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In 'the maid,' a devoted hotel cleaning lady is a prime murder suspect.

Bethanne Patrick

The Maid by Nita Prose Ballantine Books hide caption

Devotees of cozy mysteries, rejoice: Nita Prose's debut, The Maid, satisfies on every level — from place to plot to protagonist.

In a fancy urban hotel, a guest lies dead, and the main suspect is Molly Gray, a member of the cleaning staff whose devotion to her work is matched only by her love for her deceased grandmother.

Let the locked-room hijinks begin!

The above storyline would be enough for a solid read, but Prose dials up the tension by creating a realistically different heroine. Molly Gray is neurodivergent, and may even have Autism spectrum disorder, not that Molly uses either of those terms. She tells us how she copes with the world. "I like things simple and neat," says Molly, who cleans "twenty-plus rooms" at the Regency Grand, "a five-star boutique hotel."

"Never in my life did I think I'd hold such a lofty position in a grand hotel," she says, also sharing that without Gran, "It's as though all the color has been drained from the apartment we shared." Work remains a respite, a place where Molly has responsibilities and a routine. "I love cleaning, I love my maid's trolley, and I love my uniform." Prose makes a wise choice in Molly's first-person narration, allowing readers to enter Molly's world, where a well-stocked maid's trolley is "a portable sanitation miracle." You'll nod at Molly's observations about the proper order in which to tackle a suite ("from top to bottom") and using different cloths for sink and toilet.

Molly knows that she sees things differently. "The truth is, I often have trouble with social situations; it's as though everyone is playing an elaborate game with complex rules they all know, but I'm always playing for the first time," she says. All of this information about Molly is important to have before the actual murder, because Molly's "trouble with social situations" will both complicate matters, and result in her eventual triumph.

A word about the location of the Regency Grand before we proceed. Nita Prose is vice president and editorial director at Simon & Schuster Canada (one reason why her mastery of voice and plot is so assured; she's clearly an excellent editor). We're never explicitly told that The Maid takes place in Toronto; understanding its author's Canadian background will help readers understand why Molly's Gran is decidedly British in tastes and diction, but no one ever questions those things.

One of the reasons Molly loves her job so much is that it allows her to bypass her social miscommunications and "blend in." Even the day after her beloved Gran dies, she heads into work. But nine months later, on one of Molly's shifts, she finds a Mr. Black "very dead in his bed."

Everything that happens next will occur because Molly follows her strict rules and does not clean the Blacks' bathroom, as Mrs. Black (Giselle) was taking a shower. Remember: Molly does not pick up on cues easily. The fact that Giselle Black hopped in the shower just after Molly arrived, and before Molly discovered Mr. Black dead, doesn't register. "I did not allow her behavior to interfere with the task at hand," says Molly.

While some readers may guess who the killer is immediately, it doesn't really matter, as the book is more about Molly — who does not. There are other things happening around Molly that she misses, too, including a crime ring that relies on an undocumented immigrant's fears of deportation. Molly takes things at face value, which costs her something. However, taking things at face value is also one of Molly's strengths, and it ultimately allows her to help authorities catch a killer and a kingpin. So what if her idea of haute cuisine is a Tour of Italy platter from The Olive Garden? Molly takes her pleasures at face value, too, and knows that something cheese-y isn't always cheesy.

The delight of reading The Maid lies partly in watching a hectic cast of characters unravel (take special pleasure in watching Rodney Stiles, the hotel head bartender on whom Molly has a crush) as the crime is properly solved. It also lies in seeing Molly learn that thinking differently does not equal giving up friendship or high standards. What begins as a sprightly murder mystery turns into a meaningful, and at times even delicate, portrait of growth.

The Maid will start your 2022 reading off right. Here's hoping Molly Gray, the smart and affecting hotel maid, appears in a new book soon.

Bethanne Patrick is a freelance writer and critic who tweets @TheBookMaven .

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Inside the Best-Seller List

New Best Sellers Run the Gamut From Escapist to Galvanizing

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By Elisabeth Egan

Jan. 13, 2022

CLEAN SLATE “I love books the way Lennie in ‘Of Mice and Men’ loved his pet mouse,” writes Nita Prose on her website. “For this reason, I don’t advise you ever to lend me your prized first folio edition of ‘Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories & Tragedies’ as I may return it dog-eared and enhanced with a shabby chic patina of Scotch tape.” The aptly pseudonymed debut novelist — her real name is Nita Pronovost — lands at No. 8 on the hardcover fiction list with “The Maid,” a rip-roaring mystery about a housekeeper at a five-star hotel who discovers a dead body in a penthouse suite. (Naturally, she becomes a prime suspect.) Our Crime columnist described the book as an “endearing debut,” with “real emotional heft” — but, for grounded travelers, it also provides a much-needed sojourn to the world of crisp sheets, room service and constantly replenished Crabtree & Evelyn shampoo. Remember the pleasingly generic smell of a bustling lobby? Prose captures it perfectly: “The mélange of ladies’ fine perfumes, the dark musk of the leather armchairs, the tangy zing of lemon polish that’s used twice daily on the gleaming marble floors.” It is, she writes, “the fragrance of life itself.”

METTLE OF HONOR In the dedication to his memoir, “Unthinkable,” Representative Jamie Raskin quotes Sophocles: “One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life. The word is love.” This is the only word that can adequately sum up what Raskin calls “two impossible traumas” — the “shattering death by suicide” of his 25-year-old son, Tommy, on Dec. 31, 2020, and the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, both of which had seismic personal and professional repercussions for the Maryland Democrat. “I was devastated and crushed,” Raskin writes. “And yet you will find this is not a story of unyielding despair and destruction.” Now at No. 1 on the hardcover nonfiction list, “Unthinkable” is a celebration of citizen activists, public servants, survivors, family and hard-won, against-all-odds optimism. As Raskin puts it, “I have learned that trauma can steal everything from you that is most precious and rip joy right out of your life.” But, when he rushed through dark passageways under the Capitol last year, there was one emotion he did not feel: fear. Raskin writes, “My trauma, my wound, has now become my shield of defense and my path of escape, and all I can think of is my son propelling me forward to fight.”

Elisabeth Egan is an editor at the Book Review and the author of “A Window Opens.”

Follow New York Times Books on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram , s ign up for our newsletter or our literary calendar . And listen to us on the Book Review podcast .

Our Coverage of the Capitol Riot and its Fallout

T he Events on Jan. 6

Timeline: On Jan. 6, 2021, a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump raided the U.S. Capitol . Here is a close look at how the attack unfolded .

A Day of Rage: Using thousands of videos and police radio communications, a New York Times investigation reconstructed in detail what happened — and why .

Lost Lives: A bipartisan Senate report found that at least seven people died in connection with the attack.

Jan. 6 Attendees: To many of those who attended the Trump rally but never breached the Capitol, Jan. 6 wasn’t a dark day for the nation. It was a new start .

The Federal Case Against Trump

The Indictment: Trump was indicted on Aug. 1 after a sprawling federal investigation into his attempts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election. Here is how the indictment was structured .

Trump’s Immunity Claim: The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether Trump is immune from prosecution on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. The justices scheduled arguments for the week of April 22 .

The Trial: In February, the federal judge in the case decided to delay the trial , which was set to start on March 4. In doing so, she acknowledged that time had run out to get the proceeding going, mostly because of the wrangling over Trump’s immunity claim .

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Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

Kirkus Reviews' Best Books Of 2022

New York Times Bestseller

IndieBound Bestseller

by Nita Prose ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 4, 2022

A compelling take on the classic whodunit.

The shocking murder of a public figure at a high-end hotel has everyone guessing who the culprit might be.

Twenty-five-year-old Molly Gray, an eccentric young woman who's obsessed with cleaning but doesn't quite have the same ability to navigate social cues as those around her, loves working as a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel. Raised by her old-fashioned grandmother, who loved nothing more than cleaning and watching Columbo reruns, Molly has an overly polite and straightforward manner that can make her seem odd and off-putting to her colleagues despite her being the hardest worker at the hotel. After her grandmother's death, Molly's rigid life begins to lose some of its long-held balance, and when the infamous Mr. Charles Black, a rich and powerful businessman suspected of various criminal enterprises, is found murdered in one of the rooms she cleans, her whole world gets turned upside down. Before Molly knows what's happening, her odd demeanor has the police convinced she's guilty of the crime, and certain people at the hotel are a little too pleased about it. With the help of a few new friends (and while fending off new foes), she must begin to untangle the mystery of who really killed Mr. Black to get herself off the hook once and for all. Though the unusual ending might frustrate some readers, this unique debut will keep them reading.

Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-593-35615-9

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022

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THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DEVLINS

by Lisa Scottoline ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 26, 2024

As an adjunct member says, “You’re not a family, you’re a force.” Exactly, though not in the way you’d expect.

The ne’er-do-well son of a successful Irish American family gets dragged into criminal complications that suggest the rest of the Devlins aren’t exactly the upstanding citizens they appear.

The first 35 years in the life of Thomas “TJ” Devlin have been one disappointment after another to his parents, lawyers who founded a prosperous insurance and reinsurance firm, and his more successful siblings, John and Gabby. A longtime alcoholic who’s been unemployable ever since he did time for an incident involving his ex-girlfriend Carrie’s then 2-year-old daughter, TJ is nominally an investigator for Devlin & Devlin, but everyone knows the post is a sinecure. Things change dramatically when golden-boy John tells TJ that he just killed Neil Lemaire, an accountant for D&D client Runstan Electronics. Their speedy return to the murder scene reveals no corpse, so the brothers breathe easier—until Lemaire turns up shot to death in his car. John’s way of avoiding anything that might jeopardize his status as heir apparent to D&D is to throw TJ under the bus, blaming him for everything John himself has done and adding that you can’t trust anything his brother has said since he’s fallen off the wagon. TJ, who’s maintained his sobriety a day at a time for nearly two years, feels outraged, but neither the police investigating the murder nor his nearest and dearest care about his feelings. Forget the forgettable mystery, whose solution will leave you shrugging instead of gasping, and focus on the circular firing squad of the Devlins, and you’ll have a much better time than TJ.

Pub Date: March 26, 2024

ISBN: 9780525539704

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024

More by Lisa Scottoline

BOOK REVIEW

by Lisa Scottoline

A CONSPIRACY OF BONES

by Kathy Reichs ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2020

Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.

Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.

A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice ( The Bone Collection , 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”

Pub Date: March 17, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020

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by Kathy Reichs

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Booklover Book Reviews

The Maid, Book Review: Nita Prose’ emotionally astute debut

The Maid , Nita Prose’s clever bestselling cozy mystery is also a nuanced character study, emotionally astute and satisfying literature. Read my full review of our Book of the Month for January 2022.

The Maid Book Synopsis

I am your maid. I know about your secrets. Your dirty laundry. But what do you know about me?

Molly the maid is all alone in the world. A nobody. She’s used to being invisible in her job at the Regency Grand Hotel, plumping pillows and wiping away the grime, dust and secrets of the guests passing through. She’s just a maid – why should anyone take notice? But Molly is thrown into the spotlight when she discovers an infamous guest, Mr Black, very dead in his bed. This isn’t a mess that can be easily cleaned up. And as Molly becomes embroiled in the hunt for the truth, following the clues whispering in the hallways of the Regency Grand, she discovers a power she never knew was there. She’s just a maid – but what can she see that others overlook?

