The Maid

It's probably more of a 3.5 but I'm rounding up.

I'm not much of a mystery reader these days but I do end up picking up a couple every year just to keep in touch with the genre. When I saw the cover for this book, I was immediately tempted because I can't resist gorgeous red covers. And the title and the minimalist style also intrigued me. As soon as I got my hands on the audiobook, I picked it up immediately. And this was unexpectedly fun.

This was surprisingly easy to read and I breezed through the whole thing in just a few hours. I alternated between the ebook and audio and I loved the experience of that. The author makes the choice to narrate this whole story in a single first person POV and while it could have backfired if not done properly, I think it was executed pretty well. This is kind of a locked room mystery and while there is some focus on finding the culprit, I will say that it's not the main focus of the novel. The mystery aspects are pretty simplistic, we can easily latch onto a few characters as possible perpetrators, but the author also manages to surprise us with some last minute revelations. I also loved the unexpected found family trope which only enhances the kind of cozy vibes that this whole book is going for.

Molly is the one who's POV we are listening to exclusively. So your enjoyment of the book will depend on how much you like her. She is a maid, who loves her job, gets immense satisfaction when she sees the meticulous cleaning she has done, but also realizes that she is mostly invisible to others both due to her “lowly” job as well as her personality. It's never named but she is definitely neurodivergent, unsure how to navigate social situations or understand body language, is very meticulous and straightforward, is not good at judging people but is capable of some deception because that's how she is able to cope in her interactions with others. I was sad at her naïveté many times when I could see she was being lied to and would get into trouble later, but I was also amazed at how much she valued the people who acknowledged her and didn't treat her as if she was invisible. She really keeps her grief and her resentments close to her chest and does what she thinks is best. She may not respond to situations like what we would expect but I think the author does a good job reiterating that it doesn't make her any less or weird and that she deserves all the respect and dignity, just like any human.

There are many side characters here, some mysterious, some sweet and nice, some sly and sinister and others just going through life the best way they can. I don't want to say more about them because looking at them through Molly's eyes and understanding them in a way that she cannot is one of the best parts of the book.

In the end, this was pretty fun. For a murder mystery, it is more focused on the main character and the way she goes about in life and that may not be the cup of tea for more seasoned readers of the genre. But if you are looking for more of cozy vibes, interesting ensemble, a quirky main character and a breezy read, do go for it. I would also recommend the audiobook because the narrator succeeds very well in ensuring that we understand Molly as a person and not just a caricature, narrating her with care and earnestness.

This was cute, and a reasonably interesting mystery. But just interesting - not compelling or fascinating. The hook is supposed to be Molly and her distinct outlook on life, but her character felt a bit muddy, having limitations, advantages, and quirks inconsistently and as required for the plot. A fine diversion, but I prefer Christie.

Struggled to finish this. All the stereotypes you can possibly think of, it's in this. On top of the annoying on-the-nose spectrum “hints” the author gives, this really felt like a lifetime movie you'd waste time on if there's nothing else to watch. At the end, you feel defeated and just wondering why the heck you put yourself through that.

Finished this sweet book today. I see why it's on week 7 of the NYTimes bestseller list. Good story, great characters and a feel good message. Not my usual dark and twisty fare- a delightful change for me. I recommend this one as a good palate cleanser when you've had enough blood and guts and torment and terror.

A semi-cozy mystery with a lot of heart but also without being too sugar-coated idyllic. Hovering between 4 and 4.5 because I can't decide. I thoroughly enjoyed this one from start to finish, with an endearing protagonist that I was rooting for almost from the very beginning. This book also touched some of my soft spots and made me tear up a few times, though it's not meant to be anything of a tearjerker.

Molly Gray is as unassuming as her name. She works as a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel, a dream job for her since her passion in life is cleaning up. Everything seems to be almost idyllic at the Regency Grand until one day Molly goes in to clean the suite of Charles Black, one of the hotel's richest and most important guests, only to discover him dead on the bed.

As a protagonist and the first person narrator through which we experience the story, Molly is as endearing as they come. She talks about how she's not so good at reading social cues and body language and tends to take things literally, which seems to likely put her somewhere on the spectrum. Though the story never explicitly says so, it's only all too obvious from other characters' reception of her as well as the various behavior that Molly exhibits that she's meant to be a neurodivergent character. As a neurotypical reader, I cannot speak to how authentic or accurate this portrayal of ND people is so I won't touch on that,. I understand that the author is herself neurotypical as well.

Nevertheless, I found Molly endearing in her kindness and the immense love between herself and her Gran. Molly is one of those people who want to see the world and the people in it as inherently good unless proven otherwise, and that sometimes made me feel so bad for her. I occasionally wanted to scream at her for not seeing how other characters were manipulating her, but I was always rooting for her from the beginning, and I'm usually pretty blase about protagonists in general.

The mystery itself was fairly simple. At first Charles Black's death was suspected to be of natural causes, but soon we learn that the death as well as the entire hotel itself is not quite what it seems. While Molly is our central protagonist and we experience the story through her eyes, she isn't exactly an investigator and doesn't do any active sleuthing. She isn't passive per se, but she also isn't going to be the sleuthing star of her own cozy mystery series anytime soon. The mystery is resolved by other people while Molly simply follows the instructions requested of her to usher the case to a close.

