THE MAID
NITA PROSE
*****
I am your maid. I know about your secrets. Your dirty laundry. But what do you know about me?
Molly the maid is all alone in the world. A nobody. She’s used to being invisible in her job at the Regency Grand Hotel, plumping pillows and wiping away the grime, dust and secrets of the guests passing through. She’s just a maid – why should anyone take notice? But Molly is thrown into the spotlight when she discovers an infamous guest, Mr Black, very dead in his bed. This isn’t a mess that can be easily cleaned up. And as Molly becomes embroiled in the hunt for the truth, following the clues whispering in the hallways of the Regency Grand, she discovers a power she never knew was there. She’s just a maid – but what can she see that others overlook?
Escapist, charming and introducing a truly original heroine, The Maid is a story about how everyone deserves to be seen. And how the truth isn’t always black and white – it’s found in the dirtier, grey areas in between . . .
MY REVIEW *****
I first heard of The Maid from the Harper Collins Reader’s Room as I filled out a survey on its tagline and blurb. I thought it sounded like a brilliant read and when it came up on my Netgalley feed I had no hesitation in hitting ‘request’. I’ve been really lucky so far that my January 2022 reads have all been 4 or 5 stars and The Maid is no exception – a 5 star read through and through and another Kindig GEM!
Molly the Maid is a well-written and deep main character; she has trouble reading social situations and understanding turns of phrase, and her behaviour is a patchwork of teachings from her grandmother and the motivational sayings she has been taught at her cleaning job at the Regency hotel. She feels so real and so heart-felt, it’s impossible not to feel empathy with her and you are fully on her side from the start. Her character also allows for some clever narrative devices such as leading the reader to believe something before revealing that Molly may have interpreted the situation differently to the truth. It also allows exposition and reveals to go straight to the reader bypassing the main character as some conversations go completely over Molly’s head.
The plot is also well-layered and interesting - on the surface it seems like a typical murder mystery but there is a lot more at play here. There are also quite a few twists later in the story which I did not see coming. The pace is kept high throughout and the writing is so engaging I found it very hard to put the book down to go to work! The ending also made me tear up a little bit – the heart-warming aspect really caught me off-guard.
Overall, The Maid is a must-read for 2022 and I’m sure you will fall in love with Molly as much as I did! Thank you to HarperCollins UK – Harper Fiction for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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