Escapist, charming and introducing a truly original heroine, The Maid is a story about how the truth isn’t always black and white – it’s found in the dirtier, grey areas in between . . .

( Harper Collins Australia , January 2022)

Genre : Mystery, Drama, Literature

Disclosure: If you click a link in this post we may earn a small commission to help offset our running costs.

The Maid, Book Review

Nita Prose’ debut novel is one of the most highly anticipated 2022 new releases . Book rights for The Maid have already been sold in 29 territories and the film rights snapped up by Universal pre-release; Florence Pugh set to play the title character. And yes, I am very pleased to report that this title certainly lives up to the hype.

This novel has so many intriguing and intelligent layers.

“My uniform is my freedom. It is the ultimate invisibility cloak.”

On one level this is a clever cozy crime mystery. On another, it is a compelling character study. Molly Gray, aka Molly the Maid, finds comfort and satisfaction in black and white rules, but is all at sea in the ‘grey’ of human interactions.

“Laughs are just like smiles. People use them to express an array of confounding emotions.”

Her quirks and propensity to take things literally spawns light-hearted moments of course. But as we know, those that are different walk paths more difficult than most.

Emotional depth

What elevates Nita Prose’ The Maid from a great novel to an excellent one is its capacity to surprise even the most avid reader. It does this in many different ways, but principally in its emotional depth. As so beautifully described in the NY Times , this novel has “real emotional heft”.

“That’s the trouble with pain. It’s as contagious as a disease. It spreads from the person who first endured it to those who love them most. Truth isn’t always the highest ideal; sometimes it must be sacrificed to stop the spread of pain to those you love. Even children know this intuitively.”

To discuss the story arc or secondary character set would invariably spoil the experience. Suffice to say though, Prose offers readers a compelling reminder that still waters run deep. And, of the value of old-fashioned goodness.

“One thing I’ve learned in my business is that you can hide dirt for a while, but at some point, it all comes to the surface.”

The more I read, the less I wanted this story to end; such was my engagement with the character set. So my applause goes to Prose for pulling off such a thought-provoking, yet emotionally astute and satisfying conclusion to The Maid .

PS: What a great pseudonym for a writer… ‘Nita Prose’ is actually Nita Pronovost.

BOOK RATING: The Story 5 / 5 ; The Writing 4.5 / 5 ; Overall 4.75 / 5

Get your copy of The Maid by Nita Prose from:

Update: I have since also enjoyed this novel’s sequel The Mystery Guest .

More engaging quirky lead characters:

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
The Helpline by Katherine Collette
Geraldine Verne’s Red Suitcase by Jane Riley
Addition by Toni Jordan
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

More The Maid book reviews

‘This cozy whodunit is a joy from the first page to the last.’ – Washington Independent Review of Books

‘Beautiful writing, an intriguing mystery, and a colourful cast of friends and sleuths ensure The Maid sparkles with wit and tension.’ – Lucy Clarke, The Castaways

‘Gripping, deftly written, and led by a truly unforgettable protagonist in Molly. I’m recommending it to everyone I know.’ – Emma Stonex, The Lamplighters

‘Fresh, fiendish and darkly beguiling. The Maid is so thrillingly original, and clever, and joyous. I just adored every page.’ – Chris Whitaker, We Begin at the End

Related Reading: 11 of Louisa Bennet’s Top Cozy Mystery Novels

About the Author, Nita Prose

Nita Prose is a long-time editor, serving many bestselling authors and their books. She lives in Toronto, Canada, in a house that is only moderately clean. Check out her website and connect with her on Twitter .

VIDEO: Watch the delightful Nita Prose on Good Morning America discussing how she came up with the idea for this book.

* My receipt of a review copy from the publisher did not impact the expression of my honest opinions above.

Book review: The Maid

BY James Walton

10th Jan 2022 Book Reviews

This month’s pick is a thriller that has set both the publishing and film industries talking

Molly Gray, the narrator of Nita Prose’s startlingly good debut novel, is a young woman who knows her place—and who rather likes it. For “approximately four years, thirteen weeks, and five days” she’s been working as a maid in the five-star Regency Grand hotel where she takes both pride and genuine pleasure in returning the guests’ rooms “to a state of perfection”.

As that very precise approximation indicates, Molly is on the autistic spectrum, not easily able to read social situations or understand metaphors. She does, mind you, know a dead body when she sees it—which she does one morning in Suite 410.

A business magnate by trade, the recently-deceased Mr Black was a regular guest, but not a well-liked one, given his hostility to more or less everybody. And that certainly included the trophy wife with whom he was often pictured in the society pages, where he was usually described as “a silver fox” (“though, to be clear,” Molly characteristically adds, “he is neither silver nor a fox”).

As you might imagine, Black hasn’t died of natural causes—and before long the police snap into action by following the not-unknown tactic of arresting the nearest oddball: i.e Molly. Much to her annoyance, this plays havoc with her room-cleaning schedules. But might it be that she knows more than she’s letting on?

"The Maid has already caused quite a stir in the books’ world, with six publishers bidding to have it and the film rights sold to Universal"

The Maid has already caused quite a stir in the books’ world, with six publishers bidding to have it and the film rights sold to Universal. Yet, however good the film might be, it will miss out on the novel’s real achievement.

True, the plot is neatly done—as are the below-stairs life of the hotel and Molly’s gradual and shocked realisation that not everybody is as they seem. Even so, what makes this such a thoroughly beguiling read is something that movies simply can’t do: the narrative voice.

In Prose’s expert hands, Molly’s account of her experiences and inner feelings perfectly captures the mixture of bewilderment, comic pedantry and fundamental (if sometimes misplaced) kind-heartedness with which she regards the world. It’s also full of such offbeat charm that you will root for her all the way.

The Maid by Nita Prose, published by HarperCollins, is out now

Reader's Digest Recommended Read: Murakami T: The T-Shirts I Love

You know you’ve got some serious status as a writer when you can publish a lavishly illustrated book about your own T-shirts. Haruki Murakami began producing fiction in the late 1970s, but it was only with the 1987 book Norwegian Wood that he really hit the big time.

A nostalgic tale of young love, it became a global bestseller and led to a level of adulation that few authors have ever had. In his native Japan, he was mobbed at airports. In America, his subsequent novels were given Harry Potter -style midnight launches in crowded bookstores. And with the appearance of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in the mid-Nineties, his star rose, if anything, even higher.

Indeed, one way of reading Murakami T is as a picture of what a successful writer’s life is like—which is to say pretty nice. Murakami hangs out in Hawaii, sees Bruce Springsteen in New York, watches iguanas in the Galapagos islands, buying (or being given) T-shirts wherever he goes.

The result is undeniably a somewhat eccentric book. But it’s also very likeable one. Having divided his shirts by theme—bands, cars, drink, animals and so on—Murakami provides short, chatty essays about how he came to have them.

He throws in various thoughts about whatever they depict, and ponders T-shirts more generally: which ones seem too boastful to wear (Porsche and BMW designs); and which, in his seventies, he now feels too old to be seen in (The Ramones).

At one flattering point, he writes that a T-shirt produced by The Economist magazine has “a very stylish message, as you might expect of something British”. The overall effect is not unlike sharing a conversation with a genial bloke in a bar.

Here he is, for example, discussing the crucial question of the best way to drink whisky…

“Do you like whiskey ? Put me down as a fan. It’s not like I drink it every day, but if the situation arises, I have been known to raise a glass.

Especially late at night, when I’m alone and listening to music, whiskey seems the perfect accompaniment. Beer’s a little too watery, wine’s a bit too refined, a martini too pretentious, brandy too mellow. The only choice is to bring out a bottle of whiskey.

"You know you’ve got some serious status as a writer when you can publish a lavishly illustrated book about your own T-shirts"

I generally am an early-to-bed, early-to-rise type, but on the rare occasion that I do stay up late, it’s usually with a whiskey glass in hand. Listening to old familiar LPs on the turntable. For me, it’s got to be jazz. And not a CD. Old-school vinyl records fit the mood better.

If a bar has particularly tasty ice, I might have it on the rocks, but these days, when I drink at home, I usually have it Twice Up. It’s easy to make. Just pour the whiskey into a glass (I prefer more formal stemware), and add an equal amount of water (at room temperature). Swirl the glass to get the two to mix and you’re good to go. Couldn’t be simpler.

When I visited the island of Islay in Scotland , the locals insisted that this is the best way to drink whiskey, and ever since, that’s the way I’ve enjoyed it. I don’t want to sound preachy, but if you drink whiskey this way, you can enjoy it without losing any of its innate flavour.

The local water in Islay has a special aroma that complements its single-malt whiskey. If you drink the same whiskey with Japanese mineral water, the taste is slightly different. Call it the power inherent in a place or whatever, but it’s something that can’t be helped.

Maybe it goes without saying, but this simple Twice Up way of drinking works even better the higher the quality of the whiskey, and the more robust the flavour. I mean, you’re not about to take a 25-year-old Bowmore single malt and make a highball with it and chug it down, are you?

I also stayed on Jura , a tiny island next to Islay. They have a famous single-malt distillery there as well, and the local water is equally tasty, though with a different flavour than Islay’s. Drinking it mixed with the local Jura whiskey made for a one-of-a-kind flavour. I stayed at the distillery’s lodge, drank as much whiskey every day as I liked, enjoyed the local cuisine… Just spending a few days there made it feel like life was worth living.

I have quite a few T-shirts made by whiskey companies at home, though wearing a whiskey T and walking around in the morning seems a bit much… People might take me for some old drunk. Which is why these shirts are ones that, unfortunately, I seldom wear.”

Haruki Murakami

Murakami T: The T-Shirts I Love by Haruki Murakami is published by Harvill Secker.

Read more: Book review: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Read more: How to support the deaf people in your life

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Book Review: The Maid by Nita Prose

By doreen sheridan.

Molly Gray is a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel in addition to being quite an unusual young person, and not just in how much she loves her job. She gains a deep satisfaction from making things tidy and bringing order back to chaos. While seemingly bland and simple on the surface, she has a savant’s understanding of how her job isn’t just about physical cleanliness:

When I’m done with my work, I leave your room pristine. Your bed is made perfectly, with four plump pillows, as though no one had ever lain there. The dust and grime you left behind has been vacuumed into oblivion. Your polished mirror reflects your face of innocence back at you. It’s as though you were never here. It’s as though all of your filth, all of your lies and deceits, have been erased.

As a hotel maid, she’s well aware that she’s often cleaning up after people who are less than honest or upright or kind, even though the Gran who raised her from infancy taught her to always think the best of people until they prove themselves undeserving of such regard. Molly knows that others think her strange and awkward – she doesn’t understand social cues, for instance, and she speaks with an old-fashioned formality that comes from having your grandmother be your best friend – but she believes that everyone she’s in daily contact with nowadays gets along with her as well as she does with them. Until, that is, the day she discovers a dead body in one of the hotel rooms, and quickly falls under suspicion of murder herself.

Mr. Charles Black is a wealthy older man who often stays at the Regency Grand in the company of his young wife Giselle. He’s not a particularly pleasant person, but Giselle takes a shine to Molly, making sure to tip her lavishly and even offering makeup advice and gifts. One morning, after a particularly nasty fight between Charles and Giselle, Molly arrives in the Blacks’ suite to clean only to find Charles dead in his bed. She immediately calls Reception to ask them to contact the authorities, and stands ready to do her civic duty by the dead man by cooperating as fully as she can with any police inquiry.

