⭐ 3.2/5 | Standalone | Reviewed by LD | Steam: 🔥
⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read Mad Mabel yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.
The Setup
Elsie Fitzpatrick is 81 years old and just wants to be left alone. But before she was Elsie, she was Mabel Waller — and decades ago, Mabel became infamous as the youngest person ever convicted of murder in Australia. She was 15. She changed her name, built a quiet life, and kept her head down for over sixty years.
Then someone slipped an article about her past under her door. And then her neighbor turned up dead.
The Full Story
The book alternates between present-day Elsie at 81 and flashbacks to young Mabel, slowly unraveling what actually made her “Mad Mabel.”
In the present, little Persephone — the girl who lives across the street — shows up at Elsie’s door for a school project. She needs to interview an elderly person. Elsie tells her she should go interview Ashan next door, he’s even older. Persephone says she can’t. He’s dead. She went over earlier, he didn’t answer, and his packages have been piling up outside the door. They go check together. He’s not answering for a reason.
So they call it in. And nosy neighbor Joan, who is right there for all of it, immediately tells the police exactly who Elsie really is. Now Elsie isn’t just a neighbor who found a body — she’s a suspect. Joan is the one who put that article under her door. She’s known this whole time.
The police are conducting interviews, the death is being treated as suspicious, and Elsie is right in the middle of it. We don’t find out until the very end of the book that Ashan actually overdosed on vitamins — the man was absolutely obsessed with his supplements — and his death had nothing to do with Elsie whatsoever.
But that’s the end. For most of the book, the cloud sits right over her.
From there the circus begins. Podcasters show up at 7am. News vans follow. Elsie calls a lawyer — the lawyer tells her there’s no one to sue. So she agrees to go on the podcast herself so she can set the record straight. When they ask why she chose them, she tells them she thought they’d be easier to manipulate. And that honestly tells you everything you need to know about Elsie.
In the flashbacks, we piece together who Mabel was.
Her childhood was brutal. She had a baby sister named Kitty who died of polio when Mabel was only three and a half. Mabel had polio and was being kept isolated on the porch to protect Kitty — but somehow she got out and played with her, somehow that door got unlocked. Her father blamed Mabel for the death of Kitty, but who unlocked the door? Certainly not the three-year-old with no key. Kitty got sick and died. He spent her entire childhood treating her like she was dangerous and broken, calling her mad. The house was always full of drunk party guests and her dad could barely stand to look at her.
At 14, she caught her dad cheating with a woman named Susan McGinty. She told her mom. Her mom slapped her, walked straight to the balcony, and threw herself off. Elsie watched it happen. Her father showed up two days later, blamed Mabel for all of it, told her she couldn’t even attend her own mother’s funeral, and was gone on a business trip with Susan by Friday.
She went to live with her aunt — one of the only genuinely good people in her life. She also had a close friend named Daphne who she relied on heavily through this period.
At 15, she got involved with her teacher, Mr. Lucas, who told her he loved her. She later learned she wasn’t his first student. He ends up dead — his car jack gave out while he was changing a tire, and the car crushed him. His fiancée admitted three months later that she killed him. So that one wasn’t Mabel either.
There was also a boy named Billy who had been harassing Mabel about Kitty’s death. One day at the beach he came after her and she ran off. That evening, Billy’s parents couldn’t find him. He was discovered at the beach, didn’t even remember his own name, and ended up in an induced coma. Everyone assumed Mabel had something to do with it. But he recovers.
Later, after the whole situation with her teacher came out, Billy came at her again — grabbing at her this time. She turned and pushed him off. Christoph happened to come up right behind him at that exact moment. Billy fell directly into Christoph. Christoph hit his head on the ground. Christoph ended up being fine. And yes — everyone assumed it was Mabel’s fault again.
She had also started a relationship with Christoph around this time.
As for what she actually did: her father came back and tried to kick her aunt out and take Mabel with him. Her aunt wasn’t having it — there was an ironclad will stating that if her sister died, the house reverted to the aunt until Mabel came of age. He had no claim unless he was the only living relative, and the aunt made clear he’d have to go to court for custody too. He left furious. Mabel ran off. When she came back about an hour later, her father had killed her aunt. He immediately tried to tell Mabel that she was the one who did it. And that’s when Mabel lost it and killed him.
She admitted to killing her father. She did not kill the aunt. But in the end she was convicted of both regardless. Ness knew she hadn’t killed her.
Because of Daphne, she was sent to a mental institution instead of jail. She was 15 and apparently pregnant when she was admitted. She gave birth to a baby boy while institutionalized — he was taken away immediately and her aunt’s partner Ness adopted him.
Back in the present, the podcast drops. The public, who had spent decades deciding she was a murderer, finally hears her side. It goes viral. Flowers show up at her door. People who had judged her for years are apologizing.
That same night, Mabel wakes up and sees Persephone’s dad climbing out of Roxanne’s window with Persephone in his arms. He has a restraining order against him and has never shown any real interest in his daughter — but now that Roxanne has made it clear she wants nothing to do with him, he’s decided he’s going to steal her. Mabel bolts into the street with Ashan’s dog to stop him — the one she somehow inherited. He can’t steal this little girl. She won’t let it happen. Elsie has become rather attached. Light by light the whole neighborhood wakes up and comes outside. He realizes he is cornered. He pulls a gun. Then he points it at Persephone. Mabel jumps in front of it to save her.
She’s shot.
The Ending
Mabel dies. Her family home passes to Peter — the son she gave up when she was 15. Peter shares his inheritance with Persephone and Roxanne.
And Persephone, after watching all of this, creates her own imaginary friend. She names her Daisy.
So who did Mad Mabel actually kill? Her father. And once the podcast is released, people completely understand why and are suddenly understanding why she did what she did.
Would I Relisten?
Never. I genuinely struggled with this one the entire way through. It was so slow going. It took forever. And the whole time you’re reading it, you’re just trying to figure out — okay, which one is THE death? Which one actually got her arrested? Is this the murder? Was it a misunderstanding? Did she actually do it? The answer doesn’t come until basically the very end of the book, after death after death after death has touched her life.
This book was so very long and I was almost done and still didn’t know who she killed or why. It was really, really drawn out.
There was a good twist — Peter being her son, the Daphne reveal, the truth about what actually happened with her father and aunt — but getting there was a slog. So much going on, so much noise, and most of the time I had zero idea what was relevant and what wasn’t. But I will say I called Daphne as an imaginary friend not too long after she conveniently showed up.
At the end, she does figure out she actually has people. She’s got the podcaster. She’s got Peter. She’s got Persephone. And she ends up giving her life for her. That part landed. The journey to get there just did not.
3.2/5. Standalone.
Where to Get This Book
📖 Physical Book
Amazon CA | Amazon US | Bookshop.org
🎧 Audiobook
Audible CA | Audible US | Libro.fm
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Plot Twisted. 🔥
📖 | Genre: Psychological Suspense | Steam: 🔥
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