The Maid by Nita Prose

From Goodreads

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life’s complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But  Molly’s orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?

A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.

My thoughts

My thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.  Books usually languish on my TBR for ages when I have acquired them from NetGalley.  I was looking through them on my Kindle when I had recently finished one and this one jumped out at me.

This is a debut novel by the Author and it's one that will grab you in many ways.  The reader gets drawn in to the life of Molly the Maid, she comes across as socially and developmentally (in some ways) lacking.  She is trustworthy and takes everyone on at face value, never doubting or so it seems their intentions.  She reminds me in some ways of Eleanor Oliphant another character from another book.

Well this book was unusual in some ways, at first you think it's going to be a cosy quirky character driven story about Molly, her life working as a maid in a hotel and how she copes with day to day life away from the hotel.  Then it takes you in a completely different direction turning into a cosy murder mystery when she finds one of the residents of the hotel a Mr Black dead in his bed one morning.  Molly finds herself in the thick of it as she soon becomes the accused and suspected of his murder.  As the layers of the story reveal themselves to us, we find out how things are linked and who is at the heart of all that has gone on.  Molly finds herself an integral piece of things and could be the instrument that is needed to help solve the crime and bring things to a head in her own inimitable way.                            

I enjoyed the journey that the Author took us on with Molly and the other characters.  Molly did remind me in some ways of other characters that I have read about in other books, but at the heart of it despite all her quirky traits she is more switched on that you at first think.  I look forward to seeing what this Author writes next as if this debut is anything to go by, we readers are in for a treat.