Book Review: The Maid

Author: Nita Prose 

Date of Publication: Expected on January 4, 2022

Genre: Mystery, Crime

Legacy: This is the author and long-time editor's first novel

How I heard about this book: Got an advance review copy of the e-book from Netgalley.com. I chose it because the plotline sounded interesting to me.

Appropriate Audience: Teen/ Adult

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 (Very good , but slightly short of great)

First of all, let me say that it was very thrilling to read a book that has not yet been published and that only a handful (okay, giant's handful) of people have read before. All thanks to NetGalley, which is a book review website that lets readers and bloggers review advance copies of yet unreleased books.

Now let's move on to the actual thrills of the book. Like I said, the plot of the book, where A charmingly eccentric hotel maid discovers a guest murdered in his bed, is what drove me to it. I thought it would be interesting to read a murder mystery panned out from the lens of a maid, the ubiquitous yet invisible entity that has the potential to know everything. The book started off on that note. It described Molly the Maid (and her obsessive habit of cleaning and keeping things in order) and the luxurious hotel at which she worked. I was a bit put off with her seemingly Asperger's behavior because it reminded me so much of Eleanor from Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - an absolutely brilliant book whose plot has nothing in common with this book other than the socially awkward and lonely kinda-autistic protagonist. But other than that, the book took off well.

The plot and the characters were built well and simultaneously, and I liked that even though many of the characters were somewhat stereotypical, they were still interesting. The writing itself wasn't wordy or pretentious, and made me wanting to keep turning pages. The mystery was developed rather soundly, and except for a few loose ends (<spoiler alert> why does the main culprit not contest the extra charges? <end spoiler alert>), it was wrapped up pretty neatly.

P.S. The juxtaposition of what happens to Molly's grandmother and what happens to Mr. Black was rather eerie and a masterstroke by the author. It made me deeply contemplate about a lot of things that I can't list here only for the sake of avoiding spoilers :)