I really enjoyed this book, the main character was so different from any other I have read I could not turn the pages fast enough. Molly is a maid, she works for the Regency Grand Hotel and takes her job very seriously, she takes pride in returning a room to a state of perfection. And all is going well one day until she walks into a guest room and finds one of the guests dead. Molly lacks social skills, she does not pick up on verbal clues from others, not to say she's simple, she is an innocent in a world of people that will take advantage of her. After having to contact the Reception desk twice, they didn't believe her the first time, eventually the police show up and confirm that yes the guest is deceased. This particular guest is very wealthy and embroiled in a dispute with his family over the company he had started and that is now worth millions. Charles Black has a young trophy wife who is in line to inherit a lot of money/property, assuming she's not convicted of his death. There is a lot of nefarious activities taking place at the hotel that Molly inadvertently participates in, between that and her demeanor she quickly becomes a suspect in the case. That's when Molly finds out that she has friends she didn't realize she had. Overall this was a very good book and I would highly recommend. Thank you to #Netgalley and #Ballentine for the ARC. I would look forward to another by this author.

The Maid - not your average mystery

Molly's well ordered days working as a maid at the luxurious Regency Grand Hotel become rather messy on the day that she discovers her best tipper dead on his bed.


Prepare yourself for a full-on read when you begin this novel. You'll be drawn, as I was, through the pages. The Maid is incredibly difficult to put down. The more I read, the more I wanted to read. I sped through the last chapters despite wanting to slow and savour the remaining words.

From the moment that we meet Molly, we are inside her head. Molly's thoughts are clear and structured. As we progress through the story, Molly narrates the events honestly and thoroughly. She doesn't shirk from truthfulness even when her story paints her picture in somewhat shameful hues. This is the brilliance of the tale. And I feel that we all have a small part of Molly inside us - unsure of the rules, shocked when people react differently from the way we expect. Molly's grandmother attempted to prepare her for the outside world by providing her with various coping mechanisms. Those maxims are useful for the world at large.

The descriptions of the rest of the cast of characters depend on Molly's interactions with them. Some characters are vividly bright while others are cloaked in shadow. Regardless, each person is well-drawn, to the point that they would be recognisable beyond the covers of the book.

But what then, of the murder mystery? In many ways, this part of the story is straightforward. A terrible person is killed and there are multiple suspects. However, that simplicity is a sham. The dexterity that Nita Prose displays with her plot creation is breathtaking. At the end, it would be a rare person who could honestly point out the culprit. I certainly did not.

I would like to call attention to the fact that I gave this book five stars - top honours for a well-crafted story.

A sincere thank you to Nita Prose, Random House-Ballantine, and Netgalley for an Advance Reader's Copy.

This book wasn't really marketed to me as a cozy mystery so I was really disappointed by this. I love a good mystery where you're trying to figure out who the killer is and the ending is shocking. But that is definitely not what you're going to get with this book. It was pretty easy to see who the murderer was because the main character was super naive.

I think if you go into this expecting a light mystery, you will maybe enjoy this more than I did. If you are a true crime lover like I am, I don't think this will be your cup of tea.

This was an interesting mystery.
The premise felt fresh and was overall a satisfying read.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

Just finished reading “The Maid” by Nina Prose.

Molly Gray, “Molly the Maid”, is a “different” character. She has her own unique qualities that tend to make people treat her differently. She is diligent at her job but often can not tell the difference between small social cues. She relied on her grandmother for that but unfortunately her grandmother has passed away so she must learn to survive on her own.

Molly has come across the dead body of a prominent hotel guest and unfortunately gets questioned about it. As her social cues are not like most people, the police tend to think the worse. Unfortunately, Molly tends to be trusting and people take advantage of her. Now she has to figure out who she can trust to get her out of this jam.

I really enjoyed this book and found it very interesting. I would definitely recommend!

This book was promising but ultimately I could not stand the narrator being socially inept and not able to comprehend the severity of the crime that has occurred. The writing wasn't bad, but it was difficult to follow along with the main character's logic or lack thereof.

I didn’t know what to expect from this book, but honestly, it was just the perfect cozy read. It was a page-turner, so I read it in 2 days. Molly is such an endearing character, and there was the perfect mix of mystery and character development. I loved how Molly came into her own, and the cast of characters really are charming (mostly).

I highly recommend this book, I imagine it’s going to be quite a hit. Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and author for the advanced review copy.

It has been a long time since I have read a book that gripped me so much and I read it in 2 days..The storyline was was good and the characters were so interesting right up to the end.This was an absolute pleasure to read.