What really shines through in this book is the human relationships, both past and present, that Molly mulls about, reminisces on, or forges throughout the book. Of particular note is her relationship with her grandma, revealed to us through timely flashbacks and which brought tears to my eyes.

Thoughts on the ending: I thought the book could've ended well enough with Rodney getting arrested and then charged with the murder of Black. Everything that happened after that sent me into a tail spin.I'm really not sure how I felt about the reveal that Molly was the unwitting accomplice in essentially euthanizing her grandma. It kinda put a bit of a dent in the perfect relationship between them that I was enjoying thus far. Not so much on Molly's part but on Gran's for asking her granddaughter to do such a thing and continue living with the trauma of having committed such an action. That sounds completely out of character for such a sweet character like Gran to have asked Molly to do. And then also the final reveal that Black's Murderer was in fact his ex-wife. I didn't mind this reveal so much but I was very confused how Molly could reveal that much in a courtroom and then get away with not revealing who the figure was. At the very least I would expect the police to have to reopen investigations into the murder. And why would she withhold that information right to the end? If she was trying to protect the first Mrs Black, then why say it at all? If she wasn't, then why not volunteer that earlier? Why at that specific moment when Rodney was just about to get convicted, an outcome that I'd assume Molly would've wanted. Also, why did Giselle send her that last cheque out of nowhere? I actually expected that it had been her who murdered Black and that Molly was now blackmailing her. I was just so confused.

Overall, this was still a fun and easy read, highly recommended for anyone looking for a cozy or light hearted mystery.

” We're all entitled to a bad day now and again, I heard Gran say in my head. But when they are all bad days, with no pleasant ones, then it's time to reconsider things. “

This book is such as classic mystery, you don't know who did what. The beginning was too slow for me but at 52% I couldn't put the book down. 

I loved Molly as a character, I enjoyed reading from her perspective. My heart hurt for her towards the end, I almost ended up in tears! The part with her grandmother was written well and I could feel the pain she was going through.

I loved the ending! Though it's too good to be true, I felt happy for Molly! I feel like she deserved a happy ending.

giving this one 2 stars because it really kept me going (but that's also partially because this is a book club read so...)
I really disliked the characters in this book, the way the story is developed and the final mystery just doesn't make sense, who on earth would commit a crime and confess it to the first person in sight? The person who found the victim.
Completely forgettable

I found the beginning to be too slow for my liking. A slow burn mystery with the quirkiest character I've ever followed. I feel like I may have enjoyed it more as an audiobook. I feel like I couldn't get into it as much as I had hoped, I had a hard time grasping Molly's unique narration. It picked up the last 100 pages and I enjoyed the ending, especially the epilogue! 

It is easy to do the “quirky socially awkward” girl poorly. This feels like a book that needed a hook to make it popular, so she made the main character “quirky and socially awkward” without saying she is in the spectrum. And since the author just randomly assigned that to make her book popular, it is not done well. It reads like a list from Google of symptoms of autism. There is no depth or nuance to the character. It feels like the author is making fun of her like her coworkers do. I really hate that so many people will read this and think that is what autism is.

Gelezen als audioboek

Tijdens het lezen vond ik dit een heel gezellige, meeslepende cozy mysterie, maar verschillende ontknopingen en onthullingen lieten een wrange smaak na, waardoor ik uiteindelijk vooral een ietwat gedesillusioneerd gevoel overhoud.

Vooral het feit dat het hoofdpersonage niet consistent werd geportretteerd, is waar de auteur voor mij de mist in ging.
Molly wordt geïntroduceerd als iemand die enorm onwetend en naïef is op het vlak van persoonlijke interacties. Ze heeft de grootste moeite met het lezen van verbale en non-verbale communicatie en interpreteert alles in een recht-toe-recht-aan manier. Ook haar wereldbeeld is heel zwart-wit, gekoppeld met een vrij sterk gevoel voor rechtvaardigheid. Dit zorgde er bij mij voor dat ik meteen enorm veel sympathie voor haar voelde. Zo verzuchte ik meermaals “Ocharme, Molly.” als ze weer eens iets verkeerd had begrepen.
Naarmate het verhaal vorderde echter namen al deze kwaliteiten af en weer toe, afhankelijk van de richting waarin de auteur wou gaan. Hierdoor krijgen we verschillende ontknopingen, die voor mij ongepast leken en op het einde dus die wrange smaak nalieten.

Ook wou de auteur precies te veel doen in dit ene boek: en een atypisch hoofpersoon, en een resem van sociale problemen aankaarten, en een ingewikkeld plot met verschillende grote plotwendingen, en een ontroerende, slow-burn romance...
Jammer, want het concept zat goed.

 There are things that I really liked about this book, like the characters. And things that I didn't particularly liked, like the convoluted plot and unrealistic resolution. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading this book right until the point when everything went to hell and then was resolved in less that 12 hours.