Man, this is one of those books that I feel really conflicted about! At its core it's a pretty well-constructed murder mystery that takes place at a fancy boutique hotel, where Molly, the titular maid, works. The mystery itself is pretty compelling, with some nice twists and turns, but what sets this book apart from most other similar contemporary mysteries is the extremely close first-person POV of Molly. It's never explicitly stated, but it's pretty clear from the narration that Molly falls under the autism umbrella: she has a hard time understanding what people's facial expressions mean, she takes everything literally, she is an exceptional maid in large part because she finds comfort in routine and cannot stand to let something be dirty or uncared for. It's a very readable and enjoyable POV, and before the mystery properly kicked off I prepared myself for this being one of the kinds of mysteries where someone's neurodivergence makes them a savant at putting together patterns and seeing things that more neurotypical people can't, a la Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock. And while I was already a bit 'sure, I guess' about that possibility, I was still looking forward to it.
But instead, she just...doesn't know what's going on. There's a whole seedy underbelly to the hotel that she's caught up in and just doesn't see it for what it is, and so it's this odd thing where I guess in theory the reader could enjoy being ahead of her in solving the mystery? But instead it just made me feel bad. The narrator's unreliable but not in a way that I found served the story particularly, aside from one reveal at the end that I did like a lot. But overall it left me a bit cold. However, I did enjoy reading it and I finished it in a very pleasant evening, so! As I led off with: CONFLICTED.
Grade: B
