Murder mysteries have conditioned us to suspect the help: waiters, butlers, those whose very roles demand that they go unnoticed. THE MAID by debut novelist Nita Prose is a mystery centered on one such “invisible” character.

Molly Gray loves jigsaw puzzles, the Olive Garden, and her work as a maid at the Grand Regency Hotel. She enjoys being greeted by the crisp uniform hanging in her locker at the start of her day. She revels in arranging the soaps, shampoos and other miscellaneous items on her trolley. She commits her hotel manager’s speeches to memory and does her job accordingly as a proud bee in the Grand Regency hive. Molly is ceaselessly thorough, and her meticulous nature earns her an assortment of nicknames from the other staff. However, though she can’t always be sure, she is fairly certain that they’re laughing at her rather than with her.

"This is a debut novel with sheets that are spotless of errors and folded together just right. Upon finishing the book, anticipate checking dark corners for strangers and your pages for unseemly dog-ear creases."

At 25 years old, Molly is a bit unlike her peers. She has a hard time discerning social cues, intentions and expressions. Non-literal phrases sound to her like an entirely different language. She uses outdated patterns of speech and has an idiom on hand for every occasion. Luckily for Molly, she has always had her grandmother to explain social nuances to her and to help parse apart the events of her day.

However, upon her dear Gran’s passing, Molly is left grappling with loneliness in a world that doesn’t --- and doesn’t seem to want to --- understand her. Worse still, she finds herself at the center of a murder investigation when she happens upon an esteemed guest of the hotel dead in his bed. It is, all in all, a very unfavorable situation.

When she becomes the prime suspect in the murder, it falls on Molly to uncover the true perpetrator of the crime. In doing so, she must turn to the lessons she’s learned from her grandmother and the people she calls friends: an honorable doorman, a down-on-his-luck dishwasher, a mysterious bartender and a wealthy socialite. As with her beloved jigsaw puzzles, she must piece together the darker truth lying beneath the glimmering surface of the Grand Regency’s polished exterior.

This book is truly spectacular. Molly is a delightful character with an inspiring outlook on the world around her, even when the world reveals itself to be a somewhat dark and dirty place. Reading her ordinary thoughts is nearly as compelling as the mystery itself.

More importantly, with Molly as the narrator, THE MAID shines a spotlight on the “invisible” among us. Prose gives us a neurodivergent character with the strength to subvert not only antiquated “the butler did it” tropes attached to those in the murder mystery service industry, but also the stigma attached to neurodivergence itself as Molly surprises even those who do see her.

It’s hard not to love a murder mystery with a nice, tidy ending --- and THE MAID is nothing if not fastidious. This is a debut novel with sheets that are spotless of errors and folded together just right. Upon finishing the book, anticipate checking dark corners for strangers and your pages for unseemly dog-ear creases.