Cbr17bingo Work
The Maid is a mystery that features a main character named Molly Gray who is a maid at the swanky Regency Grand Hotel and who is on the autism spectrum, even though author Nita Prose never tells us so outright. Molly is socially awkward and has difficulty reading social cues. She takes things very literally, adheres strictly to her schedule, and is a rule follower. In the past, her Gran, who raised her, helped Molly interpret the puzzling statements and actions of the people she encountered, but Gran died 9 months ago, and Molly is struggling with grief, financial woes, and her inability to decipher who amongst her circle of acquaintances are friends and who is dangerous.
Molly loves her job at the Regency Grand. She wears a crisp uniform that is cleaned on site daily, she has a well stocked cleaning cart, and nothing makes her happier that restoring hotel rooms to their state of perfection. The hotel attracts a wealthy and well known clientele, including Mr. and Mrs. Black. Mr. Black is a famous real estate mogul and his second, young wife Giselle is always friendly and sweet to Molly. Sadly, a number of Molly’s co-workers are far less kind, calling her Rumba (ie a cleaning robot) behind her back. Molly has a crush on the bartender Rodney, who is friendly but clearly (to the reader) does not reciprocate Molly’s feelings. Molly secretly provides empty rooms to the kitchen worker Juan Manuel, who is always kind to her and seems to be in a precarious housing situation. The hotel manager Mr Snow respects Molly’s excellent work, and the doorman Mr. Preston knew Molly’s Gran and makes a point of telling her often that he will always be there for her. He and Mr Snow appreciate that Molly is different but that she is a good and worthwhile person.
Molly has two big problems, and only one is obvious to her. The obvious problem is her financial situation. Molly struggles to make the rent on her pay as a maid, but it should not have been this way. She and her Gran had scrupulously saved money over the years so that Molly could go to community college for hotel management. The story of how Molly lost that money is sad, and it is related to her inability to read and understand others, making her vulnerable to manipulation. The other problem occurs when she goes to clean the Blacks’ suite and finds Mr. Black dead. Initially it appeared that he had suffered a heart attack, but when it is revealed that he was murdered, Molly’s proximity to the scene of the crime and to bad actors and her naiveté put her in a very dangerous position. This is something that the reader can see but Molly does not, which makes for compelling reading, but….
Even though I read this book pretty quickly, in the end I was troubled and annoyed by a few things. First, the characters seem flat, like stock characters. I’ve read some criticism online that Juan Manual comes off as a caricature, as does Molly. None of the characters seemed very realistic to me. The action/timeline also seemed a little too neat. Everything unfolds and gets resolved within a week. I know that that happens in murder mysteries, but it’s usually the cozy kind where everyone is stuck on the manor with no outside interference. This is in a big, unnamed city and involves cops, jail cells and courtrooms, and a whole lot of troubling illegal behaviors committed by various people.
My biggest problem is with the tone of the novel. Prose seems to want to give us a quirky, twee main character but also have her dealing with very dark issues that take Molly into legally and morally troubling territory. Molly and other characters actually do things that I find disturbing, but that Prose, I think, wants us to admire? I found these statements bizarre:
‘…there are times when a good person must do something that’s not quite right, but it’s still the right thing to do.’
‘Sometimes, you must do one thing bad to do another thing good.’
So it’s okay to break the law if you’re doing it for the right reason? To be clear, this is not about disobeying an unjust law. It’s more about taking the law into your own hands, like a vigilante. It’s a weird take and especially out of place for someone like Molly who is all about the rules. Maybe doing morally and legally questionable things is a sign of some kind of growth? I don’t love it.
At the end, I was dissatisfied with the novel overall. Prose wants to give the reader positive messages about difference and being seen and valued, but the characters she uses to do this just weren’t that interesting or admirable to me. Apparently this is the first in a series featuring Molly Gray, and this book is being turned into a movie with Florence Pugh. I’ll take a pass on all of that.