The Maid by Nita Prose

 

The Maid by Nita Prose.

Published 20th January 2022 by Harper Fiction.

From the cover of the book:

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 . . .

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Molly is a maid at the 5-star Regency Grand Hotel. She is used to being invisible to the wealthy guests that stay in the hotel's luxurious rooms, but she takes pride in her work and knows how to perform her role to perfection. 

She gets by following the sayings of her dearly departed Gran, the woman who was both mother and father to her, using them as tenets to live by as she tries to negotiate a world she doesn't really understand, but she is finding this increasingly difficult now her Gran is no longer here and her loneliness often overwhelms her. At least the routine of her work stays the same and she can take comfort from the way her efforts bring order to the chaos around her. 

"Treat others as you wish to be treated, Gran used to say, and that's a tenet I live by."

But Molly is suddenly forced to confront the harshness of the real world when she finds one of the hotel's most prestigious guests, Mr Black, dead in his bed. This leads her into a mess that she cannot clean up quite as easily with her vacuum and duster as she is used to, embroiling her in a murder investigation that distressingly starts to paint her as the guilty party. 

How can Molly prove her innocence when everyone around her is making assumptions about her guilt? It's time to channel her detective hero Columbo and use her incredible observational skills to solve the crime herself. Molly may seem invisible, but she sees far more than she lets on...

The Maid is a charming tale about a young woman at odds with the modern world who is forced to confront the fact that not everyone she thinks is her friend has her best interests at heart. Molly appears to see things very much in black and white, sticking rigidly to the wisdom of her late Gran through the myriad sayings ingrained in her from her childhood. Sometimes these these sayings are a great help in aiding her to understand the nuances of human behaviour, and sometimes not, but the way she repeats them through the story is endearing - and I promise you will be repeating them frequently after you have finished reading this delightful story.

This is a gripping mystery that you find yourself solving at the side of Molly, as she drops details about the things she has observed. There are many upsetting moments along the way as you, as the reader, can see other characters taking advantage of her for their own ends, but in true Columbo style there is a process to be gone through here before the real culprit can be brought to justice, with some delectable surprises that Nita Prose drops in before all the answers can be discovered - some of which will have you pumping the air with glee and others which you will need "a tissue for your issue" for to wipe away the tears. The characters are vivid, and it's not always easy to tell the good-guys from the bad-guys, which adds to the suspense nicely.

And this is where the magic lies, making this a tale that really tugs at your heartstrings, as well as giving you a darned good mystery to puzzle over. Prose touches on some very poignant themes in the telling of Molly's story - loneliness; control; abusive relationships; and the pitfalls that come with making assumptions about what's "normal" or beneath your notice; but she balances them beautifully against the way love and friendship can bring light to a very dark situation. She also deftly threads a suspicion that whispers quietly at the back of your mind about how much Molly understands about the shades of grey that blur the edges of right and wrong  - but I will leave you to find out the answer to this question yourselves...

I could easily have read this book from cover to cover in one sitting if I had not been reading it as part of a read-along. It's the kind of story that works itself under your skin, until you become completely invested in Molly's fate, desperately hoping she will find a way out of her predicament, and it is filled with golden moments to treasure. I would love to see more of crime-solving Molly and her friends in the future... perhaps a little murder during a holiday in the Cayman Islands? I live in hope!

In any case, this story has been optioned for a film adaptation starring Florence Pugh as Molly, and I cannot wait for it to hit the big screen. Get in now and read the book first, because there is a reason why it is already on the best-seller lists!

The Maid is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to Harper Fiction and Tandem Collective for sending me a hardcover version of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Nita Prose is a longtime editor, serving many bestselling authors and their books. She lives in Toronto, Canada, in a house that is only moderately clean.