If I were to use only one word to describe The Maid by Nita Prose, it would be “cute”, much like the cat in the above picture. Do you ever have one of those days where you feel like the weight of the world has got you down, and you just want to lay on the couch or on a beach and watch/read something light-hearted and enjoyable? Well, The Maid is the novel you want to read the next time you are in that kind of mood.

The Maid is a mystery novel, but the mystery is not its strong suit. Instead, the novel does an excellent job of creating an uncommon protagonist and original narrative experience for the reader. The protagonist is Molly Gray, also known as Molly the Maid, a twenty-five-year-old woman who works as a housekeeper at a fancy hotel. Molly does not know how to read social cues and she misinterprets other people’s facial expressions and language. She takes things quite literally and comes across as unemotional or insensitive to others. Molly’s grandmother used to help guide Molly through the world and explains things for her, and even come up with rules for Molly to live by, but Gran has passed away and Molly is alone and has no one to guide her anymore. She is struggling to make ends meet and faces eviction from the apartment that she lived in with her Gran.

Through Molly’s interactions with the other characters in the novel, the reader has a better idea of what is going on in the hotel that Molly works at than she does. The hotel’s bartender, who Molly has a huge crush on, is using the hotel as the base of operations for his drug smuggling, and Molly unwittingly becomes his drug mule. Then Molly finds the hotel’s most prominent and wealthy guest dead in his room, and because she trusts the wrong people, Molly ends up arrested for his murder.

I found The Maid to be a bit frustrating to read because I kept wanting to reach into the novel to grab Molly by the shoulders and explain how she is misinterpreting the situation she finds herself in, but also because of how few characters in the novel seem to understand that Molly has a social cues disorder, including the detective who arrests her for murder. I thought we were living in a time when social cues disorders, Asperger’s, autism are more common knowledge, but instead Molly constantly gets weird looks and cruel treatment from people. I guess I am giving people too much credit. I really should stop doing that as it just leads to disappointment.

But do not fear readers, I did say this novel is light-hearted. Molly has her allies who help her to understand what is going on and who guide her through clearing her name. There is one last twist at the end of the novel that makes the mystery worthwhile. So, if you like cutesy mysteries and need a change from hard boiled detective fiction, I recommend you read The Maid.