The Maid by Nita Prose

 I haven't read a great 'cozy mystery' in a long while and so, The Maid by Nita Prose was in all senses, a delightful little read. Quick, suspenseful and elegant. Just like the work done by Molly Gray, our protagonist, a maid at this prestigious five-star hotel where she takes absolute pride in her work. 

Featuring a person, who possibly suffers from being neurodivergent (I admit, I had to look up this word and no, the author never really mentions this at all!) or autistic to an extent, Nita Prose whips up a delightful debut with this mystery book, released earlier this year. Nita knows her 'prose' - pun intended because the language and the writing is as much a pivotal character in this book as is her characters. Nita chooses an unknown setting someplace in America for her novel, the chief location being the five-star hotel Regency Grand where Molly works. Now Molly is peculiar and very dedicated to both her craft and her gran, now deceased. In fact, she recognizes that she has problems adjusting to the society due to her slightly strange nature. But what has made her endure this, are the simple etiquettes and rules set to her by her Grandmother, a practical and crafty woman who knows that it's going to be difficult for her bright but strange granddaughter to get by in this apathetically cruel world. 

So Molly works as a maid at the Regency Grand and this gives her great pride and pleasure, given that she loves things being in order, shining spic-and-span. The cleaning routine gives her life an order and she devotes herself to this job with a self-righteous rigor that essentially endears her to the Hotel Manager, Mr. Snow and others on the job. But her orderly world is rocked one day when she discovers a guest dead in his bed when she's attempting to clean the room. This sets off a chain of events, for which poor Molly is completely unprepared for. But she discovers a whole new set of unexpected friends and also the truths about others whom she had considered 'friends' or reliable. 

Molly's voice is distinct and helps drive the narrative forward. It was a bit strange but also refreshing to be stuck inside the head of one, who doesn't pick up on social cues immediately. This causes some interesting situations - like the whole rigmarole with the murder inside the room that she's cleaning and her resolute steadfastness in sticking to the truth. Or that she cannot read people well either. She keeps picking up these 'Bad Eggs'. Molly's dialogues are stiff, formal and wholly inopportunely funny. The mystery itself, actually is a side-affair though Nita the author does a great job in tidying up the storyline and the loose ends. 

The side-characters in Molly's world are equally important and lend a whole lot of chutzpah to the bungled up proceedings. Like Mr. Preston, the earnest door-man at the Hotel, who is straight-forward and grandfatherly or his clever daughter Charlotte, the attorney. There are others, like the grumpy landlord, the young and attractive Mrs. Black, the wife of the deceased real-estate baron, the shrewd detective, Rodney the handsome bar-tender on whom Molly has a delightful 'crush'. 

This book is an absolute delight from the first page, as soon as we encounter the special Molly Gray. Her plucky optimism, her lessons in life based on her Gran's aphorisms ('Honesty is the Best Policy') and her understanding of the world, viewed through the colored lens of her own tough background ( partly influenced by reruns on television of detective shows like Colombo etc) - all of this makes the narrative very interesting and absorbing. This is an overly polite book, yes (Molly clearly doesn't know the swear words!) and that's another refreshing aspect about it that appealed to me. Overall, this was a welcome return to the era of Agatha Christie for me, with this cozy mystery thriller. A great break from the longish, darker fantasy reads of mine.