The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose - 10%
Molly's back!
The Maid by Nita Prose was one of my favorite surprises of 2024’s reads. Molly, the neurodivergent protagonist, is written with such thoughtfulness and care. It’s clear that Prose has the deepest respect and understanding of the neurodivergent community (turns out she was a “teacher of special needs students” in a past life), as Molly never veers into caricature or hyperbole1. She has a rich and detailed inner life, her unique take on the world is never mistaken for stupidity, and her triumphs and struggles are nuanced. On top of all that, the book is heartwarming, funny, fast-paced, and engaging. Highly recommended.
And so, I come to The Mystery Guest, the sequel to The Maid, with great aplomb!2
As the title of this post indicates, this will be reflections on the first 10% of the book (page numbers are for suckers), with more posts to come as I read more. Sure, other blogs might wait to take in the work in its entirety, but how many of them give you thoughts in real time, huh?
(Probably quite a few)
10% of the way in, The Mystery Guest is hitting many of the same notes that The Maid did. I was a little apprehensive going in, fearing that Prose would fall prey to sophmore syndrome and either not maintain the character development found in the series’ first entry, or lose some of the magic of Molly. Like The Maid, The Mystery Guest seems that it will thrive or fail on the strength of Molly’s character. So far, so good.
While we’re on the topic of characterization, one of my few gripes with Molly the Maid’s universe is Juan Manuel’s rather thin character. In The Maid, he was saved by the extraordinary circumstance he found himself in, but if we peel back that layer a bit, I think we’ll find that he’s a character defined by his environment, rather than one that interacts with it. I’m hoping that in The Mystery Guest, he gets a bit more fleshed out (though, starting him off several thousand miles away doesn’t bode well).
The pacing and plotting of the story is clipping along nicely. In the first tenth of the book, we’ve already established the connection to the last novel, introduced several new characters, and checked in on many old ones. Oh yes, and we had a rather public murder. One mustn’t forget subtle details like that.
Until I find a better way to do so, I am going to hide spoilers and plot details by sandwiching them between warning signs. If you want to read about specific plot points and what’s going on, it’s there for you. If you do not, scroll past quickly until you see the second un-warning sign. Also, if you are an experienced Substack user and know of some better way to accomplish this, please, let me know.
Ok, enough about literary merits. Let’s talk about who killed Mr. Grimthorpe. A few things seem clear at this point:
His tea or, more likely, his honey, was poisoned.
His assistant, Ms. Sharp, has much more going on than we know at this juncture.
There’s something about Room 402 and its unusual clutter of hotel items
Someone knew Grimthorpe’s secret, and either killed him for the content of the secret itself or to prevent others from it.
It also seems likely that Mr. Preston is ailing in one way or the other, and dear reader, that eventual reveal may bring me to tears.
I am excited to learn more about Molly and Gran’s past, including their connection to the Grimthorpe family. I feel there’s a good story to tell there, and I hope we get to hear it. This is particularly true for Gran’s backstory. She’s a singular character full of contradiction, and I’m eager to dig in further.
I will say that Molly hiring her new maid against Mr. Snow’s wishes struck me as a bit out of character. Yes, Molly has grown in confidence and would take her promotion seriously. I also don’t know (nor need to) the details of the Regency Grand’s HR policy. I just question that Molly, who reveres Mr. Snow to such a degree, would blatantly go against his intuition like that. I wonder if the discrepancy will be cleared up at some point soon.
This early in the novel there aren’t too many more insights to make, but rest assured that make them I will, in their own due time. I do hope you’ll get…swept away with me.3
It is worth noting that others don’t agree with me here, as reviews like this one illustrate. Reddit is also full of comments about how Prose leans too heavily into stereotypes, the exact opposite of what I espouse above. I can only speak from my own experience in reading the novel, which was much more positive than that. Still, I am sensitive that I am not a member of that community, and won’t have the same perspective.
Aplomb…and trepidation. Two high profile murders in the same hotel is right at the edge of incredulity, and with a third Molly the Maid book coming next year, I hope this isn’t turning into a H. H. Holmes situation.
See what I did there?