Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsA quirky mystery
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 March 2022
Molly works as a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel, excelling at and loving her job of 'returning rooms to a state of perfection'. In a world where Molly sometimes struggles to fit in, finding it hard to always decipher peoples' meanings and intentions, and also struggling after the loss of her beloved Gran, her job at the Regency is a source of comfort to her. However, even her life at the Regency Hotel is thrown in disarray when renowned long term guest, Mr Black, is discovered dead in his suit by none other than Molly. Caught up in a web of lies and attracting attention from the police, Molly must put her faith in those she can truly trust to help her expose the truth.
I had heard a lot of praise for this debut novel by Nita Prose, and certainly it was an easy book to get into. Molly as the lead character has a strong and unique voice, and overall this makes for a somewhat quirky and cosy detective story.
A fair amount of time is spent at the beginning getting to know Molly, and though it is never stated overtly, it is hinted at quite strongly that she is likely somewhere on the autistic spectrum. This plays into the plot, with Molly often struggling to read the people around her, especially now with her Gran gone, and her awkwardness often leading others to misinterpret her as well. As a reader it was easy to like Molly and to root for her, and I loved some of her turns of phrase and her rather old-fashioned and very polite mannerisms. She also had an innocence to her that was very endearing, and which some other characters exploited. However, as with some other books with characters on the autistic spectrum, I did sometimes get the feeling that aspects of Molly's traits were exaggerated to elicit humour, and as such did feel contrived at times. Also there wasn't always consistency shown with regards to Molly's traits and social awkwardness, which seemed to disappear when it suited plot convenience, and as such I didn't at all buy the twist at the end. The book has had quite a lot of hype around it, and I do think a lot of this is to do with the character of Molly, however, whilst I did like her, I did also for the reasons mentioned see flaws in the writing of her character.
The actual mystery itself is probably one of the weakest aspects of the story, and I didn't like the end, as I don't think the clues were laid out, and as such it felt rather a cheat to me personally.
One of the stronger themes of the book for me was dealing with grief and loneliness. The thread regarding Molly's deceased grandmother was actually very engaging and well told I thought, with the bond between them well realised and with some genuinely emotional scenes rendered. We see Molly clearly struggling in the aftermath, and how isolated her life is without her gran.
There are quite a few colourful characters in the story, including Mr Black's second wife, Giselle, who Molly has a friendship with, Rodney, the bartender who Molly has crush on and Mr Preston, the doorman at the Regency to name a few. The struggle for Molly is deciphering which of these characters she can truly trust. The friendships that evolve as the story goes on are rather sweet, and there are some fun dynamics.
Overall, this was a pleasant read, but did not quite match my expectations going into the book based on all the hype around it. Also it began to lose some of its charm for me as it went on, due to some of the contrivances and inconsistencies in Molly's characterisation and the weak thread of the mystery itself.