Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.
I really hope this is the last book in the “Molly the Maid” series. The first book was so good, and I loved how it ended on a darker note, but two more books and a novella, the series has definitely pushed towards lighter mysteries that you can solve in five minutes. My main issue with this last book is that the sections that focused on Gram/Flora were overly long and just boring. Also, I know this is supposed to take place in the 60s, but everything read as if it was taking place 20 years or more earlier at times. Especially with the way that the servants were to be treated and how they were supposed to treat their betters. It just read like Downton Abbey to me after a while.
“The Maid’s Secret” is really following Gram/Flora as the maid in question this time. Molly is engaged to Juan and though they don’t have a lot of money, they are looking forward to starting their lives together as man and wife. Things tick along at the Regency Grand Hotel, however, a popular show that she and Juan loves will be showcasing an episode at the Regency Grand (think Antique Roadshow) and Molly grabs some things to show, including the “egg” that she doesn’t think could be worth much. However, Molly is shocked when she is brought on stage and told that her egg is worth millions. The book shifts POVs from Molly in the present day and to her Gram/Flora in the past which leads into how the egg is connected to her as well.
I will say this, the book is at times confusing, things line up enough when you get through the end of this and then it shifts to events/people from book #2 that we already know about. Gram/Flora’s diary entries to Molly just read weird at times. I think it would have worked better if it was written like a true diary, instead Prose writes it as a book in essence. No one who is doing diary entries is going to write exactly like this. Maybe it would have worked more for me if it had been written with that in mind. And I get that Gram/Flora was writing this when she was much older/sicker, but still, it just read weird to me.
And I already said what I said about her family, the servants, etc., the whole thing just read off to me throughout. As I said, maybe if the book was set 20-30 years back some of her families and others attitudes would have made sense to me. For example, there was the 1967 Abortion Act, Housewives Register in 1960, etc. There is mention of music (the Beatles) and of new fashion, but it seems to have passed Flora’s whole family by which again, didn’t make a lot of sense since it was everywhere. Who in that time would say I won’t allow my daughter to study and pursue something outside of marriage?
Molly’s section were kind of blah honestly. It was really easy to see who was doing what and the “culprit” in this one, but I just got tired of how Molly “talks” in this one. I was just over her also not again understanding basic things. At this point she’s in her 30s and I felt tired. The usual antics by Cheryl were also just grating in this one.
The ending of the book wasn’t a shocker at all, I think that this may be the last book in the series. If it’s not, I hope that we do not keep hearing about Gram’s past.