Look at that tagline – ‘I am your maid. I know about your secrets. Your dirty laundry. But what do you know about me?’
Sounds fabulous, yes? I’ll admit I was intrigued and am grateful to NetGalley and Harper Collins for my copy in exchange for an honest review.
The story follows Molly the maid – a dedicated employee of the Grand Regency Hotel. She is used to cleaning up the mess left by people, until one day she discovers the dead body of the wealthy Mr Black in his room. Soon, Molly realises that this is one mess she cannot clean up…especially as there are some very dark secrets at the hotel.
Molly herself is an absolute triumph of a character – I was astonished to learn that Nita Prose is a debut author as the writing felt so sophisticated and confident. I loved that the narration is unreliable – Molly doesn’t read people or their intentions well and the reader is kept on tenterhooks with their fears about what Molly has got caught up in without her realising. Little clues are given throughout the story that the reader has to decode because Molly cannot. That said, she is absolutely charming and a pleasure to meet.
The other striking thing for me was the setting – I loved the opulent hotel with its veneer of respectability hiding all kinds of underhand dealing. The setting is also strangely timeless and without a definitive sense of place – the reference to dollars placed it in the US, but there was very little to pin down time or place otherwise. It is clearly modernish, but the vague sense of time and place made it oddly relatable – this could almost be any hotel in any city.
The characterisation is beautifully done – there are some great heroes and villains emerging throughout the book, plus some who we really fear that Molly is reading incorrectly. Her relationship with the barman, Rodney, is so sad to read about as she is just so trusting and I felt so indignant at her treatment by her line manager!
I read this with a group of bloggers (my Tsundoku Squad lovelies) and I found it so difficult to stop at the points we agreed to discuss the book – I wanted to race on and find out what happened. I thought that the final section was slower paced than I wanted, but I cannot fault the ending at all.
I’d recommend this wholeheartedly to those who enjoy mysteries with quirky and engaging characters. Based on this, Nita Prose is definitely an author to watch out for in 2022 and beyond.
If you’d like to pre-order this 2022 debut, please use my affiliate link below – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases.
It’s always so great when you read a debut novel and it ends up being a really good read. It doesn’t happen too often!