THE MAID (2023)
By Nita Prose
Ballantine Books, 285 pages
★★★
Nita Prose struck gold with The Maid, her debut mystery novel. It scored numerous awards, praise from established writers, and public acclaim. It has even been optioned to Universal Pictures for a yet-to-be-released movie starring Florence Pugh as Molly Gray, the book’s eponymous maid. (Don’t confuse Prose’s novel with a similarly named Thai horror film or Stephanie Land’s memoir.)
Maybe I’m a crank, but I found The Maid rather ordinary. It is definitely in the Agatha Christie genre of “cozy mysteries,” meaning that murder is treated in a genteel manner. I’ll concede that Molly is an unlikely central character. She invites descriptions such as naïve, mousy, neurodivergent, and socially awkward. One might also classify her as having OCD. How many people do you know whose primary goal in life is to clean hotel rooms and her home to a state of “perfection?” She works in the five-star Grand Regency Hotel, marvels over its grandeur, and loves to clean. In her words, “I like things simple and neat.” She is aware that her work colleagues think she’s an oddball and that for most, maids are a “lowly nobody.” Still, she considers herself lucky to work at the Grand Regency. Squalor, dirt, and tip-stealing Cheryl are her enemies, though she is happy to clean up the messes of guests, no matter how vile they might be.
Molly’s sheltered life reminds me of Chauncey Gardner in Being There, though Molly’s life has not been a tidy bed of roses. Her mother died when she was young, she doesn’t know her father, and was been raised by her aunt in an apartment filed with collectibles. (Think porcelain made by Hummels, Goebel, and Royal Daulton.) Their tyrannical landlord gouges them and takes his time on needed repairs, but jumps like a panhandling jackrabbit when the rent is due. Molly’s aunt has built a nest egg for Molly, but doesn’t realize she lost most of it in a scam. Thus, when her aunt dies of cancer, Molly is left with very little money and an arsenal of her aunt’s aphorisms that she repeats like a talking doll. Alas, Molly’s salary and tips make paying the rent a challenge.
Prose doesn’t specify the novel’s setting. On one hand, we visualize a posh English hotel in the 1950s, perhaps in the Cotswolds, because of the proliferation of tea drinking, stiff manners, and deference to hierarchy. On the other hand, parts of the book (speech, plebian characters, Olive Garden, the legal system) seem very North American. Ms. Prose is Canadian, so perhaps her model is a grand Canadian Pacific Railroad hotel (Vancouver? Banff? Toronto? Quebec City?).
Molly’s orderly life is upset when she befriends Giselle Black, the second spouse–think “trophy wife”–of Charles Black, who is filthy rich. How he got that way is mysterious, but both of them tip Molly generously and Giselle eventually pours out of her woes to Molly. In Molly’s parlance, Charles is “a bad egg” who is jealous and beats Giselle. One morning Molly begins to clean their room–including wiping all traces of a strange (to Molly) white dust from various surfaces–and discovers Mr. Black dead in the bedroom. Before you can say, “Count your blessings,” Molly is in for an adventurous week. It involves Rodney, a maybe boyfriend; a pawned ring; a gun, interference by Cheryl, who dislikes Molly; Juan Marichal, an undocumented worker; Molly’s friendship with the hotel doorman; her arrest for the murder of Charles Black; possible charges for drug running; revelations about Molly’s aunt; and a high-powered pro bono lawyer.
Here is a major plot problem. Even before we get the Christie-like reveal, we know Molly is innocent. (She even thanks the police interviewer who gave her a cup of water!) Nor will you not need Hercule Poirot’s “leetle gray cells” to finger the guilty parties. Prose does leave open the possibility of at least one guilty person who goes free, but the narrative so mannered that it’s unthinkable anyone would consider Molly as a murderess. It’s equally hard to imagine that Molly would change as much in a week as The Maid would have it.
The Maid is often charming, though it its chief attraction is entering a world and way of thinking that’s offbeat, old-fashioned, unintentionally funny, and charming. I’m not surprised there has been a sequel and a Molly Gray fan cult. If only there were an actual mystery!
Rob Weir
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