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Showing posts from May, 2016

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...

Book Review: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

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It seems as though  The Girl on the Train  by Paula Hawkins was the smash hit in 2015. Everywhere I turned, someone was recommending it, and several book lists recommended it to those who enjoyed  Gone Girl  by Gillian Flynn. Much of  The Girl on the Train  takes place on a commuter train that goes into London and where we meet one of the main characters, Rachel, who is an unemployed, drunken mess who is concealing she is unemployed from her flatmate. While taking the train into London every day, Rachel passes her old townhouse, where her ex-husband, his wife, and their baby still live. A few doors down from Rachel's ex-husband reside a married couple, who are relatively new to the neighborhood. Rachel distracts herself on the train ride by making up stories of the seemingly happy couple, but when the wife of the happy couple Megan goes missing, Rachel is sure she has some clues to what may have happened but isn't taken seriously by the police. ...