Book Review: Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

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Mad Mabel  by Sally Hepworth  is a domestic thriller about the youngest person convicted of murder in Australia, Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick. Now 81 years old, Elsie is living on Kenny Lane and has been for the past sixty years. When a mother named Roxanne moves into Mabel's neighborhood with her seven year old daughter, an unlikely friendship forms between Elsie and the seven year old child named Persephone. As Elsie's secrets come to light, her world comes crashing down.  Having read quite a few novels by Sally Hepworth, I requested an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of Mad Mabel  without reading the synopsis of the story. I was thrilled when NetGalley and St. Martin's Press approved my request. The expected publication date of the book is April 21, 2026. Not knowing anything about the storyline before I started reading Mad Mabel  made the story much more interesting to me as I had no preconceived ideas. The tale was told from Mabel's perspective in alternating timeli...
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Book Review: A Catered Murder (A Mystery with Recipes, #1) by Isis Crawford

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a catered murder isis crawford
A Catered Murder (A Mystery with Recipes, #1) by Isis Crawford opens with Bernadette Simmons moving back to New York from Los Angeles, California to work for her sister Libby's catering business called 'A Little Taste of Heaven'. They get hired to cater a high school reunion where the guest of honor is Laird Wren who writes vampire novels. But when he keels over and dies, Libby becomes a suspect.
 
This cozy mystery series has potential to be a great series. I enjoyed the storyline well enough to keep reading, and it kept me engaged. The main characters were likable and had some good character development.
 
However, the thing that annoyed me about A Catered Murder by Isis Crawford is that there were some poor word choices in my opinion. It seemed as though the author had a thesaurus sitting next to her as she wrote and would randomly throw in a more complex word. Although the reader could figure out what the word means, the sentence structure didn't flow as well. It also seemed like the author was using big words just for the sake of using big words when a simpler word would have sufficed in many of these instances. Furthermore, there were a few instances where I wasn't sure who was speaking, and I had to reread the exchange a couple of times.

All in all, I enjoyed A Catered Murder (A Mystery with Recipes, #1) by Isis Crawford and gave it three out of three stars. If you liked this book, I recommend reading Killer Cupcakes (Lexy Baker, #1) by Leighann Dobbs.


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Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 28, 2023 at 9:31 AM

    Too much vulgar language for a cozy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousAugust 29, 2023 at 1:32 AM

      I don't remember it having much, if any, vulgar language in it.

      Delete

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