So imagine her shock when the police, after taking her in for questioning, zero in on her as prime suspect in Charles’ murder. Sure, she and Giselle were closer than most maids and hotel residents might be, and perhaps money has been tight for her ever since Gran passed away nine months ago. But she would never kill for money, as the police detective assigned to her case insinuates, even if Giselle has been kinder to her in her grief than anyone else:

I truly am grateful for her guidance. With Gran gone, much of the time I feel like a blind person in a minefield. I’m constantly stumbling upon social improprieties hidden under the surface of things. But with Giselle around, I feel like I’m wearing a breastplate and am flanked by an armed guard. One of the reasons why I love working at the Regency Grand is that there’s a rule book for conduct. I can rely on Mr. Snow’s training to tell me how to act, what to say when, how, and to whom. I find it relieving to have guidance.

Molly’s neurodivergency would seem to make her the perfect patsy, not only for Charles’ murder but also for the other mysterious criminal machinations that seem to be lurking behind the respectable facade of the Regency Grand. But Molly isn’t just going to allow herself to be framed for the terrible crimes of others. Who can she trust, though, as she seeks to clear her name and bring the real criminals to justice?

For the most part breezy and readable, The Maid is an interesting meditation on the nature of “normalcy” and morality. While I didn’t agree with the underlying vigilante spirit of the denouement, I was thrilled that this book champions the voices of the unheard and ignored. Molly is a delightful, unusual heroine whose good nature is too often abused, but who learns how to turn the tables on her abusers, using their assumptions of her guilelessness to her advantage. If this book helps the neurotypical understand and be kinder to the neurodivergent, then it will have done a wonderful thing indeed, ambiguous viewpoint on murder regardless.

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Book Review: She’s Not Sorry by Jeff Ayers

Book review: cheater by karen rose, cooking the books: a catered quilting bee by isis crawford, book review: how to solve your own murder by kristen perrin, doreen sheridan.

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شتمل نظام الصرف الصحي على الأجزاء الجانبية ،

يتم تنظيف الغرابيل ميكانيكيًا ، ويتم التخلص من المواد على الفور عن طريق الدفن في أرض النبات. يمكن استخدام أداة التفريغ لطحن وتمزيق الحطام الذي يمر عبر المصافي. تتم إزالة المواد المقطعة لاحقًا عن طريق عمليات الترسيب أو التعويم.

عندما تتطلب معايير المعالجة إزالة المغذيات النباتية من مياه الصرف الصحي ، فغالبًا ما يتم ذلك كخطوة ثالثة. يوجد الفوسفور في مياه الصرف عادة في شكل مركبات عضوية وفوسفات يمكن إزالتها بسهولة عن طريق الترسيب الكيميائي. ومع ذلك ، فإن هذه العملية تزيد من حجم ووزن الحمأة. يوجد النيتروجين ، و

2: تحمل التأمين الذي يحميك من المسؤولية؟ اطلب نسخة من شهادات التأمين الخاصة بإعادة الطراز للتأكد. اسأل أيضًا معيد التصميم عن المبلغ الذي سيضيفه المشروع إلى قيمة المنزل واحصل على تأمين إضافي من مزودك.

دين قروض الطلاب أمر شائع بشكل لا يصدق. في الواقع ، هناك 43.4 مليون أمريكي لديهم قروض طلابية اتحادية باسمهم ، تصل إلى إجمالي دين يبلغ 1.6 مليار دولار ، وفقًا لبيانات وزارة التعليم الأمريكية.

نائب لحسن الحظ ، تدرك العديد من الشركات مدى صعوبة سداد قروض الطلاب ، بل إنها ستساعد موظفيها في هذه العملية. إذا كنت تريد المساعدة في سداد ديون قرض الطالب الخاص بك ، فإليك 10 شركات ستساعد في سداد قروض الطلاب نيابة عنك.

خدمة القرض هي الشركة التي تقوم بتسديد مدفوعات قرضك لها. سيحتفظ مسؤول خدمة القرض الخاص بك بمعلومات حسابك ، مما يتيح لك عادةً إنشاء حساب عبر الإنترنت لهذا الغرض ، وتقديم بيانات منتظمة ومعلومات أخرى حول الوضع الحالي للقرض ، والتعامل مع جهود التحصيل إذا فشلت في الدفع على النحو المتفق عليه.

ما زلت أقود بعض المسامير حتى اليوم ، لكنني أستخدم المطرقة بشكل أساسي مع إزميل أو مجموعة مسمار. يمكن أن تكون المطرقة أيضًا أداة هدم أو لإجراء تعديلات تتطلب قوة أكبر مما يمكن أن توفره اليد العارية. اخترت نموذج مخلب منحني بمقبض فولاذي. الحجم يعتمد على المهمة ، ولكن 16 أوقية. مطرقة جيدة متعددة الأغراض.

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Review: The Maid by Nita Prose

Editorial note: I received a copy of The Maid in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own.

The Maid by Nita Prose is a charming murder mystery full of heart and depth.

So you don’t often see ‘heartwarming’ used to describe a murder mystery! However, the The Maid is such a unique take on the genre. There are elements of both Clue and Knives Out , with a little Agatha Christie mixed in. But the story really stands on its own. (BTW, this is one of my must-read book club books for 2022 selections so be sure to check out the full list if you haven’t seen it yet.)

The story is getting so much publicity from Good Morning America selecting it for their book club pick for January to news that actress Florence Pugh will star in the movie version (fantastic casting!). I’m here to say that the buzz is real—this book is fantastic! I was so absorbed with this novel and it truly took me on such a journey. It’s been a long time since I’ve read such an engaging and lively story. I already know this will be one of my favorites of the year. This one is well worth your time!

What’s the Story About

Our protagonist Molly Gray is a maid at a five-star hotel. She takes great pride in her work and ensures that each room she works on is left in a state of perfection. While it’s never explicitly said, it appears that Molly is on the autism spectrum and has difficulty understanding social cues while also misinterpreting the actions of others. Her beloved Gran would help interpret the world for her but she passed away several months ago and Molly is now on her own. So she becomes even more laser focus on doing a good job at work.

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Molly is vivid and lovely. She’s quite misunderstood and there are some heartbreaking scenes as a result. It’s quite sad because it’s based in reality—it’s something that we know does happen. While this is a fiction story, you hope that reading from Molly’s perspective does help one focus a bit more on empathy.

Molly isn’t able to interpret beyond what people say to her. She takes everything at face value and is quite trusting and as a result, she lacks the ability to sense when someone is lying or misleading her. But she does learn quite a bit on this journey, especially when the police decide she’s the main suspect.

But I will say Molly is very strong and you’ll root for her throughout this journey.

Her character arc and growth is very well done and makes sense within the context of this story. And no spoilers here, Molly will surprise you. All in all, I really loved the Molly character and the other side characters as well. Her relationship with her Gran was special and sweet. I found myself choked up at many of their scenes—again not something you expect in a murder mystery!

The Mystery

As you can see, there’s quite a bit of character development in this novel. But let’s not forget that The Maid is a murder mystery. And the mystery is interesting! You know there’s more that meets the eye with what we’re told but I have to say there are several twists I did not see coming. I love when that happens.

It reminded me bit of the cozy mystery genre. Those are lighter takes on murder mysteries—amateur sleuth without the heavy content or graphic scenes. I wouldn’t say this is as light as most cozy mysteries but it does fall under that arena. It never felt too intense and instead, featured plenty of warm and wit.

I really adored The Maid ! It was the right book to read at the right time. It’s creative, original, fun, sweet, and engaging—all in one package. Don’t miss out on this novel—be sure to add it to your TBR.

For book clubs, check out my discussion questions here .

The Maid Book Review

Author: Nita Prose
Genre: Mystery
Type: Novel
Publisher: HarperCollins

In “The Maid” by Nita Prose, readers are introduced to amateur sleuth Molly Gray, a maid working at the luxurious Regency Grand Hotel.

When Molly stumbles upon the body of a dead guest, Mr. Black, she becomes entangled in a web of mystery and deception at the hotel. As Molly delves deeper into the investigation , themes of visibility and truth come to the forefront, challenging her perception of the world around her.

“The Maid” by Nita Prose is a riveting mystery novel that kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. The character of Molly Gray is both endearing and relatable, making her journey through the secrets of the Regency Grand Hotel all the more captivating.

Prose’s storytelling is gripping, with unexpected twists and turns that kept me guessing until the very end. The exploration of social class distinctions and power dynamics added depth to the narrative, making it a thought-provoking read.

I highly recommend “The Maid” to anyone who enjoys a well-crafted mystery thriller with strong character development and a compelling storyline. Nita Prose’s skilful writing and engaging plot make this book a must-read for fans of the genre.

Pick up a copy of “The Maid” and prepare to be drawn into a world of secrets, intrigue, and unexpected revelations.

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Nita Prose is a bestselling author known for her debut novel, “THE MAID,” which has achieved international success with over 1 million copies sold worldwide and published in over forty countries.

The book has been a #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestseller and was selected for the Good Morning America Book Club . Prose’s writing has earned critical acclaim, winning the Ned Kelly Award for International Crime Fiction and being a finalist for the Edgar Award.

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The Best Fiction Books » Mystery » Best Mystery Books of 2023

By nita prose & narrated by lauren ambrose.

☆ Shortlisted for the 2023 Edgar Allan Poe Awards

The Maid by Nita Prose falls into the cosy mystery genre , though it has an edge to it that makes it extremely memorable. It’s set in a boutique hotel in New York and the narrator is the guileless and perfectionistic Molly, who cleans rooms there. The audiobook of The Maid is outstanding, chosen by AudioFile magazine as one of its best books of the year.

Recommendations from our site

“You really feel you are listening to someone whose whole life has to be in the details done the same every time and that if anything goes awry then you’re off kilter. It’s just brilliantly done. The Maid is also a very good mystery, with lots of red herrings, lots of misdirection. You’re really rooting for Molly to be exonerated.” Read more...

The Best Audiobooks of 2022

Robin Whitten , Journalist

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Book Review: The Maid by Nita Prose

February 12, 2022 · In: Book Review , Books

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?

VILE AND EVIL ARE COMPOSED OF THE SAME LETTERS. ONE BEGETS THE OTHER.

Need a tissue for your issue? Molly, the maid, is at your service.

The Maid is murder mystery debut from Nita Prose. It’s cozy, with an excellent carousel of characters. Giselle was especially entertaining, but certain individuals could have been fleshed out a bit more by Prose. While I didn’t find it to be one of those immersive whodunnits where the reader gets to really play detective alongside our protagonist in real-time, it was interesting to sit back and enjoy the ride that Prose takes us on through the elegant Regency Grand Hotel and its shifty suspects. The prologue is perhaps a bit of a red-herring. For me, it set The Maid up to be a thriller, whereas the main body of the text is much more of a ‘fluffy’ mystery. Instead of an all-seeing, all-knowing maid unravelling a mystery, Prose delivers us hijinks more suited to Clue .

Molly is a sweet protagonist and I say that will all my heart. I saw a lot of myself in Molly and really warmed to, sympathised with and rooted for her. The sections that focused on Molly’s relationship with her grandma brought many a tear to my eye. Yet, Prose’s characterisation of Molly did leave a sour taste in my mouth and ruined what would have been a semi-decent read.

