FICTION

Mad Mabel

Sally Hepworth

Macmillan $34.99

Sally Hepworth has described herself as a Nell Mangel character – the Neighbours busybody who wanted to know what everyone was doing. It’s a curiosity that has served Hepworth (who has written 15 bestsellers in 10 years) well. She has built a dedicated audience, concentrating on the domestic thriller genre she’s claimed as her own, her plots filled with darkly suspenseful characters who all come from a colourful array of dysfunctional families.

In Mad Mabel, the protagonist, Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick, is 81. Elsie has lived in Kenny Lane for 60 years with her friend Daphne, in a small and colourful community where everyone minds everyone else’s business. There’s Pete the Greek; the litigious troublemaker Joan Waters; Roxanne, a troub

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