Publisher: Harper Collins
Format: Ebook, Audio, Hardback (20 January 2022) | Paperback (5 January 2023)
Pages: 352
Source: Review copy received via Netgalley
The Maid is a wonderfully crafted light hearted mystery with the most unusual heroine at its heart. There is poignancy, humour and warmth in the writing. I may have found Molly a little exasperating initially but there was something about her that wormed its way into my affections – Molly and all her foibles soon dug her way into my heart and after overcoming my initial reservations, I was rooting for her, every step of the way.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Molly’s trusting nature has devastated her life in the past. Now that her beloved gran has gone, she lives alone in a small apartment with only her cleaning routines for company and a landlord hustling her for the rent. When a good looking bartender at the Hotel pays her attention, Molly gets rather carried away and this is where her problems begin.
Being a maid at the 5* Regency Grand Hotel is 25 year old Molly’s dream job. She loves cleaning, feels like a completely different person in her smart uniform and her maid’s trolley is stocked with everything she needs from scented wrapped soaps to every cleaning product required to return rooms to a state of perfection. The problem is that Molly can be rather naive and despite her gran’s best efforts, she isn’t the best at understanding social interaction and body language. It’s as if everybody else knows the rules except for her.
POLISHED TO PERFECTION, THE HOTLY-ANTICIPATED DEBUT
My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the blog tour invitation and the publisher for the copy via Netgalley.
AUTHOR LINKS: 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 . . .
Oh Molly Gray. What a delightfully quirky and unusual character you are. Your gran has taught you well to have good old fashioned values of honesty and kindness. It’s just a shame that others take advantage.
I loved the mystery aspect of the story but also the way that kindness and vulnerability were represented. Those who mocked her and wrote Molly off as being weird and a robot were doing her a great disservice. She had hidden depths and it wasn’t until she was truly tested did her intelligence and fortitude show.
If you enjoyed Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman then do give Molly a chance. This debut by Nita Prose is a thoroughly enjoyable read and I’m not at all surprised that Universal are adapting this for film.
I am your maid.
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?
Her discovery of a dead guest in one of her rooms and the problems that follow catapults Molly into a mystery worthy of her TV hero Columbo. There were times when I winced at Molly’s responses and actions, knowing that she wouldn’t necessarily realise the bigger hole she was digging for herself. Thankfully there were some people on her side, and oh man did she need friends.
I know about your secrets. Your dirty laundry.
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?
MY THOUGHTS
*RIGHTS SOLD IN 29 TERRITORIES*
But what do you know about me? 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.