The Maid asserts time and time again that Molly is unlike the rest of society. She does not react to people and circumstances like normal people do, she doesn’t understand their facial expressions and their emotions and she sticks to a very strict routine. Yet, Prose is very inconsistent in this. Prose leans very heavily on autistic stereotypes to build the character of Molly, but not once does anyone mention the words ‘autism’ or ‘neurodivergent’. For some strange reason, Prose dances around explicitly saying it which makes her reliance on the traits commonly associate with neurodivergence mucky territory. Instead, we watch other characters label Molly as ‘different’, ‘weird’ or even a ‘freak’. Yet, everyone fails to outright acknowledge that Molly is on the spectrum or at the very least evidently displaying autistic traits. None of the promotional material even references autism. The only discussion I could find was from other readers who had picked up on this.

The story makes it plainly clear that Molly is on the spectrum but the avoidance to acknowledge it ouright and instead let ridicule run made the whole thing feel a bit gimmicky. The disgusting taunts and jibes from Molly’s co-workers about her social differences is an experience I’m all too familiar with. It was hard to sit through as even Molly herself couldn’t seem to understand their cruelty because of the reluctance to label her as ‘autistic’. It was a glaring elephant in the room that left me feeling uneasy as if autistic traits were being exploited to create a ‘quirky’, socially awkward character for amusement. If the intention was represent neurodivergent women, it fell far too short.

Much like with Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine , which I’ve seen The Maid compared to a lot, the reluctance of authors (and perhaps their publishing houses) to actually identify or ‘diagnose’ characters with autism is really disheartening and suggests an unwillingness to take responsibility for their depiction. By not being explicit about whether or not Molly is autistic, Prose can make her act however she wants even if it goes against the autistic traits and stereotypes she’s heavily relying on to make Molly who she is. For example, Molly is unable to read emotions and tell if someone is happy or not but she’s also perfectly capable of analysing someone’s behaviour to a T and can easily act and deceive her way to an Oscar. I worry The Maid has utilised neurodivergence as a ~quirk~ and I can already see readers tittering away at whoopsie-daisy Miss Molly who is framed for murder because she’s different and doesn’t understand social nuances.

Paired with the clumsy characterisation of Juan Manuel, the undocumented kitchen employee, and how Prose neatly skips over the abuse sub-plot, any enjoyment I derived from The Maid vanishes. The whole thing gives me the ick. Something about harnessing the struggles and stereotypes of minorities on a surface level to move the plot along, but not really diving into said struggle in depths is quite harmful.

There’s no real mystery thriller element to The Maid . It’s a premise full of promise, but let down by poor execution. Is it heartwarming at times? Yeah. It is cozy, camp and has a certain charm to it but its all just a bit too farcical and, by the end, I couldn’t move past Prose’s awkward attempt to shoehorn in traits of autism and the abuse of undocumented workers only to discard it all once the ‘culprit’ was caught and end with ‘they all lived happily ever after’.

Florence Pugh is expected to star in an adaptation. With how much I adore Pugh, I only hope that the movie addresses Molly’s neurodivergence in a more sensitive manner than depicted in The Maid and doesn’t turn it into a gimmick for cheap laughs. As for the book, as sweet as it was at times, I certainly wouldn’t rush to read something by Prose again.

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The Maid: A Novel

By Nita Prose
Ballantine Books
Reviewed by Tara Laskowski
January 10, 2022

This cozy whodunit is a joy from the first page to the last.

The work that goes into an immaculate hotel room often goes unnoticed. One walks into the finished product and appreciates its elegant simplicity, everything crisp and delightful and new.

This is how I feel about The Maid , Nita Prose’s short-but-memorable debut crime novel. It’s such a pleasure to experience, readers won’t realize all the behind-the-scenes hard work that goes into crafting such a fun and surprising mystery.

Molly is a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel and loves her job. And when I say loves, I mean loves . There’s nothing, it seems, that she adores more than to return dirty rooms to “a state of perfection.”

“Every day of work is a joy to me,” she tells us early on. “I was born to do this job.” And indeed, her descriptions of the wonders of cleaning make me want to bust open the cabinet under the sink and start disinfecting everything:

“There’s nothing quite like a perfectly stocked maid’s trolley…The crisp little packages of delicately wrapped soaps that smell of orange blossom, the tiny Crabtree & Evelyn shampoo bottles, the squat tissue boxes…And last but not least, the cleaning kit, which includes a feather duster, lemon furniture polish, lightly scented antiseptic garbage bags, as well as an impressive array of spray bottles of solvents and disinfectants, all lined up and ready to combat any stain, be it coffee rings, vomit — or even blood.”

Unfortunately for Molly, her attention to detail when it comes to cleanliness doesn’t extend to understanding social cues or knowing how to navigate the complex waters of conversations or relationships. Molly the Maid is seen as a “weirdo” by her co-workers, who don’t appreciate or comprehend her boundless desire to do her best at her job. Her closest friend was her grandmother, who has recently died, leaving her alone in the apartment they once shared. And she is easily duped by conniving people.

When she enters the penthouse suite at the Regency Grand one afternoon to return it to perfection, she finds very much the opposite: The most prized hotel guest, Mr. Black, is collapsed dead in his bed, murdered. Sadly, because of a series of unfortunate events that I won’t detail here because they’re incredibly amusing to uncover as a reader, Molly finds herself the prime suspect in his killing and the center of a swirling scandal threatening not only the reputation of the hotel she adores but also her own livelihood.

Channeling the quirky cast of “Clue” and gentle, wry humor of Douglas Adams, The Maid hits all the right notes in these crazy times. With the world seemingly in more disarray every day, it’s refreshing to meet a character who just wants to make everything orderly again. Molly’s voice is distinguishing from the very first page: “Every day in every way” and “Need a tissue for your issue?” I loved her unique take on life and her plucky optimism.

The Maid is such an enjoyable read that I was sad when it ended. Author Prose does a superb job of building this small but complete world. Even the secondary characters are interesting and memorable, from the cranky landlord to the weary but prudent hotel manager. It’s obvious from the outset who the friends and foes are and which are the wolves in sheep’s clothing, but we go along for the ride because we want to watch Molly figure it out for herself.

The Maid is, to use one of Molly’s favorite words, a “delight” from beginning to end.

Tara Laskowski is the author of the suspense novels The Mother Next Door and One Night Gone , the latter of which won the Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards for best debut novel.

Support the Independent by purchasing this title via our affliate links: Amazon.com Or through Bookshop.org

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Murder mysteries have conditioned us to suspect the help: waiters, butlers, those whose very roles demand that they go unnoticed. THE MAID by debut novelist Nita Prose is a mystery centered on one such “invisible” character.

Molly Gray loves jigsaw puzzles, the Olive Garden, and her work as a maid at the Grand Regency Hotel. She enjoys being greeted by the crisp uniform hanging in her locker at the start of her day. She revels in arranging the soaps, shampoos and other miscellaneous items on her trolley. She commits her hotel manager’s speeches to memory and does her job accordingly as a proud bee in the Grand Regency hive. Molly is ceaselessly thorough, and her meticulous nature earns her an assortment of nicknames from the other staff. However, though she can’t always be sure, she is fairly certain that they’re laughing at her rather than with her.

"This is a debut novel with sheets that are spotless of errors and folded together just right. Upon finishing the book, anticipate checking dark corners for strangers and your pages for unseemly dog-ear creases."

At 25 years old, Molly is a bit unlike her peers. She has a hard time discerning social cues, intentions and expressions. Non-literal phrases sound to her like an entirely different language. She uses outdated patterns of speech and has an idiom on hand for every occasion. Luckily for Molly, she has always had her grandmother to explain social nuances to her and to help parse apart the events of her day.

However, upon her dear Gran’s passing, Molly is left grappling with loneliness in a world that doesn’t --- and doesn’t seem to want to --- understand her. Worse still, she finds herself at the center of a murder investigation when she happens upon an esteemed guest of the hotel dead in his bed. It is, all in all, a very unfavorable situation.

When she becomes the prime suspect in the murder, it falls on Molly to uncover the true perpetrator of the crime. In doing so, she must turn to the lessons she’s learned from her grandmother and the people she calls friends: an honorable doorman, a down-on-his-luck dishwasher, a mysterious bartender and a wealthy socialite. As with her beloved jigsaw puzzles, she must piece together the darker truth lying beneath the glimmering surface of the Grand Regency’s polished exterior.

This book is truly spectacular. Molly is a delightful character with an inspiring outlook on the world around her, even when the world reveals itself to be a somewhat dark and dirty place. Reading her ordinary thoughts is nearly as compelling as the mystery itself.

More importantly, with Molly as the narrator, THE MAID shines a spotlight on the “invisible” among us. Prose gives us a neurodivergent character with the strength to subvert not only antiquated “the butler did it” tropes attached to those in the murder mystery service industry, but also the stigma attached to neurodivergence itself as Molly surprises even those who do see her.

It’s hard not to love a murder mystery with a nice, tidy ending --- and THE MAID is nothing if not fastidious. This is a debut novel with sheets that are spotless of errors and folded together just right. Upon finishing the book, anticipate checking dark corners for strangers and your pages for unseemly dog-ear creases.

Reviewed by Kayla Provencher on January 7, 2022

The Maid by Nita Prose

Publication Date: January 3, 2023
Genres: Fiction , Mystery
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN-10: 0593356179
ISBN-13: 9780593356173

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Book Review

The Maid by Nita Prose

A Quirky, Heartwarming Whodunit That Restores Your Faith in Human Decency

Title: The Maid

Author: Nita Prose

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Genre: Mystery, Psychological Thriller

First Publication: 2022

Language: English

Book Summary: The Maid by Nita Prose

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: The Maid by Nita Prose

Sometimes, you pick up a book expecting a breezy palate cleanser—something light and undemanding to reset between heavier literary journeys. But then a certain novel comes along that utterly upends those modest expectations, simultaneously charming you senseless with its refreshing sunny spirit while quietly rebuilding your hope in human goodness one deftly penned page at a time. Nita Prose’s debut mystery The Maid is precisely that kind of disarmingly profound gift.

From the moment we’re whisked into the meticulously regimented universe of Molly the maid—an endearingly quirky soul who finds immense solace in the ritualized rigors of her housekeeping craft—something about Prose’s authorial voice just envelops you in warmth. There’s an unmistakable radiance of affection shining through her depictions of Molly’s hyper-focused mindset, as well as the delightfully skewed way her neurodivergent heroine interprets the oddities of human social rituals around her.

It doesn’t take long to realize that even as The Maid lays out the twisty particulars of a deliciously baroque murder mystery set in the opulent precincts of an old money hotel, the true pleasure here stems from immersing yourself in Molly’s singular perspective on the world. Whether she’s marveling over the intricacies of perfectly tucked bedsheets or attempting to game out the paradoxes of small talk through her uniquely literal lens, the book is essentially an anthropological immersion into extraordinarily grounded yet deeply charming psyche.

And because Prose instills her protagonist with such vividly conscientious yet bashfully vulnerable shadings, you can’t help but find yourself championing Molly’s heroic refusal to compromise her core ethics merely to keep the insufferable hotel guests placated. This isn’t some cut-and-dry case of a neurodivergent heroine being redeemed by an epiphany acquittal, but rather a radiantly open-hearted celebration of a person whose personality divergences are neither fetishized nor treated as tragic flaws in the slightest.

