An Endearing Mystery: A Review of The Maid

As 2022 drew to a close, I began to notice a book title popping up on all the must-read lists: Nita Prose’s The Maid. Goodreads users chose it as the best mystery/thriller of the year, and the book took home the Ned Kelly Award for Best International Crime Fiction. So when I was trying to decide what books I needed to read in 2023, The Maid found its way onto my must-read list.

The Maid is the story of Molly Gray, a maid at the Regency Grand whose life is ordered by rules. Rules about cleanliness. About etiquette. About, well, everything. It’s clear that Molly is on the autism spectrum, though never explicitly stated. As someone who misreads intentions and social cues, Molly is a wonderful maid with few friends. After finding a hotel guest dead in his bed, Molly becomes embroiled in the investigation and implicated in the crime—but that’s when she discovers she does have real, true friends.

I will admit it took me a bit to get into the storyline of The Maid. No matter the genre, every author creates a world and invites the reader into it—and the world Prose created took a little getting used to. Truth be told, someone I love dearly is on the autism spectrum and, at first, the way Prose characterized Molly felt like a caricature of someone on the spectrum. Another part of me, recognizing my loved one’s love of rules in Molly’s scheduled, standardized life, felt a familiar fear that Prose was somehow making fun of Molly and all the characters in the novel were in on it. Eventually, though, these worries proved false, and Prose’s novel kept me turning the pages to find out what happened next.

What I discovered was a sweet story told from a unique perspective and a voice that we don’t often hear in modern literature. As a mystery/thriller, The Maid is a unique read because it’s obvious that criminal activity beyond murder is happening at the Regency Grand—and everyone realizes it except Molly. This is a mystery, but the secrets you expect to be veiled aren’t—and when secrets are divulged, they’ll surprise you.

The Maid is a mystery, but it’s also a book of lessons. Maybe one of the most important lessons The Maid teaches us is about the assumptions we make about others. When someone doesn’t react the way we expect, behaves outside of what we see as normal or doesn’t think like us, it’s easy to start to make assumptions about that person—assumptions that often prove false.

The Maid also has something to teach us about true friendship. Molly assumes she has no friends, but as the accusations come against her, she finds a community of faithful friends who are willing to fight for and with her. As Molly says, “I think I understand what a true friend is. It isn’t just someone who likes you; it’s someone willing to take action on your behalf.”

The Bookery Rating: 📙📙📙📙

It takes a little bit to get into this one, but it’s an uplifting, fun read told from a unique point of view.

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