Review: THE MAID. Nita Prose

• 
  This title made available as an e-book on Libby by my local library
• Published: 2nd February 2022, Harper Collins
  
• ISBN: 9780008435738
• 352 pages

Synopsis (bookseller)

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.

My Take

 Molly is 25 and she works a hotel as a maid. Until recently she lived with her grandmother who was instrumental in getting her her job. But 9 months ago her grandmother died and now all Molly has is her job, her flat, and her walk to work.
Molly takes great pride in being the best that she can be, in her ability to restore the rooms she cleans to perfection. She has few friends, basically only those she works with, and really Molly is not a good judge of people.

And then her world changes when she discovers one of the guests dead on his bed. She had cleaned the suite of rooms earlier but had returned later in the day to "do" the bathroom, and found Mr Black very dead.

Eventually the police charge Molly with murder, and now she finds out who her real friends are.

As you read you will discover that there is something a little different about Molly....

My rating: 4.4

About the author

As for my professional life, I work in the publishing industry. I began years ago as an intern, photocopying edited manuscripts and secretly snooping the fascinating margin conversations between editors and writers. Currently, I’m vice president and editorial director at Simon & Schuster in Toronto, Canada, where I have the privilege of working with an incredible array of authors and publishing colleagues whom I credit with teaching me, manuscript by manuscript, book by book, the wondrous craft of writing.