MarilynW's Reviews > The Maid

The Maid by Nita Prose

"Molly, the Maid" is different. She's always been the subject of taunts, jeers, stares, ridicule and cruelty. The ability to read social cues, intentions, expressions, or to even understand words in a non literal sense is foreign to her. But she's always had her grandmother to explain those things to her and to interpret the events of her day, so that she could move forward, slowly learning to negotiate people and situations, gradually adding some clarity to the puzzles of interacting with people.

Molly loves her job as a maid for Regency Grand Hotel. She is able to put to use all the rules her Gran has taught her. And she excels at remembering every training mantra that Mr. Snow has uttered in his group training sessions for the hotel employees. Rules and mantras have served Molly well for the most part. She has been taken advantage of in a costly way, in the past, so life is harder now. First, with the loss of finances and then with the death of Gran. Now Molly is alone for the first time, barely getting any joy out of her job or home routines. Gran was her life, her mentor, protector, friend, and family.

But things have gotten interesting at work. She's walked into the hotel suite of wealthy Mr. Black, to find him dead. As she tries to negotiate the police investigation, she finds herself the chief suspect in his murder. It is now that she will find out who has her best interests in mind and who has been taking advantage of her different way of seeing life. This is a sweet story that imparts many lessons, if we are willing to listen and learn. Molly is so much more than most people think, if they even see her in her "invisible" occupation as a hotel maid.

Pub January 4th 2022

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for this ARC.