The Maid by Nita Prose

March 17, 2022

The Maid by Nita Prose

Molly Gray is a maid at a posh London hotel. She is on the autism spectrum, and until recently, lived with her grandmother who helped interpret life for Molly, explained how to deal with new situations, and taught her how to interact with other people. Now that her grandmother is gone, Molly is trying to learn how to manage life on her own. She loves to clean and observe proper etiquette, which make her a perfect maid. Her world is thrown into chaos when a regular hotel guest is found dead in his room and she finds herself caught up in a web of deceit. Fortunately for Molly, she has friends who help her sort through the clues about what really happened to the guest.

This is one of the few books that I didn't finish. Based on early reviews, I expected to really enjoy it and was disappointed. I couldn't stand the narrator/main character. Half of the time she's totally clueless, and the other half of the time she is incredibly sharp and clever. The author also tried to address too many social issues and illegal activities. Some parts, like the courtroom scenes, are just silly. Early reviews and publisher's prose compared the book to Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, which was the first and best of the books to have a narrator who was on the autism spectrum. I have not really enjoyed any of the others that I've read.