*From the Stacks is–with any luck–a monthly book review of both new and old titles that are currently sitting on all my available flat surfaces at home. Some of the books will be titles I am reading with my IRL neighborhood book club, and will be indicated as such at the top of the post. Unless indicated, no titles are advance reader copies (ARCs) or solicited review copies. I have a library card and both my kiddo and I are avid readers, is all!
Title: The Maid by Nita Prose
Publish Year: 2022
Publisher: Ballantine Books (Penguin Random House)
Copy Obtained: Library book
Book Club read?: Yes!
Overall rating: 3.5/5 stars
WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD
I’ll start by saying that I am not generally a mystery reader–most of the mysteries or suspense novels that come out today are a little too grim and despairing for me, and I have the world’s lowest threshold for children in peril, which is a popular trope for thrillers, suspense, and the like.
But a good locked room mystery, a la Agatha Christie? Something reminiscent of that wonderful board game Clue? Okay, I’m in.
This book was picked by one of my book club mates who loves a good cozy mystery with a twist. While I’m not sure The Maid is particularly twisty (more on that in a minute), it has that blend of mystery+interpersonal banter that reminded me a bit of the Cat in the Stacks mystery series. There’s definitely a game afoot, a murder to solve, and justice to be won, but you have one eye on the case and one eye on the protagonists, hoping for and cheering them on as they navigate tricky interpersonal drama.
And sweet baby Jesus, does Molly Gray have her hands full of interpersonal drama. A very black-and-white thinker (some readers have speculated that she may be autistic, as many of her mannerisms–her social awkwardness, her strict adherence to routines and familiar patterns, her utter confusion in the face of double-talk, unspoken cues, etc–seem neurodiverse-coded.) who has recently lost both her beloved grandmother and her financial security, Molly finds herself at the center of a murder most foul at the hotel where she is a maid: a job she absolutely adores, but which brings her in close proximity to the worst kind of manipulative people. It’s these people that made the first two thirds of the book infuriating, and the last third so deeply satisfying.
I spent 190 pages (I counted) wanting to scream. Molly’s incredible attention to detail (and the fact that so many people dismiss her–she’s a maid, she’s ‘strange’, she’s not worth anyone’s attention) means that she picks up every. Single. Clue. around her. But her super literal, sometimes narrow perception of the world means that she repeatedly fails to put the clues together and see the danger she’s in. The strange men in the room she’s cleaning? Well, her friend said they’re good people, so they are. That white dust everywhere? Someone ate powdered donuts, surely. One of these strangers inquire after another employee’s family? Well, aren’t they kind, being so concerned for their health and safety! And on, and on, and on. The result was that the reader is much further along in solving the mystery than Molly is, and watching her continue to march toward potential disaster is stressful (or it was to me!) It also undercut the ‘twists’ of the mystery, because the reader already saw them coming. Instead, the twists are within Molly herself, as she tries to put the pieces together. It’s not until a friend comes in and lays the pieces out that she’s able to see what’s happening.
I felt a little uncomfortable with this portrayal, particularly Molly’s ‘rescue’ by her neurotypical friends. The characters are all fine: empathetic and respectful of Molly, supporting her without coddling or infantilizing her. But the fact still remains that it’s a NT secondary character who swoops in to put Molly on the right track.
I can’t speak with any knowledge about what being autistic is like, but some parts of Molly’s characterization felt almost too oblivious. This is a character who’s favorite television show is Columbo, a character she references frequently. Even with her super-literal thinking patterns, she shows in other parts of the story that she can–and does!–see the larger picture connecting the details, even if she comes at those connections from a different perspective. Part of her massive blind spot could be the deep devotion she holds for her job, and her hotel (and make no mistake, she may a maid, but Molly cares for the place and its people like it’s her own home and family,) but I would be curious to know if the author worked with beta readers or sensitivity readers who were on the spectrum, and what they thought of Molly.
Now, the first 190 pages made me want to scream. The remaining 114? Delicious. If you like to see the bad guys get a thorough comeuppance, the heroine deliver some justice on her own terms, and get a final twist out of the ending? You will be pleased by this one. Once she’s got the picture all those little clues were making, Molly uses her particular skill set–that attention to detail, her deep knowledge of the hotel and it’s practices, and her relative invisibility–to weave a net of her own. Without spoiling the ending, I will say I found it deeply satisfying, and one line in particular I will be bringing to book club to see if any of the other members did a fist pump in the air when they read it.
The book’s final twist surprised me, but Molly makes it make sense to the reader in a way that both highlights just how observant she is, and how very tired she is of watching people like her–different people, working class people, people who are alone and invisible in the shadow of someone more powerful–being dismissed. Written off as unimportant, or unbelievable. She can’t challenge that system directly, but she can use their own blind spots against them, the way they tried to use hers against her. And she does, spectacularly.
Overall, I mostly enjoyed The Maid. It hasn’t converted me to mystery as a genre, but it was a fast read (which is good, because, one hundred ninety pages aaagh) with plenty of heart, and a satisfying conclusion that reminded me why I like whodunnits. I’d like to feel more certain that Molly’s character was an informed, nuanced look at neurodiversity, however, rather than a caricature. She’s written with heart and warmth, but something about her portrayal felt two-dimensional in a way that just didn’t sit right with me.
-Kate
Kate Hall 