Ms. Molly Gray is a 25-year-old maid at the Regency Grand Hotel. She loves her job and cleans every room with absolute perfection. She is an expert at reviving hotel rooms to their fresh state. Actually, this act of hers locks her up as a murder suspect. The story moves in the direction of how she was accused of the murder, how her personal life is going, and finally what happened.
Molly’s personal life is filled with just one person, her dear Gran. Her grandmother was her world. She had known her all her life and learned cleanliness and perfection from Gran. Molly’s life is spotless until one day she finds Mr. Black’s body as cold as furniture when she enters the suite for cleaning. The police locked her as a suspect, and her friends, whom she believed helped the police lock her, and her poor socializing skills became her enemy.
The Maid is a debut novel by Nita Prose. A well-written page-turner with a surprise at the end. The story is well-spread about the autistic features of Molly and her daily struggles.
Molly is a kind soul, brought up by a loving Gran despite her limitations. She struggles every day to learn her lessons from Mr. Snow as to how to keep her hotel and guests happy. Though she is a perfectionist, she is taken advantage of by her coworkers.
Molly had only a few personal struggles until the day she found Mr. Black, a wealthy tycoon, dead. Unaware of the fact he is dead, Molly cleans the room of zero fingerprints and places her fingers around his neck to check for pulse. This made her a witness initially and a suspect later.
The book opens with a little introduction to Molly’s personal life and her awkward social behavior. How people make fun of her behind her back, and so on. And obviously, she cleans the rooms with absolute perfection. I stress about her perfection because there is a knot about it to be unveiled at the end. Suddenly, the author takes Molly into the dead Black’s room, and thereon, the story moves at a rapid speed.
Though Mr. Black is rude to Molly, his wife—I mean, the second Mrs. Black named Giselle, is very kind and friendly to Molly. They have developed a bond throughout Black’s stay at the hotel. As in any normal novel, Molly has a love interest, who again uses her innocence to frame her as a murder suspect. The novel gives too many different shades to each character. For example, Rodney, Molly’s love interest, is shown as a good bartender but ends up as a drug peddler. Mr. Perston, a simple doorman, has an Advocate daughter, Charlotte. Juan Manuel, a dishwasher, helps a drug peddler. For a moment, all these characters seem confusing, at least for me, but in the end, each has a unique representation.
There is one interesting character, Detective Stark. The role was written quite poorly, as to believe Molly has committed murder and done drug peddling because she used to eat the extra food from guest food plates. This was too weak to digest. Except for those few minor issues, the novel keeps the grip alive.
I hope my review has given you a glimpse of The Maid by Nita Prose. Happy reading, and stay focused.
