Title: The Maid (Molly the Maid #1)
Author: Nita Prose 
Genre: mystery, cozy mystery
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Publication Date: 2022
Format: Hardcover
Length:  304 pages

Read if you like: murder mystery, unreliable narrators, Clue-like premise, invisible jobs, stories of grief

Rating: 

I rarely read mysteries because, like thrillers, I find they almost always elevate my anxiety, and I genuinely do not love being anxious for fun. That said, I have seen so many positive endorsements for The Maid that I found my interest piqued, and when my library had a copy, I figured I might as well give it a go. Thank goodness I did, because this was one of my favourite reads in recent memory.

I loved everything about The Maid. I loved the setting of a luxurious boutique hotel, I loved the murder mystery at the centre of the plot, but more than either of those aspects, I absolutely adored Molly. She was such a wonderfully layered and multidimensional character, even if she comes off a little aloof at the start, and seeing the world from her perspective was a true delight. 

This was such an endlessly enjoyable book for me. I ripped through it in just a couple of days. I can’t wait to read more of this series because I would follow Molly to the ends of the earth at this moment.

The Book Synopsis: The Maid by Nita Prose

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?

The Review

I am so glad I picked up this book because it was an absolute delight from start to finish.

Let me start with how enjoyable the setting was. I loved the luxury boutique hotel and the painstaking detail that Prose went to in order to bring it to life. You really got a sense for both the grandiose nature of it, and also for the various parts and people that came together to make it what it was. It was a narrow scope in some ways, but Prose brought so much life to it that I loved exploring this little corner of hospitality.

While the setting was lovely, the main character Molly was the show stealer. I found her fascinating and endearing and loved seeing her perspective and her thought process. There were times where I found myself cringing because she was so clearly on the wrong stack of mail, and an almost equal number of times where I felt terrible for both how she was being perceived and how aware she was of that perception, but I loved that she managed to learn and grow without losing some of the parts of her that made her unique and helped her character shine. She’s certainly flawed in very obvious ways, to the reader and herself, but she’s also multidimensional enough that she doesn’t remain static, and it makes her growth all the more enjoyable to witness.

I also felt like both Molly and the story as a whole had some nice unanticipated layers. Without giving away specifics, I did assume that the story was going to unfold fairly predictably at the start, but there are small and profound places where it diverges into something really unexpected that left me quite introspective. The end days of Molly and her Gran, or the big reveal about the extent of Molly’s knowledge, are examples where I was taken completely by surprise and left to wonder if I really knew who Molly was and what she was capable of, or if we’d even scratched the surface. 

I loved everything about this book. It was cozy, dramatic, fun, and ultimately very endearing. This was such an easy 5 stars, and I’ll definitely read the other books in this series.