Recently I borrowed the often talked about book, The Maid, by Nita Prose.
The prologue and first chapter had some pretty good quotes, and made the premise of the book seem quite intriguing (you will find several of these quotes featured on the image in this post, cross-posted to my Instagram).
Unfortunately, I began to become frustrated with the main character rather quickly. While she wasn’t exactly unlikeable, she did come across as incredibly odd, in the sense that I couldn’t relate to her whatsoever and she seemed more like a partially crafted character with no depth–a surface character, if you will. The following will include spoilers, so please read at your own risk.
Molly, while a good character on the surface, seemed particularly absent in many scenes. While I gathered that she was neurodivergent, it did come across as if Prose took it to an extreme now and then. For example, Molly’s only interest in the world is being a maid, and as such, when she walks in on two thug-like men with the hotel’s dishwasher, Juan Manuel, and bartender, Rodney, she finds this perfectly normal. She doesn’t question the bruises on Juan Manuel, assuming they came from the dishwasher itself, and believes that Rodney is asking her on a date. She assumes the cocaine on the table is powdered sugar from a donut, and that Rodney was jealous of Juan Manuel for talking to her.
When Molly finds Mr. Black, dead in his hotel suite, she reacts normally enough, but is then more concerned with shortbread than the dead man. She believes Rodney, a year after the drug cartel incident, is asking her on dates, when he is in fact interrogating her about the body she found, Mr. Black, and what the police know about the hotel and its’ employees, namely, him and the drugs, which she still knows nothing about.
The book went by quickly, and held my interest enough to finish it, however every twist was rather predictable; I wasn’t surprised to learn that Rodney and Mr. Black’s wife, Giselle, were involved, and I wasn’t surprised that Juan Manuel was being threatened over a work visa, to cut drugs for Rodney. I was unsurprised that Molly and Juan Manuel began dating in the epilogue, both of them being extremely similar, and I wasn’t surprised that Cheryl was demoted. I suppose the only thing that did surprise me was that Molly wasn’t convicted of the murder.
Essentially, the only characters I enjoyed in this novel were Giselle, who I’ve deemed 60% good, 40% bad; Mr. Preston, the hotel doorman, who I firmly believe and was heavily implied that he is Molly’s father, and Molly’s Gran, who was deceased prior to the book’s starting, though through reminiscence we learn was full of wisdom, enjoyed fictional travel with education, and sewed a pillow. Unfortunately, she also made Molly kill her with said pillow when her pancreatic cancer became too much, because she didn’t want to go to a hospital.
To sum up the murder itself, Mr. Black essentially killed himself on pills and booze, and his first wife (not Giselle), suffocated him with a pillow. Molly passed out upon finding the body, but saw the first Mrs. Black, who stayed to wake her and get her a drink. Mrs. Black and Molly then discussed the situation, and Molly, who knew Mr. Black had abused both of his wives, decided to let Mrs. Black the First go unnoticed, and cleaned the room to perfection so no prints would be found, before passing out again. I fully expected this revelation, and was rather annoyed that she had hidden this in its entirety in court, and was annoyed by the court scenes themselves.
Towards the end I was definitely skimming paragraphs, despite the book feeling shorter than it was, largely in part to the surface-level characters all around and the unsurprising, predictable plot and twists.
Unfortunately this was, for me, a rather unremarkable and overhyped book, so I’m giving it a six of ten star review and strongly urge those looking for a new mystery, to look elsewhere, unless they are looking for one they can predict in its entirety by chapter three.
SheReadsWorlds 