Molly Gray doesn’t see the world like other people do. The eponymous maid in Nita Prose’s debut mystery, Molly also knows that most people don’t see her either. Not really, at least. At the luxury hotel she works at in Manhattan, her single-minded devotedness to her job mostly makes up for that deficiency, and as long as she can keep the Regency Grand in tip-top shape and maintain her A+ devotion to employee excellence, she can cope with the problems that crop up. Like how she doesn’t quite understand why some co-workers call her Roomba, the landlord who keeps demanding the rent, or the loneliness she feels when she returns home to an apartment that until recently she shared with her beloved Gran. She has a handful of friends, like Mr. Preston the doorman and Rodney the bartender, and as long as she can keep things clean, she’ll be fine.
But when she comes across the very dead body of Mr. Black, one of the hotel’s wealthiest and powerful guests, Molly’s faced with a mess that can’t just be scrubbed away. While she dutifully cleans up the scene and follows the advice of people she trusts—including Giselle, Mr. Black’s much younger wife—Molly feels she’s being helpful, but with every action she takes she unwittingly focuses more police attention on her. Can Molly unmask the real killer before she ends up in jail herself? And perhaps more importantly, can she learn who her real friends are in the process?
It’s a little hard to believe the Prose is a debut author with The Maid. She writes with an assuredness that attests to her work as an editor in the publishing industry, but beyond her fine sense of pacing and setting, Prose has created a complex and human character in Molly. Seeing the world through Molly’s eyes gives the scope of the mystery a different slant, but beyond simply serving as a novel way to frame a traditional mystery, Prose builds Molly from a character that at first seems rigidly set in terms of black and white and gradually reveals that deep down, Molly has a sense of the grayer shades of life. Molly undergoes a real transformation as the story progresses, and it’s impossible not to cheer for her as she grows into a better understanding of herself and the world around her. The Maid is heartily recommended for fans who enjoy stories featuring characters with diverse abilities, such as Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, readers of traditional or cozy mysteries, or anyone who wants a feel-good story with a quick pace.