The Maid: The Sunday Times and No.1 New York Times bestseller, and Winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards for best mystery thriller: Book 1 (A Molly the Maid mystery)

6 Reviews For This Product

1. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   06

   by Spicewalker August 29, 2023

   I came to this book with no preconceptions what so ever. I’d not read reviews – I tend not to as I like to make my own mind up about books. I’m not great at reading blurbs first either if I’m honest – heaven knows how I pick the books I do to read. I did, before writing this review, go and check a few out, not for the purposes of plagiarism before anyone cries foul, but because I can see why this book might both delight and incense readers. Molly, the eponymous Maid in this book, is, at least I assume is, neurodivergent. It is never explicitly mentioned, nobody talks about this or the possibility of autism, but there are aspects of her character that would potentially lend themselves to that diagnosis. I’m not professional, and I can’t claim to have personal experience with living with anybody who is autistic, but there are many of the classic symptoms that fit Molly’s personality.

   That no-one else talks of her in these terms may seem a little strange, that they dismiss her ‘quirks’ as just part of her being odd, a running joke as it were, but then this is reflective of life, is it not. Those who still dismiss an autistic child as being ‘a bit naughty’ and ‘in need of discipline’ when, in truth, there are parts of their character over which they have no control. There are characters in the book who are far more sympathetic to Molly’s unique perspective on life, and is is so unlikely that they wouldn’t talk of Molly in specific clinical terms if her own Grandmother had chosen not to seek a diagnosis, and Molly herself doesn’t view life in this way? I don’t know. Like I say, I’m no expert but I guess that is that label I personally ascribed to Molly, perhaps as a way for my own understanding of her personality traits and why many things which any other person have viewed as a touch suspicious, Molly just accepted as being perfectly normal. And in a hotel such as the Regency Grand, where one of the key clients is murdered and a few other nefarious goings on happen after hours, perfectly normal is pretty much anything but.

   Question marks over Molly aside, I actually enjoyed this book. A murder mystery where, over the course of the book, we find ourselves with more than just the odd suspect, Molly included. In fact it is Molly, with her less than typical approach to the whole affair, who becomes the main suspect, and whilst we don’t necessarily accept that version of the truth, we find ourselves sifting through the clues alongside Molly and her friends, trying to piece together what exactly did happen on that fateful day. It’s fair to say that there is a lot going on, lots of sub plots that we are in on as readers, and where we can be several steps ahead of Molly, that point us in the direction of certain characters as the story progresses. I found myself getting a little angry as Molly was used, knowing that she thought she was just doing the right thing. I was also a little taken aback at the ineptitude of the Police, seizing upon Molly as a suspect and looking no further. Not impossible, a little irritating none the less and the one part of the book I couldn’t really gel with. The officer in question didn’t come across as the kind to railroad suspects into a confession, but it certainly started to play out that way.

   One of the saving graces for both Molly and the story, were the people around her who rallied around to help her in her darkest moments. Yes there were those who were quick to dismiss and turn their backs on her – quite reminiscent of real life in my opinion – but with people like Doorman, Mr Preston, his daughter, Charlotte, and kitchen hand Juan Manuel on Molly’s side, it’s not all bleak reading. There is actually something quite sweet about Molly’s innocent view on life and particularly her friendship with Juan Manuel, and that counters some of the less savoury friendships with Molly has. One’s we can all see are toxic, but that Molly lacks the understanding to diagnose.

   The ending of this book came as a bit of a surprise, some just deserts served and some revelations which perhaps shouldn’t have been as much of a surprise as they were. It worked for the story though, and left me with a kind of satisfied smile when I read those closing chapters. The moral of the story – if there is one – is never to underestimate the people who clean your hotel rooms and don’t take cleaners for granted. They see far more than you think they do and deliver a far greater service than simply turning down your bedsheets. Molly may not have come across as the most astute and worldly-wise of characters, but she was far more switched on than she was given credit for. And never mistake innocence for stupidity. To do so could prove to be your undoing! Definitely an intriguing mystery that didn’t go where I expected. I’m interested to see where the author leads us, and Molly, next.

2. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   06

   by bookworm September 30, 2023

   A strange and different book. Not what I was expecting at all. I didn’t enjoy the beginning few chapters and really considered giving up but stuck with it and have to admit by half way I’d been hooked in. I enjoyed the second half of the story and was glad I finished it. Not sure I would be rushing to buy the sequel though. It’s good as a stand-alone but I think the challenges faced by Molly make it irritating. I’m assuming she’s probably supposed to be ‘on the spectrum’ or if she’s not supposed to be she’s just cringingly naive and sheltered, which make her situation a tad unbelievable.

3. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   06

   by Bronwan Allen September 30, 2023

   Very good

4. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   06

   by Popsy October 20, 2023

   I’m afraid I stopped reading at a quarter of the way through. The story was less a cosy mystery and more a detailed and skilled portrait of a young neurodivergent woman whose life to date has been very unhappy and lonely, and it is clearly set to get worse at least in the short term. It reminded me in many ways of Elizabeth is Missing, the tale of a woman with dementia who can’t understand where her friend has gone. Fine writing but there. Simply isn’t enough plot to hold my interest. I feel that other writers have written similar characters with fewer words, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, for example. That said, on several occasions it did provoke quite an emotional response as the more disturbing events in Molly’s life were shown,
   This book was more literary portrayal than cosy mystery.

5. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   06

   by Margaret Agnew November 4, 2023

   I read frequently and like most popular , novels especially ones that have a little quirkiness, like The Maid. I like to pass the ones I buy to other readers family and friends and I get some of their favourites on loan. Thank you for keeping me abreast of interesting publications. Mgt. Agnew

6. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   06

   by Ralph Blumenau November 20, 2023

   The first three-quarters of the book are wonderfully readable and made me think that this review would give it a five-star rating. But, sadly, the last quarter is nothing like as good.

   The story is told by the likeable Molly Gray, aged 25, the maid in the beautiful Regency Grand Hotel. She had been brought up by and lived with her much-loved grandmother, who had died nine months earlier. The grandmother had been a fountain of clichéd advice, which Molly constantly recalls. Memories of her grandmother are prominent throughout the book – including of the physical pain she suffered before her death, and that Molly had obeyed her wish that she should do an act of mercy-killing with a pillow at the end. This traumatic event will account for Molly’s reactions to later events.

   Molly loved and took pride in every detail of her work, in being an “invisible” part of the splendid hotel. She is innocent and naïve, thinks the best of people, and describes herself as socially gauche, unperceptive, making inappropriate remarks, over-explaining in answers to questions. She has an obsessive cleaning disorder. We have here an excellent portrayal of an autistic person.

   Everything changes for her one day when she went to the suite of rooms (401) occupied by one of the hotel’s regular guests, the well-known and wealthy property mogul, Mr Charles Black, and Giselle, his second wife.. She finds him dead in his bed, amid a cascade of pills from the bottle of Giselle, his second wife.

   That morning she saw a newspaper article about a row in the Black family between Mr Black and his first wife and daughter who had shares in his company which Mr Black wanted back.

   Stark, a woman detective has been called and wants Molly to accompany her to the police station to take a statement of what she had seen. There again Molly over-explained everything she had noticed during her duties that day, but suppressed some things that she feels might incriminate Giselle, who had always been friendly towards her and had even told her that she suffered from her husband’s tyranny.

   The following morning everyone at the hotel was sympathetic to Molly for the shock of her discovery, especially Rodney Stiles, the barman, who asked her for an evening meeting. Molly had always taken a fancy to him and was thrilled about this “date”. She had seen him that morning in a room she had been told was empty and which she was about to clean. Rodney was with Juan Manuel, a Mexican dishwasher in the kitchen, and with two foul-mouthed “behemoths” with shaven heads and facial tattoos. The four were disturbed to see her, and the reader immediately sees that something sinister is going on, and that Rodney was making a veiled threat to Juan Manuel; but Molly did not pick this up, even when Rodney asked her not to tell anyone that she had seen them. Rodney spun her a story which she guilelessly accepts: that he was looking after Juan Manuel, whose landlord had turned him out because he had discovered that he was an illegal immigrant, and so he had put him up in a room which he knew was empty; and Molly would do them a favour if she always told them each day which room in the hotel was empty at the time.

   Mr Preston, the hotel doorman, saw Rodney depart and warned Molly to be careful of him: he is a bad man.

   The post-mortem had shown that Black had been suffocated. There were only three pillows instead of four on the bed.

   The next day, Molly is put under arrest for first degree murder, and for having helped Mr Black to run a drug operation through the hotel. Stark tells her that they have interviewed many of the people at the hotel about her – and that Rodney had thought her “more than capable of murder”, at which point Molly realized how she had been betrayed by him. She was allowed to contact a lawyer and she phoned Mr Preston for help. He turned up at the police station accompanied by his daughter, Charlotte, who just happened to be a lawyer. Having heard her father’s high opinion of Molly, she posted bail for her release.
   It is at this point that, sadly, the book begins to disappoint. There is a sequence of events which I found difficult to follow, and which required Molly to act a part which I would not have thought she was capable of playing, but which resulted in Rodney being arrested and charged with the murder, and the charges against Molly being withdrawn.

   At Rodney’s trial, Molly makes a revelation for the first time which, I would have thought, would get her into trouble for having concealed it for so long. There was enough evidence against Rodney to have him sent to prison. For one thing, he had worked with Black on the drugs operation and had forced Juan Manuel, in the empty rooms, to cut the drugs – but at the end of the book we find that, even at the trial, she did not mention what she had really experienced and which would have shown who the real murderer was.

   But we are to believe that her behaviour at the trial had earned her a respect she was not used to. She was promoted to head maid. Juan Manuel had also done very well at the trial. Charlotte had secured a work permit for him; he moved in with Molly and they lived happily for ever afterwards.