Title: The Maid
Author: Nita Prose
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Fiction
Publication Date: January 4, 2022
Review Date: December 15, 2025
Number of Pages: 304 (hardcover)
My Rating: 3.0/5
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Book Blurb of The Maid:
Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.
Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.
But Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?
A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.
Book Review of The Maid:
From the very beginning, I really liked the writing style. As I got to know more about the character Molly Gray, I grew to like her even more. This, of course, means that I did like her immediately and it only got better from there.
Since there was much mention of her social awkwardness and lack of understanding of social cues and “normal people” behavior, I assumed we would be told specifically about her neurodivergence, which I – like many others – thought to be autism. Unfortunately, it is never explicitly mentioned. If nothing else, it would help with representation and relatability. Coming back to this after some thought, I also believe it is not entirely necessary to do so either; after all, Molly is not defined by her neurodivergence or lack thereof. All this to say, I do think it would be nice for representation, but I can see the power of not defining it, and hence, not allowing Molly to be defined by it.
This doesn’t take away from the story otherwise, so I won’t be discussing this much further. Molly works at a maid at a fancy hotel in a nonspecific location. She loves the focus and attention to detail her work requires, and she talks in a very precise and proper manner. The consistency in her dialogue is admirable, but also leads to the side effect of wondering which era this is set in. Surprisingly, it is modern day and hence her speech is comparatively strange and not just “proper”.
Us readers would realize early on something that Molly doesn’t – she’s being misled and taken advantage of. At this point, any exposition will quickly turn into spoilers, so I won’t be discussing the plot too much, except to say that Molly has to find a way to prove her innocence. Not knowing how to navigate social cues makes this very difficult for her. The prose is fairly well written, and I enjoyed how Molly tried to solve puzzles like Columbo. Having said that, the “twist” or reveal at the end was not very satisfying. I like my mystery reads to have a payoff worthy of the buildup. This one didn’t quite reach the mark in that aspect.
Overall, I enjoyed some aspects of the story, and I liked Molly as a character. I didn’t like the occasional lack of nuance, the twist/reveal, or the way the mystery panned out. Another minor point is that The Maid was marketed as a cozy mystery, but I wouldn’t call it that based on some plot elements (spoiler if I say more). For a cozy mystery, I’m going back to Agatha Christie.
