‘The Mystery Guest’ by Nita Prose (Molly the Maid # 2)

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

“It’s always the maid”

Even if you believe the above statement, this book still leaves you with a host of possible suspects. Molly is back in this sequel to The Maid, but this time there are other maids on the shift as well. She is joined by a new maid-in-training called Lily, her old nemesis Cheryl, hotel room cleaners Sunshine and Sunitha, and of course her dear grandmother, now passed on but still hugely influential. Gran taught Molly everything she knows about being a maid.

Molly has been promoted to Head Maid at the Regency Grand Hotel, a position which she worked hard for and relishes. Working under the former head maid (slovenly Cheryl) was challenging but now everything seems just as it should be, until it isn’t. Molly’s life is turned upside down once again when world-renowned mystery author J.D. Grimthorpe drops dead–very dead–on the hotel’s tea room floor, just before he is about to publicly reveal a profound secret.

The story goes back and forth between Present Day and Before. No one knows it yet, but Molly and Grimthorpe have met before, a fact she is reluctant to share because it might make her even more of a suspect than she already is. I loved the flashbacks where Molly ends up in the Grimthorpe mansion and I didn’t mind the backstory at all. Molly notices things, and it behooves the reader to pay attention as well.

In this series, Nita Prose has created a cozy mystery around a character that you can’t help but root for. Molly is neurodivergent and because of her communication challenges, she is often misunderstood. Because she is a maid, she is also often overlooked. But do not underestimate her!

It’s weird. Clichés usually bother me in books, but not when it comes to Molly. The catchy sayings she lives by are important to her, so that makes them ok with me. I hope there will be more stories from the Regency Grand Hotel in future! I would suggest reading these books in order.

‘The Maid’ by Nita Prose (Molly the Maid # 1)

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Molly Dunn is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and interprets people literally. Her Gran used to interpret the world for her, but since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has had to navigate life’s complexities all by herself. No matter–she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job.

But Molly’s orderly life is turned upside down when she enters the penthouse suite of Charles Black, an infamous wealthy guest, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself very dead in his bed. Did he die of natural causes or was he murdered? When the police arrive, they question Molly and soon misread her odd demeanour as guilt and find the evidence quite incriminating.

In addition to being a light gripping cozy mystery with lots of twists and turns, what I liked about this novel was the empathy and compassion I felt for Molly when people misunderstood her, or worse, took advantage of her. Clearly neurodivergent, Molly’s quirky character gives the reader insight into what it means to look the same as everyone else and yet be entirely different. Fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine might like this one too.