The Maid

A neurodivergent main character, a locked-room mystery, thought-provoking commentary on ethics and human interaction... entertaining, challenging and hopeful.

I loved this book because I worked in hotels before I became a butler, and the protagonist is a maid. You can walk into many situations in a hotel room, so a murder mystery is no big stretch. I love hotel or rich home dramas, especially if they portray the staff correctly. Domestic staff are generally likable, meticulous, quiet, and honest. This is a really nice, cozy murder mystery.

I fell in love with the protagonist, Molly Black. Molly has autism, which gives her a different perspective on life and the murder that occurs in the hotel where she works as a maid. I grew to cheerlead Molly as she negotiated unfriendly staff and challenging social and employment crises.

I was simultaneously impressed by her ethics and intelligence and worried about her naivete. Happily, Molly navigates her way to solving the crime while figuring out life’s rules and finding friendship and community along the way.

I was hooked from the start with the quirky but wildly entertaining and loveable Molly Gray. Her role as a maid at the hotel satisfies her need for “order,” a sentiment I can appreciate. I laughed out loud as Molly navigated the hotel corridors with co-workers and guests.

Then, when an inconvenient dead body upended her world, I felt her struggle as she was misunderstood and assumed guilty of the crime. I devoured this heartwarming tale of perseverance in one sitting and highly recommend an afternoon spent with The Maid.

The Maid is a complex locked-room-type mystery told in a way that is accessible and enjoyable.

Nita Prose’s writing style swept me up, and the audiobook narrator (Lauren Ambrose) delivered the story perfectly. Each character was well-developed, and their roles were all clear.

Molly the Maid is clearly neurodivergent and the protagonist I didn’t know I needed until now. Her no-nonsense way of navigating life spoke to my Type-A personality heart!

Told from the POV of a hotel maid on the spectrum, this book serves as a reminder that no one should be invisible, and that we are all equally important, no matter our station in life.

The narration by Lauren Ambrose was spot-on as she captured the essence of Molly, a young woman raised by her recently deceased grandmother, and the people, good and bad, who impact her life. It made me laugh, cry, and get mad in equal measure, but mostly it kept me up at night.

This was such a fun book! The main character, Molly, is such an appealing and genuine character.

This isn’t a book that I would have normally picked to read, but I am very glad to have been introduced to it for a book club. It was a fun mystery about a neurodivergent maid at a posh hotel who’s taken unawares by unsavory people. It’s amazing how the author really gets inside Molly’s head and keeps the reader intrigued and constantly wanting to read more.

Even scenes where we see Molly cleaning and doing her best to be the perfect maid,… show more.

This was a real outlier for me. I seldom read bestsellers, and I almost never read mysteries, but for some reason The Maid intrigued me and I picked it up at the library.

Though novels often disappoint me (when it comes to books, I’m very picky!) this one certainly did not. I read it, maybe not in a single sitting, but in the course of a single day.

It was very well written and cleverly plotted, but what really made it shine was the protagonist, Molly. Because she’s socially awkward, she misreads people’s actions and what they say, which makes… show more.

I love books where female protagonists are longing for something, and in this case it’s acceptance—so relatable! The character in this story has to make a split-second decision (also one of my favorite tropes), and then deal with the consequences. On top of that, it was super fun to get a peek into the hospitality industry. Haven’t we always wondered who cleans our rooms at hotels? It’s a classic whodunnit but in a fresh, new way. 

I loved the quirky protagonist; that she was the maid in the hotel where the crime occurs gives her a unique take and the book a very different structure to the usual cop-driven stories. Her character shows how hard it is for neurodiverse people, and gives a sympathetic insider point of view. It won the Ned Kelly International crime book.