Indeed, as Molly’s indomitable decency and dedication to ferreting out the truth surrounding the murder steadily reveal themselves, Prose effortlessly instills this quirky whodunit with the resonant thematic underpinnings of a deft social satire. There are sly but surprisingly incisive insights here about class disparities, the trappings of West Coastal elitism, and ethical compromises—all channeled through Molly’s unshakably authentic moral compass.

Even when the narrative pivots towards darker terrains of betrayal, gaslighting, and exploitation, there’s never a sense of the author preaching or projecting her own outrage through the proximal lens of Molly’s unique perspective. Rather, Prose doubles down on the logistical realities of her heroine’s day-to-day with such lavish tact and sensitivity that the horrors we discover about the true killer sort of creep up on you gradually rather than slapping you in the face.

Which is precisely where The Maid derives its deceptively cunning power as both rollicking page-turner and subversively resonant character study. Just when you start to accept Molly as essentially a kind-hearted naive incapable of discerning the darker machinations of those around her, Prose gently illuminates the quiet depth charges of determination and resolve flickering just below the surface of this unique woman’s genteel facade. Suddenly, the grisly whodunit framing becomes secondary to the author’s understated insights on our collective craving for decency and integrity in an increasingly duplicitous world.

By book’s end, our irrepressible Molly has undeniably ascended to iconic status—a modern cozy mystery heroine whose penchant for upholding old-fashioned virtues like honesty, loyalty, and attention to detail proves infinitely more effective (and refreshing) than a raft of grizzled detectives barking laconic quips. And the fact that Prose accomplishes this heartwarming elevation without ever fawning or resorting to cheap pandering for sympathy is a testament to her deft, generous storytelling instincts.

Whether it’s her judicious grounding of Molly’s quirks as assets rather than punchlines or the obvious care she takes in shading the cast surrounding her protagonist as fully inhabited humans rather than caricatures, there’s an abiding affection for the strengths of everyday decency coursing through The Maid’s narrative veins. Of course, Prose also brings more than enough twisty plotting and genre savvy to keep the mystery aficionados hooked.

But I’d wager this novel’s true legacy will be providing a new archetype for how to imbue the well-trodden paths of crime fiction with genuine heart and insight into the quiet redemptions that emerge when an unpretentious soul simply commits themselves to doing what’s right against all odds. In essence, while most cozies beckon us to immerse ourselves in a gentle escapism from harsher realities, Prose’s singular standout invites us to lose ourselves in a fantasy of civility, decency, and unstoppable courage against the face of moral darkness. It’s basically a 300-page argument for the radical concept that kindness, humility, and an abiding respect for one’s values are the greatest weapons against the banality of avarice and indecency.

And in an age of rising cynicism and eroding faith in the virtues of simply “being good,” the resulting book is nothing short of a heartstopping tonic for the soul. Riotously funny, ingeniously constructed, and imbued with a spirit of bonafide righteousness too often missing from modern genre fiction, The Maid is the palate cleanser you didn’t realize you needed until it washed over you in an undeniable wave of hard-won catharsis and joy. Consider it warmly recommended for anyone hungering to restoke their hope in the simple dignities of human perseverance and fealty to honor. In Molly’s dexterous, gloved hands, virtue has never felt more like a defiant, long-overdue triumph.

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‘The Maid’ was a surprise hit. Its sequel lives up to the hype.

‘the mystery guest,’ the second installment in nita prose’s maid novels series, is both a delightful whodunit and a pointed social commentary.

Molly Gray, the heroine of “ The Mystery Guest ,” has inherited a trove of chipper maxims from her late grandmother, known as Gran, but the one she repeats most often is this gem about making hasty assumptions: “When you assume, you make an A-S-S out of U and ME.”

I thought of that wisdom after I read “The Mystery Guest” and, then, went back and read its predecessor, “ The Maid ,” the best-selling 2022 novel by Nita Prose in which Molly made her debut. (Florence Pugh is to produce and star in the screen adaptation .) As someone whose tastes in mysteries skew toward the hard-boiled, I initially passed on “The Maid” because I assumed that a story featuring a hotel maid as an amateur detective was going to be stuffed with heartwarming fluff. Heartwarming, yes; but the only fluff in the Maid Novels, as this series is now called, is the deluxe filler in the pillows of the five-star Regency Grand Hotel where Molly works.

Charming as the world of these mysteries can be, they’re also informed by tough truths about the routine humiliations of service employees like Molly and Gran. In their acute class-conscious commentary, Prose’s Maid Novels are worthy successors to Barbara Neely’s four award-winning Blanche White mysteries, featuring a middle-aged Black domestic worker rendered invisible to her mostly White employers, not only by her profession but by her race. Neely, who died in 2020 , was recognized as a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America that same year.

As Prose’s many fans already know, Molly is a sensitive young woman who processes the world differently. She’s hyper-attentive to details like, say, a tiny smudge on a TV remote. This single-minded focus makes Molly an excellent maid, but she’s not so sharp when it comes to reading people or catching the undertones of conversations. Amused by her diligence and demeanor, Molly’s meaner fellow employees at the Regency Grand mock her with names like “Roomba the Robot.”

The 10 best mystery novels of 2023

“The Mystery Guest,” however, finds Molly in a better position, professionally and personally, than she was a few years earlier. She’s been promoted to head maid and she’s happily living with Juan Manuel, the sweet kitchen worker who had fallen into the grip of a predatory co-worker in the earlier novel. Juan is visiting his family in Mexico, so he’s not on hand to help in this outing, which finds Molly confronting a real mess: the death of a famous mystery writer, J.D. Grimthorpe, who keeled over while he was signing books at a reception at the Regency Grand. Foul play is involved.

To make matters even more muddled, Molly spent a fair bit of time with Grimthorpe when she was a child, because Gran worked as a housemaid for him and his wife. In alternating flashback chapters, we learn that Gran was forced to take Molly along with her to the Grimthorpe mansion after bullying by Molly’s classmates — and even some of her teachers — became intolerable. The scene where Gran, with young Molly in tow, must bow and scrape before the censorious Mrs. Grimthorpe will resonate with anyone who’s ever had to bring their child into a less-than-welcoming workplace.

Although young Molly and Grimthorpe became unlikely friends, he fails to recognize her at that fatal reception at the Regency Grand, even when she steps in front of him to have her copy of his latest book signed. (“How was it possible that I remembered everything about him but he did not remember me?”) Because of their proximity to the victim and the murder weapon, Molly and her protégé — a nervous young woman named Lily Finch — become the prime suspects of the police investigation. Molly is also troubled by the strange behavior of her good friend Mr. Preston, the doorman at the Regency. As she digs deeper into the past to ferret out the truth about Grimthorpe and his murder, Molly also despairs of her own limitations. “I was afraid of myself, of my infinite capacity for understanding things too late.”

Throughout this novel and its predecessor, Prose vividly depicts working people stuck in tight places with no easy exits. As Gran told Molly when she was a little girl, her eyes filling with tears, “You deserve better, but I don’t know what else to do.” The fact that our narrator Molly, even as an adult, can’t quite give voice to the emotions she’s recalling or witnessing adds poignancy to these moments.

“The Mystery Guest” isn’t as intricately plotted as its superb predecessor, but Prose scatters enough revelations throughout this tale to keep tension on a moderate setting. Besides, the characters of Molly and her beloved Gran, women who are overlooked because of the kind of work they do, are the overwhelming draw of the Maid Novels. In this affecting and socially pointed mystery series, invisibility becomes the superpower of the pink-collared proletariat.

Maureen Corrigan, who is the book critic for the NPR program “Fresh Air,” teaches literature at Georgetown University.

The Mystery Guest

A Maid Novel

By Nita Prose

Ballantine. 304 pp. $29

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The Maid (Review, Chapter Summary & Spoilers)

By nita prose.

Book review, full book summary and synopsis for The Maid by Nita Prose, a heartwarming story wrapped up in a cozy locked-room-type mystery.

In The Maid , Molly Gray is maid who has difficulty in social situations, but who takes great pride in her work. She works at the upscale Regency Grand Hotel, taking pride in her neatly tucked bed corners and wiping every spot of dirt and dust from every surface.

Then, one day she finds the dead body of Mr. Black, a wealthy real estate tycoon, in one of the guest rooms, sending her life into disarray and revealing the messy, gritty activities going on beneath their noses that the hotel.

In this cozy murder mystery, Molly must find Mr. Black's killer or risk getting entangled in a dirty plot. And to do so, Molly must rely on those she trusts so they can clean up this mess.

(The Full Plot Summary is also available, below)

Full Plot Summary

The two-paragraph version of this: Molly Gray is a maid at a hotel who finds a the dead body of Mr. Black, a wealthy real estate tycoon, in a guest room. Meanwhile, Molly has been doing favors for Giselle, Mr. Black’s (second) wife, and the hotel’s head barman Rodney. When Molly is arrested for Mr. Black’s murder, Molly realizes she’s been framed.

She soon learns that Giselle and Rodney are lovers who were planning on running away together and that Rodney was working for Mr. Black by running a drug operation (which Molly unwittingly had assisted in) through the hotel. With help from others, Molly concocts a plan so that Rodney is caught red-handed with the drugs and is arrested for the murder (Giselle wasn’t involved, so Molly encourages her to run away). In the Epilogue, it’s revealed that Molly knew all along that the real killer was Mr. Black’s first wife, whose daughter Victoria had been trying to clean up his company.

Molly Gray , 25, is a maid at an upscale boutique hotel, the Regency Grand Hotel, where she’s worked for four years. Molly is socially awkward, has difficulty interpreting body language and social situations, and her Gran who raised her passed away 9 months ago. Charles Black , a real estate magnate, and his (second) wife Giselle Black are frequent guests of the hotel. Giselle is friendly and generous with Molly and has told Molly about her unhappy marriage.

On Monday , Molly finds the dead body of Mr. Black in his hotel suite. Giselle was upset earlier that day, and Charles’s company, Black Properties & Investments , has been in turmoil lately due to a tussle over ownership and control with his daughter, Victoria Black . Victoria’s mother is Charles’s first wife, and Victoria owns 49% of the shares of the company.

At the scene, Molly notices an open bottle of Giselle’s pills next to the body, money missing from the room’s safe, a flight itinerary for two one-way tickets to the Cayman Island in Giselle’s purse, and she had seen Mr. Black holding a deed of some sort earlier that day. The police question Molly, but Molly withholds a lot of information to prevent incriminating Giselle, who she considers a friend. Giselle has previously told Molly about Charles’s cheating and abusive behavior, but Molly keeps all of it to herself.

On Tuesday , Molly’s landlord Mr. Russo reminds her of her late rent payment. At work, the head bartender Rodney asks to meet up with Molly after her shift to talk about what she witnessed. Molly eagerly agrees since she’s infatuated with Rodney, and she views this as their second date.