The publisher behind Nita Prose’s debut novel, The Maid, is throwing an awful lot of firepower at reviewers in the hopes of bringing the book into the hands of as many readers as possible. I was one of many reviewers contacted on NetGalley — one of the places where I procure free books for review — about the novel, and the first 200 reviewers who inquired about it would automatically get a review copy. That’s how I wound up with the book on my Kindle. There might be a reason why the promotion is so heavy and buzz-worthy, aside from the fact that this is a generally good read. Prose is the vice president and editorial director at Simon & Schuster in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Now it may be churlish of me to suggest that nepotism is at work here, but I do have to wonder if a writer who didn’t happen to have a major job in the Canadian publishing industry would get the same sort of promotional push. In the end, it probably shouldn’t matter as The Maid is a fun and wildly entertaining cozy mystery thriller. It does have its liabilities, but I wound up getting, well, swept away by the narrative and read most of it in a day.

The book centers on a 25-year-old woman named Molly who works as a maid at a tony hotel in an unnamed city presumably somewhere in North America. She is a bit different from most of the staffers at the hotel as she has, one would presume, a touch of autism — she has trouble reading facial expressions and picking up on social cues. One day, her life is upended when she finds the body of a wealthy tycoon in one of the suites she’s supposed to clean. However, Molly may or may not have misjudged the characters of some of the people she works with who may have reasons of their own to frame Molly for the crime — and, after all, she was the person who found the body and what about the fact that the room is clear of fingerprints but her own on the tycoon’s neck? Will she or will she not become a person of interest to the police? And, if so, how will she get out of the predicament when she doesn’t seem to have any reliable friends?

The Maid is a novel that is lobbed into two halves. The first part is suspenseful as you watch Molly do socially awkward things that will have you yelling at your Kindle (or your physical copy of the book, if you have one) in warning. Part of the suspense hinges on the fact that Molly is generally obvious to what’s going on around her. The second half of the book is suspenseful in another way as Molly goes about solving whatever predicaments she has found herself in. The ending, if I’m not spoiling anything, is hopeful and upbeat. But as much as the publisher is billing this as a novel for fans of the board game Clue, there really isn’t too much of a whodunnit to this book. There is the revelation of the real person who might have been behind the murders at the very end, which winds up being a bit of a cheat — and I shall say no more. However, it is plenty obvious who the person who is going to be framed for the murders aside from potentially Molly about halfway through the book. So, if you’re looking for a book to lay out some clues for you to solve the murder of the property mogul named Mr. Black (shades of Conrad?), you’ll be terribly disappointed.

Still, The Maid is enjoyable because a lot of the book centers on the peculiarities of its main character, Molly, from whose point of view that the story is told. Molly is learning to come into her own as her grandmother, who was taking care of her for most of her life, had turned out to have died some nine months before the start of the novel’s events. Gran, as she’s called, really did a lot of work for Molly to help her parse various social interactions, so Molly is more than a little adrift on her own when we meet her with no one to guide her through life’s complexities. Thus, there is some real pleasure to be had as you watch Molly try to figure out what’s going on around her, as much as this may be stress inducing at times, and what various gestures, head nods, and smiles might mean or reveal about a person. The fact that Molly is so likeable despite her obviousness makes this a propulsive page-turner.

As noted, though, there are issues with this text. For one thing, it gets way too preachy with its “everyone is the same” message. For another, the book’s multiple endings are arguably not necessary. For yet another, the tone between the two halves of the book is vastly different. And for yet even another, the book is set in the modern-day (sans pandemic) but has all the feel of a novel that should be set in 1920s England — an effect that feels a little jarring at first. And yet this is a tale that is captivating and invigorating, the sort of thing that has you forgiving its flaws and genuinely appreciating as a work of entertainment. Be aware that The Maid hardly qualifies as high literature but, as a pot-boiler, it largely succeeds in what it has been set out to do: divert your attention away from the travails of day-to-day life and have you step inside another pair of shoes.

All in all, The Maid comes highly recommended: it may indeed have been written by a book world insider with a cushy job at a large publisher, but it looks like all the time spent helping other writers has meant that the author has written a pleasurable novel. From the acknowledgments, it looks like the film rights have been sewn up — so whether you buy the book or see the eventual movie, one thing’s for certain. By the time you’ve finished with this, you’re going to have a big goofy grin on your face. The Maid is a novel about resilience and remaining strong when the world is handing you lemons. In other words, it’s exactly the kind of book that we all need to read right now, regardless of the motivations behind its publication and the storied position of its creator.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

I didn't enjoy this much: I found Molly's portrayal inconsistent - sometimes she was so naive you wondered how she managed to hold down a job, and at other times she was quite cunning. I struggled to believe she would have stolen and pawned the item she found. I didn't warm to her, especially given some of the revelations about her choices and actions at the end. It was all a bit 'cosy' for me - I wish all immigration glitches could be ironed out like Juan's was.

I absolutely loved this story. The chaacters were also amazing . Loved Molly. A great debut for sure.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/ Ballentine for sharing this reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

All thoughts and opinion are my own and are not influenced by other reviewers

This book is so great! I love that it's told from the perspective of someone "different". It gives a unique look at the world and our society. When we fall to see the world through different eyes, we miss so much!

