in the neighbourhood has seen or heard from their ninety-three-year-old neighbour Ishann, and to add to their concern, his packages of shipped vitamins are beginning to pile up on the doorstep, and his chihuahua Nugget has been yapping nonstop for a couple of days. Elsie takes it upon herself to check on him and crawls over the fence to see Ishan lying dead on the floor through the glass. The police are called, and they soon find out that Elsie is also “Mad Mabel,” a notorious murderer sent to prison when she was only 15 for killing…someone (no spoilers), so of course, being the person to discover the dead body and because of her history, she is not ruled out as a suspect.
The novel then skips back in time to give Mabel’s back story, where we learn who her parents are, what type of childhood she had and, of course, her possible motivations for murder. Chapters are labelled “Then” and “Now,” and Hepworth does an excellent job of only giving us the time frame in Mabel’s life that fits with the events happening in the “now”. As readers, we move from not knowing the true character of this murderer to actually befriending her. The Mabel of “Now” is strong and spunky, but the Mabel of “then” is a young, emotionally damaged girl who is abused by almost every aspect of society. As readers, we eventually learn that there could be several potential murder “victims,” but Hepworth is successful at not making it entirely predictable.
If you’re looking for an engaging story with an intriguing and somewhat funny protagonist, then you will love this novel. It does pull on your heartstrings with its treatment of Mabel.
Trigger warnings for child sexual, physical, and mental abuse, as well as violent scenes and domestic abuse. The story is not graphic, but the subject matter is sensitive—five stars, one of my favourites of the summer.
Ink And Spine 