Over a year-and-a-half ago, Molly had walked in to clean a room where she was stopped by two large men, and she saw Rodney and Juan Manuel (one of the kitchen dishwashers) in the room, too. Rodney had asked to talk with her afterwards, which Molly had interpreted to be a date. Over dinner, he’d asked her not to tell anyone else what she saw involving the men, a package and a duffle bag. Rodney claimed that he was helping Juan Manuel, an undocumented worker. He also asked for Molly’s help in getting keycards for empty rooms that Juan could use each night and to clean those rooms afterwards. Molly had agreed and had been giving Juan Manuel keycards each day since then.

In present day, Molly meets up with Rodney who asks her what she witnessed yesterday and how the police questioning had gone. She starts to get irritated and suspicious when he asks if the police said anything about him. However, she dismisses those thoughts when he asks to exchange phone numbers. Afterwards, Mr. Preston the doorman sees them together, and he warns Molly to be careful with Rodney.

Molly has only ever had one ex-boyfriend, Wilbur . Molly and her grandmother had saved up money so that Molly could attend college, and Molly had met Wilbur, a soon-to-be accounting student, at college orientation just before she was supposed to start her hospitality management program. They’d been dating until one day Wilbur went with her to deposit a check in her account and saw her key in her PIN number. He cleaned out her account, and she never heard from him again. Molly didn’t report it since she didn’t want her grandmother to know what had happened.

When Molly gets home, she finds Giselle waiting outside her apartment building. (Giselle is currently staying at another room in the hotel). Inside, Giselle fills Molly in on what’s been going on. She says that she and Charles had gotten in an argument yesterday when she asked to have a piece of property (a villa in the Cayman Islands) in her name because their prenup means she gets nothing. However, Giselle insists she didn’t kill Charles, and Molly believes her.

Giselle also asks Molly about what she saw and told the police. Hearing that Molly tried to be discreet, Giselle hugs Molly and gives her $200. Then, Giselle asks Molly for a favor. She says she left a gun in the bathroom fan in the crime scene suite and asks Molly to fetch it for her. Molly agrees to get it.

On Wednesday , the police are done inspecting the Black suite, and Molly is assigned to clean it up. Rodney suggests that Juan Manuel should stay there for a while once it’s clean since the hotel is unlikely to be renting it out for a while anyway. He gives Molly a duffle bag to put in there. That morning, Molly cleans up the suite, places the duffle bag there and fetches Giselle’s gun from the bathroom. Molly puts the gun in her extra vacuum filter to hide it.

Molly also finds Mr. Black’s wedding band in the room. Molly decides to pawn it at a pawn shop over lunch. When she returns back to the hotel, the police are there looking to question Molly again. They confront her about not having been forthcoming about what she knows about Giselle and Charles.

That night, Molly uses the money from the pawnshop to pay the remainder of her late rent. Afterwards, she’s feeling upset, and she calls Rodney. She confides in him about Giselle’s gun and about pawning Mr. Black’s wedding band.

On Thursday morning, Molly is arrested for Mr. Black’s murder and the police know everything that Molly had told Rodney. By now, it’s been established that Mr. Black died of asphyxiation. Molly calls Mr. Preston for help. His daughter, Charlotte, is a lawyer. Charlotte offers to represent Molly and helps to put up the bail so Molly can be released.

They review the details of what happened, and they talk to Juan Manuel as well. It turns out that Mr. Black had been running a drug operation through the hotel and that Rodney was working for him. The duffle bags that Rodney had asked Molly to place in the empty rooms that Juan Manuel was in every night were filled with cocaine. Rodney had also been forcing Juan Manuel to work for them. (Rodney had introduced Juan Manuel to a layer to get his work permit extended, but the lawyer had taken Juan Manuel’s money and left him with an expired permit. Rodney had then threatened Juan Manuel and his family unless he cooperated.) It also turns out that Rodney and Giselle were lovers, and Giselle had wanted them to run away to the Cayman Islands to start a new life.

In present day, the group discusses and comes up with a plan to help Molly. That night, they trick Rodney into going up into the Black suite to fetch a duffle bag of cocaine. When he does, the police apprehend him red-handed and he’s arrested for the murder of Mr. Black. Molly is cleared of all charges. (Giselle would have been arrested, too, except that Molly called her and Giselle swore that she knew about the drugs, but had nothing to do with the murder or framing Molly. Molly decides to tell Giselle to get her passport and run away.)

That night, Molly thinks about her Gran’s death and how her Gran (in her final days of dying of pancreatic cancer) had asked Molly to smother her with a pillow to stop the pain. Molly had done it.

On Friday , Molly’s boss Mr. Snow offers her and Juan Manuel their jobs back.

Several Months Later , Molly and Juan Manuel are now dating, and Molly has recently been promoted to Head Maid. Juan Manuel has recently moved in with Molly, and she is slowly rebuilding her savings so she can attend a hospitality management program while she works. Today, Molly receives a $10,000 deposit into her account from “Sandy Cayman”, who she realizes must be Giselle and that Giselle is now in the Cayman Islands by herself.

Molly also thinks back to the testimony she gave yesterday when Rodney was convicted of murder. She had told the court about how when she found the body, she’d fainted because she’d seen a shadowy figure holding a pillow. She says that she didn’t say anything before since she wasn’t entirely sure what she’d seen.

In the Epilogue , Molly explains that she really did see a shadowy figure. She fainted because the image of them holding a pillow reminded her of herself when she smothered her Gran (at Gran’s request). However, at court it was implied that it could’ve been Rodney. Instead, Molly knows exactly who it was — the killer was the first Mrs. Black (Charles’s first wife and the mother of Victoria Black).

Mrs. Black had helped Molly up after she fainted and explained that she’d gone there to talk to Mr. Black, but he had gotten physical with her. She told Molly about how her daughter Victoria had been trying to clean up the company, but Mr. Black had resisted. She suggested that Molly help her to “turn the tables” on bad men like Mr. Black by not telling anyone about her (Mrs. Black) being there. Molly had agreed.

For more detail, see the full Chapter-by-Chapter Summary .

If this summary was useful to you, please consider supporting this site by leaving a tip ( $2 , $3 , or $5 ) or joining the Patreon !

Book Review

The Maid by Nita Prose first caught my eye a few months ago because an author I follow on twitter had read an early copy of it and recommended it. I was immediately drawn to it’s colorful book trailer (see the video embedded above) and the premise of a cozy murder mystery set in a posh hotel.

The book has already been well-received, having been selected as a book club pick by the GMA Book Club. It’s also been optioned for a possible movie adaptation with Florence Pugh having signed on for the lead role.

While this is Prose’s debut novel, Prose is the vice president and editorial director at Simon & Schuster Canada. So, it should come as no surprise that the book feels highly polished and that that pacing of it is feels precisely right for the story that it’s telling.

The story opens with the discovery of a dead body in a hotel suite by Molly Gray, a maid who works at an upscale boutique hotel. Molly is trusting and good-hearted, with great passion for her work. She’s also someone who appears to be neuroatypical, and she has trouble reading things like body language, facial expressions and social cues. Her personality lends the book a lot of its charm.

In general, I felt like The Maid was well-paced and generally a solid novel. The message of the book is a well-meaning one — about being kind and accepting for people who are different from you. It’s the type of book that has plenty of mass appeal that most people can enjoy.

Some Criticisms

So, I feel like these criticisms are a little nit-picky, but I’ll point them out anyway, just because I think it’s helpful for potential readers to know what things they might not like about the book so they can judge for themselves if this is a good pick for them.

First off, I should mention that this was marketed as a closed-room mystery, though I’d say it’s questionable whether this would be considered a closed-room mystery. In terms of the plot, it’s fairly straight-forward and large parts of it guessable. Of course, it’s still a perfectly serviceable mystery that basically makes sense and doesn’t have huge logical flaws, so I feel like it’s still above average as far as mystery novel plots go.

A bigger issue that I noticed it that the characterization of Molly Gray, our protagonist, seemed a little inconsistent. In the first half of the book, Molly seems to act like a little bit of a simpleton, just blindly doing whatever anyone tells her to and seemingly incapable of exercising basic sense. To be honest, I found the first half of the book a little frustrating in this regard — I kept wanting to reach into the book’s pages and shake some sense into her. In the second half, she suddenly becomes much more mentally aware for no particular reason and displays much more cunning and individual thought. I found the shift to be a little jarring.

Of course, this is all fairly easy to overlook. Overall, Molly makes for a generally likeable and easy-to-root-for protagonist, and I imagine most readers will appreciate her guilelessness personality.

Finally, I’ll just mention that the resolution is possibly just a little bit too impossibly optimistic — but since this is a cozy mystery I feel like that’s to be expected. So whatever.

Read it or Skip it?

The Maid is a warm-hearted and very “cozy” book, and I think most people who like these types of novels will really enjoy it. It’s a well-meaning novel that’s free of cynicism, with a naïve but well-meaning protagonist and an uncomplicated mystery at its center.

The weather where I live has been dreary and chilly, and I’ve been getting over a cold, so for me this novel was precisely the comfy escape that I was looking for. It was fast read with a cute cast of characters. While I do wish Molly would’ve been characterized more consistently and that ending was a little too “neat” for my tastes (with everything wrapped up in a perfect bow), overall, I enjoyed this guileless and warm-hearted cozy mystery.

P.S. If you liked this book, you should also check out The Thursday Murder Club , which is a cozy mystery that I thought was excellent.

P.P.S. For more books with neuro-atypical protagonists, also check out Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and The Rosie Project .

See The Maid on Amazon.

The Maid Audiobook

Narrated by : Lauren Ambrose Length : 9 hours 37 minutes

Hear a sample of The Maid audiobook on Libro.fm.

The Maid, Explained!

SPOILERS BEGIN HERE . You’ve been warned!

Where can I find a full plot summary of The Maid?

Right here! You can find a quick recap and a lengthier version of the summary over here.

Where/what location is The Maid set?

The Maid is set in a fictional hotel called the Regency Grand Hotel. It’s not specified what city it takes place in.

Is the protagonist of The Maid, Molly Gray, autistic?

It’s not specified exactly that she is autistic, but there many indication (her needing help with social cues and reading expressions and body language, etc.) that she is neuro-atypical.

How does The Maid end? What’s the ending of The Maid?

In the end, Mr. Preston, Charlotte and Juan Manuel help Molly come up with a plan to ensure that Rodney is caught red-handed with the duffle bag full of cocaine that he asked Molly to place in Suite 403. As a result, Rodney was arrested, and Molly’s name was cleared. Later, Molly and Juan Manuel testified about what Rodney had done and Rodney was convicted of the crime.

In the Epilogue, we find out that the real killer was Mrs. Black and that Molly knew that all along since she’d seen her when she found the body.

Is Mr. Preston Molly’s grandfather?

This is left somewhat ambiguous, but the novel seems to hint that Mr. Preston is Molly’s grandfather. Mr. Preston explains that he and Flora (Molly’s Gran) had dated, but weren’t permitted to marry. Soon after, Flora had become pregnant. Mr. Preston offers up little details about the man who impregnated Flora except to say that the man has a family he loves very much. This seems to hint that Mr. Preston was that man, and in the book his daughter Charlotte looks at him funny when he says all this, which seems to imply that she picked up on it as well.

Book Excerpt

Read the first pages of The Maid

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Bookshelf -- A literary set collection game

In 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.

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.

Yours Truly

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Did Rodney get convicted of murder?

I think that Molly murdered Mr Black to help Giselle, because Mrs Black couldn’t kill him without anyone see her coming and leaving the hotel. Molly told us, readers, who the person reflected in the mirror looked like her and acted as Giselle. Giselle send $ 10.000,00 to Molly! Both acted collusion. Remember, Molly killed her grandmother asphyxiated.