It is refreshing to have a main character who loves her job and takes pride in all she does.

There are a few twists and turns and I never fully expected the ending. Well worth the read!

I really enjoyed this book. This book is what would happen if you crossed Agatha Christie with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. Molly Maid is all nice and proper and socially awkward and quite possibly autistic. This wasn't so much a mystery as a story of Molly and how she copes with the unexpected situation she found herself in. Rather a difficult thing when you can't read people, their cues or body language. When you take everything at face value and don't know there are even lines to read between.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC to review.

The Main was a novel that I never thought I would get into. But each page and each chapter pulled me in more and more. Molly the Main is such a brilliant and loveable main character, someone who you usually don’t get as a protagonist. This is something that all book lovers should pick up at some point. Once it is out I very much expect it to be a best seller.
Thank you Nita for letting me enter into Molly’s world!
Also that ending! That’s all I will say

I was instantly hooked on this story with absolutely delightful, multi-faceted, unique characters, a fun setting, and a plot that was utterly captivating. Readers will fall in love with Molly, a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel who was primarily raised by her grandmother and is old-fashioned in the way she speaks and literal and matter-of-fact in the way she approaches the world. I really, really enjoyed the way this story was told and it wrapped up perfectly. It's been a while since I read a mystery with characters I enjoyed as much as these (dare I say, since my last visit to Three Pines with Louise Penny?). This isn't quite a thriller - it did not leave my heart in my throat the entire time, but it was still very hard to put down and the writing was absolutely exquisite. Well done, Nita!! Can't wait to see this one on screen someday too!!

I absolutely adore Molly Gray, a quirky & charming maid at The Regency Grand Hotel. Molly is proud of her work restoring hotel rooms to a state of perfection. She takes great pleasure in fluffing pillows, dusting & polishing.

Molly sees the world differently than most. She doesn’t pick up on social cues and she has a hard time reading people. She was raised by her Gran, who has recently passed away and left Molly alone to figure her way through it all.

One fateful day at work, Molly enters a hotel room to refresh the bathroom and discovers the dead body of Mr. Black. She soon finds herself as chief suspect in his suspicious death.

I loved reading this story through Molly’s POV, sifting through what really happened and trying to solve the crime. Thank you NetGalley for my advanced digital copy, I really enjoyed this one!

The Maid is a fantastic cozy mystery with an unforgettable heroine - Molly...Molly the Maid! Molly is a quirky, sweet, caring girl, although somewhat oblivious to life around her, all while returning guest suites to a state of perfection! When she finds a deceased hotel guest the fingers are quickly pointing at her.

I enjoyed Molly's love of her grandmother, love of cleanliness, and her love of Olive Garden! She was an irresistible character that you cannot help loving to bits. I was hooked on this book from the first few pages. The writing is smart and made me smile many times.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for this advanced copy!

3.5/5 stars

The Maid by Nita Prose would go well with a glass of wine and a bubble bath. It is light-hearted, entertaining, and, for better or for worse, familiar.

The Maid's protagonist and narrator is Molly the Maid, a socially-challenged housekeeper at a grand hotel. She is kind, precise, and great at her job, but she struggles to read people. One day Molly discoveres a guest murdered in his bed, and she suddenly finds herself at the centre of a mystery that goes deeper than she ever would have imagined. Themes include loneliness, prejudice, and friendship. This book reminded me of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. If you enjoyed that you'll probably like The Maid too.

Prose's feel-good style and quirky protagonist keeps The Maid diverting, though it's predictability felt monotonous at times. There are two twists at the end. The first fell flat emotionally, it just seemed kind of unnecessary. The second felt awkward and out of place in the narrative. It aimed to shock but it was too conspicuous, a wanna-be gotcha moment. There wasn't enough targeted buildup for it to feel like it mattered. In short, both the twists lacked any emotional umph, and as a result they felt more annoying than interesting.

The Maid was not a great book but it was a good book. It's a popcorn flick, like many books of its genre are these days. It's not deep, serious, or profound in any way. It's predictable and rather run-of-the-mill, but still fun and diverting.

Thank you to Net Galley for giving me an advance copy of this book for my honest review.

The Maid is classified as a mystery, and I enjoyed it so much that I was disappointed every time real life interfered and I had to put it down. However, it wasn’t the mystery so much as the main character that won my heart. I think I could easily say that Molly is my favourite character of 2021! She is kind, caring, dedicated, but above all else so very quirky, and she totally made this book!! I was trying to explain to a friend why I enjoyed The Maid, and I realized that it wasn’t because it was fast paced or had any jaw dropping twists. Molly, the friends she gains along the way, and the stories about her grandma are what captured my heart. I highly recommend The Maid. True rating - 4.5 stars.

Having had seen this book produced as a short series on Netflix I was excited to read the book to assess the TV production. I was more than pleasantly surprised with the book! Nothing like the TV series and a pure delight to read. I certainly was not disappointed. I would most definitely recommend reading this delightful book.