Nita Prose / Whodunit

The Maid

The invisible girl who turned visible

This book is about Molly Grey. She is a room maid that doesn’t know how to interact with people but can clean amazingly. Everything changes when she finds Mr.Black dead in his room. Suddenly she becomes the main suspect in his murder and has to learn how to interact quickly. Is she being framed or will she be able to convince everyone of her truth?

What makes this book good?

Molly

Mainly the character Molly. At the beginning of the book, she is so simple. She is perfectly content with her life as a maid and even feels completely safe in this environment. She is so naive that relies completely on her grandmother’s wisdom to explain a situation. She doesn’t even notice if a guy is only interested in her to rob her. She doesn’t even realize that she serves as the maid for a drug cartel.

It is only when she is confronted with the facts that we notice how nuanced she really is. She is actually very sly and is able to stay within her own rules even when she is doing not-so-good things. 

She reminded me a bit of the socially awkward detective Adrian Monk. He has a fear of contamination and has difficulties interacting with people, but within his own rules, he is able to function as a detective. 

The suspense

This book kept me on the edge of my seat from the beginning until the end. And just when you think it can not get any more exciting, the epilogue drops a bomb.

What could have been better?

All energy has been put into creating the main character, but side characters like Mr. Snow and the other staff members stay plain. Mr. Preston and Juan Manuel jump out of that, but the rest is plain and predictable. I would have liked to see more evolution overall.

I read the Dutch translation for Libbele magazine and there were some typically Dutch expressions in there. Like “Hij geeft geen jota om je.” Where on Earth does the word ‘jota’ come from? Just replace that word with ‘moer’ and the Flemish readers will also understand. 

These remarks have lowered the score a bit, but the story is still top notch and I will still recommend this book.

Love BookDragon

I wrote this for Libelle magazine and this is what they published about it: Libelle Leesclub: ons recensieteam las ‘Het kamermeisje’ van Nita Prose – Libelle