This honestly makes more sense. I wasn’t happy with the ending.

It’s a cute mystery book… there are several moral issues to think about: Molly did a “mercy” killing of her grandmother. What a burden her grandmother out in Molly, who is a bit simple in the first half and suddenly cunning in the second half. She lets a msn get convicted for a murder she knew he did not commit! Granted her is a bad guy, but… She takes money from Mr Black’s second wife that came from drug sales and she did not turn in the first wife, whom she knows is the murderer! So the theme of friendship and love are only part of the story. Revenge is certainly one of the other themes.

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The Maid: A Novel (Molly the Maid Book 1)

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The Maid: A Novel (Molly the Maid Book 1) Kindle Edition

Book 1 of 3 Molly the Maid
Print length 385 pages
Language English
Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
Publisher Ballantine Books
Publication date January 4, 2022
File size 10659 KB
Page Flip Enabled
Word Wise Enabled
Enhanced typesetting Enabled
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By Nita Prose
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Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

From the Publisher

A dead body is one mess she can’t clean up on her own;the maid;thriller;book club book;mystery;debut

Editorial Reviews

I am well aware that my name is ridiculous. It was not ridiculous before I took this job four years ago. I’m a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel, and my name is Molly. Molly Maid. A joke. Before I took the job, Molly was just a name, given to me by my estranged mother, who left me so long ago that I have no memory of her, just a few photos and the stories Gran has told me. Gran said my mother thought Molly was a cute name for a girl, that it conjured apple cheeks and pigtails, neither of which I have, as it turns out. I’ve got simple, dark hair that I maintain in a sharp, neat bob. I part my hair in the middle—the exact middle. I comb it flat and straight. I like things simple and neat.

I have pointed cheekbones and pale skin that people sometimes marvel at, and I don’t know why. I’m as white as the sheets that I take off and put on, take off and put on, all day long in the twenty-plus rooms that I make up for the esteemed guests at the Regency Grand, a five-star boutique hotel that prides itself on “sophisticated elegance and proper decorum for the modern age.”

Never in my life did I think I’d hold such a lofty position in a grand hotel. I know others think differently, that a maid is a lowly nobody. I know we’re all supposed to aspire to become doctors and lawyers and rich real-estate tycoons. But not me. I’m so thankful for my job that I pinch myself every day. I really do. Especially now, without Gran. Without her, home isn’t home. It’s as though all the color has been drained from the apartment we shared. But the moment I enter the Regency Grand, the world turns Technicolor bright.

As I place a hand on the shining brass railing and walk up the scarlet steps that lead to the hotel’s majestic portico, I’m Dorothy entering Oz. I push through the gleaming revolving doors and I see my true self reflected in the glass—my dark hair and pale complexion are omnipresent, but a blush returns to my cheeks, my raison d’être restored once more.

Once I’m through the doors, I often pause to take in the grandeur of the lobby. It never tarnishes. It never grows drab or dusty. It never dulls or fades. It is blessedly the same each and every day. There’s the reception and concierge to the left, with its midnight-obsidian counter and smart-looking receptionists in black and white, like penguins. And there’s the ample lobby itself, laid out in a horseshoe, with its fine Italian marble floors that radiate pristine white, drawing the eye up, up to the second-floor terrace. There are the ornate Art Deco features of the terrace and the grand staircase that brings you there, balustrades glowing and opulent, serpents twisting up to golden knobs held static in brass jaws. Guests will often stand at the rails, hands resting on a glowing post, as they survey the glorious scene below—porters marching crisscross, dragging suitcases behind them, guests lounging in sumptuous armchairs or couples tucked into emerald loveseats, their secrets absorbed into the deep, plush velvet.

But perhaps my favorite part of the lobby is the olfactory sensation, that first redolent breath as I take in the scent of the hotel itself at the start of every shift—the mélange of ladies’ fine perfumes, the dark musk of the leather armchairs, the tangy zing of lemon polish that’s used twice daily on the gleaming marble floors. It is the very scent of animus. It is the fragrance of life itself.

Every day, when I arrive to work at the Regency Grand, I feel alive again, part of the fabric of things, the splendor and the color. I am part of the design, a bright, unique square, integral to the tapestry.

Gran used to say, “If you love your job, you’ll never work a day in your life.” And she’s right. Every day of work is a joy to me. I was born to do this job. I love cleaning, I love my maid’s trolley, and I love my uniform.

There’s nothing quite like a perfectly stocked maid’s trolley early in the morning. It is, in my humble opinion, a cornucopia of bounty and beauty. The crisp little packages of delicately wrapped soaps that smell of orange blossom, the tiny Crabtree & Evelyn shampoo bottles, the squat tissue boxes, the toilet-paper rolls wrapped in hygienic film, the bleached white towels in three sizes—bath, hand, and washcloth—and the stacks of doilies for the tea-and-coffee service tray. And last but not least, the cleaning kit, which includes a feather duster, lemon furniture polish, lightly scented antiseptic garbage bags, as well as an impressive array of spray bottles of solvents and disinfectants, all lined up and ready to combat any stain, be it coffee rings, vomit—or even blood. A well-stocked housekeeping trolley is a portable sanitation miracle; it is a clean machine on wheels. And as I said, it is beautiful.

And my uniform. If I had to choose between my uniform and my trolley, I don’t think I could. My uniform is my freedom. It is the ultimate invisibility cloak. At the Regency Grand, it’s dry cleaned daily in the hotel laundry, which is located in the dank bowels of the hotel down the hall from our housekeeping change rooms. Every day before I arrive at work, my uniform is hooked on my locker door. It comes wrapped in clingy plastic, with a little Post-it note that has my name scrawled on it in black marker. What a joy it is to see it there in the morning, my second skin—clean, disinfected, newly pressed, smelling like a mixture of fresh paper, an indoor pool, and nothingness. A new beginning. It’s as though the day before and the many days before that have all been erased.

When I don my maid uniform—not the frumpy Downton Abbey style or even the Playboy-bunny cliché, but the blinding-white starched dress shirt and the slim-fit black pencil skirt (made from stretchy fabric for easy bending)—I am whole. Once I’m dressed for my workday, I feel more confident, like I know just what to say and do—at least, most of the time. And once I take off my uniform at the end of the day, I feel naked, unprotected, undone.

The truth is, I often have trouble with social situations; it’s as though everyone is playing an elaborate game with complex rules they all know, but I’m always playing for the first time. I make etiquette mistakes with alarming regularity, offend when I mean to compliment, misread body language, say the wrong thing at the wrong time. It’s only because of my gran that I know a smile doesn’t necessarily mean someone is happy. Sometimes, people smile when they’re laughing at you. Or they’ll thank you when they really want to slap you across the face. Gran used to say my reading of behaviors was improving— every day in every way, my dear —but now, without her, I struggle. Before, when I rushed home after work, I’d throw open the door to our apartment and ask her questions I’d saved up over the day. “I’m home! Gran, does ketchup really work on brass, or should I stick to salt and vinegar? Is it true that some people drink tea with cream? Gran, why did they call me Rumba at work today?”

But now, when the door to home opens, there’s no “Oh, Molly dear, I can explain” or “Let me make you a proper cuppa and I’ll answer all of that.” Now our cozy two-bedroom feels hollow and lifeless and empty, like a cave. Or a coffin. Or a grave.

I think it’s because I have difficulty interpreting expressions that I’m the last person anyone invites to a party, even though I really like parties. Apparently, I make awkward conversation, and if you believe the whispers, I have no friends my age. To be fair, this is one hundred percent accurate. I have no friends my age, few friends of any age, for that matter.

But at work, when I’m wearing my uniform, I blend in. I become part of the hotel’s décor, like the black-and-white-striped wallpaper that adorns many a hallway and room. In my uniform, as long as I keep my mouth shut, I can be anyone. You could see me in a police lineup and fail to pick me out even though you walked by me ten times in one day.

Recently, I turned twenty-five, “a quarter of a century” my gran would proclaim to me now if she could say anything to me. Which she can’t, because she is dead.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B091Y4KGFH
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine Books (January 4, 2022)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 4, 2022
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 10659 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 385 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0735246343
#20 in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Literary Fiction
#30 in Cozy Mystery
#66 in Cozy Mysteries (Books)

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The Maid-Funny, Lighthearted murder mystery! You'll LOVE It!

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About the author

Nita Prose is the author of THE MYSTERY GUEST and THE MAID, which has sold more than 1 million copies worldwide and was published in over forty countries. A #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestseller and a GOOD MORNING AMERICA Book Club Pick, THE MAID won the Ned Kelly Award for International Crime Fiction, the Fingerprint Award for Debut Novel of the Year, the Anthony Award for Best First Novel, and the Barry Award for Best First Mystery. THE MAID was also an Edgar Award finalist for Best Novel. Nita lives in Toronto, Canada, in a house that is moderately clean.

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April 23, 2024

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Over 1 million copies sold worldwide # 1 New York Times bestseller Sunday Times bestseller, UK Good Morning America Book Club Pick

“I am your maid. I know so much about you. But when it comes down to it: what is it that you know about me?”

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and often misreads people’s intentions. But no matter—she still she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid at the five-star Regency Grand Hotel. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning and returning guest rooms to a state of perfection.

But Molly’s orderly life is upended when she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find Mr. Black dead— very dead—in his bed. Perplexed by Molly’s unusual behavior, the police immediately suspect her of murder. She’s soon caught in a web of deception with no idea how to untangle herself.

Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had join her in a search for clues about what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?

“The reader comes to understand Molly’s worldview, and to sympathize with her longing to be accepted—a quest that gives The Maid real emotional heft.” — The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

“Think Clue . Think page-turner.” — Glamour

“What begins as a sprightly murder mystery turns into a meaningful, and at times even delicate, portrait of growth.” — NPR

Book Review: The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose

Apr 16, 2024 | Book Reviews , crime fiction , mystery | 5 comments

I bought this book because I adored the first in the “Maid” series by Nita Prose so much. The Mystery Guest begins a few years after The Maid ended; and if you loved reading about Molly’s adventures then, you’ll appreciate her character development even more in this latest bestseller. This book is an added delight to readers because it features the murder of a mystery writer, with good-natured pokes of fun at the rabid mystery fans that devour his books. These books continue to be incredible bestsellers for this editor-turned author, and the detailed plotting combined with a memorable protagonist and detective are a winning formula.

Plot Summary

Molly is still living in her deceased grandmother’s apartment, but she is joined there by her boyfriend Juan Manuel, and they live a quiet and happy existence together. They both work at the Regency Grand Hotel where Molly is now Head Maid, a title she wears proudly, and takes incredibly seriously. She still struggles to understand emotional and cultural cues, but she’s getting better at reading faces and showing more sensitivity, which Juan is helping her with. Everyone in the hotel is excited for the special event with bestselling and world-famous author J.D. Grimthorpe, who has chosen the Regency to make a rare appearance. Mere moments before he is about to reveal his big update, he drops dead from poisoning. Molly and the other maids are once again prime suspects for his murder as the same detective who investigated the other murder at the Regency from the previous book is on the case. As Molly tries to clear her name, the novel switches back and forth from present day to Molly’s past, revealing her family’s connection to the now dead author/millionaire with secrets. Through these flashbacks, we also learn more about Molly’s estranged mother, and the reason she becomes a maid like her grandmother.

My Thoughts

Molly is just strange enough to endear her to readers, but keeps enough hidden to remain interesting, and somewhat mysterious herself. Grimthorpe’s appearance excites Molly because it prompted the staff to resurrect a previously-closed down room of the hotel to host this special event, and she loves nothing more than the Regency Grand shining for the public. But we quickly learn through her internal thoughts that Molly has a history with this man, one he doesn’t remember, but she certainly does. Even though the book is written from her first-person perspective, she doesn’t reveal all right away, keeping the suspense of her own life going while at the same time becoming privy to insider information that helps her solve the crime of Grimthorpe’s death.

Molly’s biting observational humour has also returned from the first book, one of my favourite instances being her description of the slightly unhinged group of fans that follow Grimthorpe around:

‘”We’re not just a fan club. We are aficionados of mystery,’ a different, rather buxom-gray-haired woman says as she points to the #1 FAN button fastened to her lumpy brown sweater. The sweater is either made entirely of cat hair or so covered in it that the material underneath is largely invisible.” -p 63 of The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose

Is the above a description of the future me? Very likely! But for now, I only resemble this woman because of my constantly-covered-in-cat-hair clothes, and a desire to read mystery books all the time. I suspect many mystery lovers will laugh out loud when reading this part, as we can recognize a bit of ourselves in all the different fans of Grimthorpe that make up this colourful cast of characters.

The pacing of the plot is perfect; I never once felt annoyed that we were jumping back and forth through time, and the eventual reveal was reasonable, and believable. I wouldn’t say it was technically ‘fair play’, as I don’t think it was possible to come up with the solution without Molly’s prior knowledge of the hotel and all its ins and outs. However small hints and clues were dropped throughout, so perhaps the die-hard mystery fans out there would have figured it out. Prose has once again dazzled us with a fun and intelligent work of suspense, and I can’t wait to read the third!

Spread the Word!

I’ll be reading this one very soon, so I’m glad you enjoyed it so much! I haven’t actually read the earlier book – do you think this one stands alone?

Yup you’ll be fine to start with this one. But the first is so fun too!

That’s good to know – thanks! I was sent this one for review – pity they didn’t send me the first one! Looks like I’ll be reading them backwards… 😉

I figure I’ll catch this one at the library when the holds list dies down. I liked the first one well enough. Glad this one satisfied you!

Anne, reading this post made me wonder if you’re one of the bloggers who has been following the Thursday Murder Club books. The only other mystery series I started recently and enjoyed is by Lynne Murray. I did enjoy your Golden Spoon recommendation!

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Arts ,
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'The Maid' a Carlsbad Reads Together Adventure featuring New York Times bestselling author Nita Prose

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.

Does that riveting excerpt already have you on the edge of your seat? Then come meet New York Times bestselling author Nita Prose , the 2024 Carlsbad City Library Reads Together featured author, as she discusses her bestselling murder mystery novel, "The Maid," in conversation with ABTB founder Susan McBeth .

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.

Registration for this event is not required, as it is free and open to the public. However, make sure to visit the Carlsbad City Library website for instructions to obtain your free, first-come, first-served ticket (required) for the event. Copies of "The Maid" and Nita’s new book, "The Mystery Guest," are available for pre-sale to be delivered to the event for signing. Books will be also be available for purchase and signing at the event.

Visit: adventuresbythebook.com/event/nita-prose-4-18-24/

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COMMENTS

Book review: In Nita Prose's 'The Maid' a cleaning lady is a murder
The Maid by Nita Prose. Ballantine Books. Devotees of cozy mysteries, rejoice: Nita Prose's debut, The Maid, satisfies on every level — from place to plot to protagonist. In a fancy urban hotel ...
The Maid (Molly the Maid, #1) by Nita Prose
The Maid by Nita Prose is a 2022 Ballantine Books publication. Young Molly Gray, a naïve and socially awkward maid at the Regency Grand Hotel, is trying to cope with the death of her beloved Gran, who raised her. ... Harper Fiction, via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Maid by Nita Prose for review. All opinions expressed in this ...
New Best Sellers Run the Gamut From Escapist to Galvanizing
CLEAN SLATE "I love books the way Lennie in 'Of Mice and Men' loved his pet mouse," writes Nita Prose on her website. "For this reason, I don't advise you ever to lend me your prized ...
THE MAID
27. Our Verdict. GET IT. Kirkus Reviews'. Best Books Of 2022. New York Times Bestseller. IndieBound Bestseller. The shocking murder of a public figure at a high-end hotel has everyone guessing who the culprit might be. Twenty-five-year-old Molly Gray, an eccentric young woman who's obsessed with cleaning but doesn't quite have the same ability ...
The Maid, Book Review: Nita Prose' emotionally astute debut
The Maid, Book Review. Nita Prose' debut novel is one of the most highly anticipated 2022 new releases.Book rights for The Maid have already been sold in 29 territories and the film rights snapped up by Universal pre-release; Florence Pugh set to play the title character. And yes, I am very pleased to report that this title certainly lives up to the hype.
Book review: The Maid
Molly Gray, the narrator of Nita Prose's startlingly good debut novel, is a young woman who knows her place—and who rather likes it. For "approximately four years, thirteen weeks, and five days" she's been working as a maid in the five-star Regency Grand hotel where she takes both pride and genuine pleasure in returning the guests' rooms "to a state of perfection".
Book Review: The Maid by Nita Prose
January 5, 2022. In Nita Prose's The Maid, Molly Gray, a hotel maid quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception when she is targeted as a suspect of the murder of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black. This locked-room mystery reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.
Review: The Maid by Nita Prose
All opinions are my own. The Maid by Nita Prose is a charming murder mystery full of heart and depth. Join the Book Club Chat Newsletter. So you don't often see 'heartwarming' used to describe a murder mystery! However, the The Maid is such a unique take on the genre. There are elements of both Clue and Knives Out, with a little Agatha ...
The Maid Book Review
The Review. "The Maid" by Nita Prose is a riveting mystery novel that kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. The character of Molly Gray is both endearing and relatable, making her journey through the secrets of the Regency Grand Hotel all the more captivating. Prose's storytelling is gripping, with unexpected twists and ...
The Maid by Nita Prose
The Maid by Nita Prose falls into the cosy mystery genre, though it has an edge to it that makes it extremely memorable. It's set in a boutique hotel in New York and the narrator is the guileless and perfectionistic Molly, who cleans rooms there. The audiobook of The Maid is outstanding, chosen by AudioFile magazine as one of its best books ...
Book Review: The Maid by Nita Prose
The prologue is perhaps a bit of a red-herring. For me, it set The Maid up to be a thriller, whereas the main body of the text is much more of a 'fluffy' mystery. Instead of an all-seeing, all-knowing maid unravelling a mystery, Prose delivers us hijinks more suited to Clue. Molly is a sweet protagonist and I say that will all my heart.
The Maid: A Novel
This is how I feel about The Maid, Nita Prose's short-but-memorable debut crime novel. It's such a pleasure to experience, readers won't realize all the behind-the-scenes hard work that goes into crafting such a fun and surprising mystery. Molly is a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel and loves her job. And when I say loves, I mean loves.
The Maid
The Maid. Murder mysteries have conditioned us to suspect the help: waiters, butlers, those whose very roles demand that they go unnoticed. THE MAID by debut novelist Nita Prose is a mystery centered on one such "invisible" character. Molly Gray loves jigsaw puzzles, the Olive Garden, and her work as a maid at the Grand Regency Hotel.
The Maid by Nita Prose
Book Review: The Maid by Nita Prose. Sometimes, you pick up a book expecting a breezy palate cleanser—something light and undemanding to reset between heavier literary journeys. But then a certain novel comes along that utterly upends those modest expectations, simultaneously charming you senseless with its refreshing sunny spirit while ...
Book Marks reviews of The Maid by Nita Prose Book Marks
This book is truly spectacular. Molly is a delightful character with an inspiring outlook on the world around her, even when the world reveals itself to be a somewhat dark and dirty place. Reading her ordinary thoughts is nearly as compelling as the mystery itself. More importantly, with Molly as the narrator, The Maid shines a spotlight on the ...
Book review: The Mystery Guest, the sequel The Maid, by Nita Prose
I thought of that wisdom after I read "The Mystery Guest" and, then, went back and read its predecessor, "The Maid," the best-selling 2022 novel by Nita Prose in which Molly made her debut ...
Book Review: The Maid by Nita Prose
It slows down the plot, but also creates a more fair-play atmosphere for those who want to figure out the killer themselves, because one is relying on clues other than a 'hunch' or 'gut feeling'. Author Nita Prose. There's a constant push and pull between doing the good thing vs. doing the fun or easier thing.
Summary, Spoilers + Review: The Maid by Nita Prose
Book review, full book summary and synopsis for The Maid by Nita Prose, a heartwarming story wrapped up in a cozy locked-room-type mystery. Synopsis In The Maid , Molly Gray is maid who has difficulty in social situations, but who takes great pride in her work.
The Maid by Nita Prose: 9780593356173
About The Maid #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • "A heartwarming mystery with a lovable oddball at its center" (Real Simple), this cozy whodunit introduces a one-of-a-kind heroine who will steal your heart. FINALIST FOR THE EDGAR® AWARD • "The reader comes to understand Molly's worldview, and to sympathize with her longing to be accepted—a ...
The Maid: A Novel (Molly the Maid Book 1)
The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) "Think Clue. Think page-turner."— ... When my sister chose Nita Prose's The Maid to read for our book club, I thought it was Maid, the novel that became a gritty TV series. Naturally, I was relieved to find out that it wasn't that book. But once I started turning the pages of Prose's ...
The Maid by Nita Prose
Review of the massive Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, THE MAID by Nita Prose. Have you read it? Say hi in the comments!Buy the book: https://amzn...
All Book Marks reviews for The Maid by Nita Prose Book Marks
The Maid is such an enjoyable read that I was sad when it ended. Author Prose does a superb job of building this small but complete world. Even the secondary characters are interesting and memorable, from the cranky landlord to the weary but prudent hotel manager.
The Maid
She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning and returning guest rooms to a state of perfection. But Molly's orderly life is upended when she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find Mr. Black dead— very dead—in his bed. Perplexed by Molly's unusual behavior, the police immediately suspect her ...
Book Review: The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose
I bought this book because I adored the first in the "Maid" series by Nita Prose so much. The Mystery Guest begins a few years after The Maid ended; and if you loved reading about Molly's adventures then, you'll appreciate her character development even more in this latest bestseller. This book is an added delight to readers because it features the murder of a mystery writer, with good ...
'The Maid' a Carlsbad Reads Together Adventure featuring New York Times
Then come meet New York Times bestselling author Nita Prose, the 2024 Carlsbad City Library Reads Together featured author, as she discusses her bestselling murder mystery novel, "The Maid," in ...
Mel Rose
553 likes, 20 comments - savvyrosereads on March 6, 2022: "Book Review - THE MAID by Nita Prose Out now! Rating: 4/5 stars Molly Gray is a neurodivergent maid working at a luxury hotel—and when she finds one of the hotel's VIP guests dead in his bed, she quickly and unwittingly becomes the prime suspect in his murder.

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