Ponder: The Maid

 The Maid by Nita Prose ©2022 is a delightful story, enjoyable both in the writing style and in the tongue in cheek murder tale it tells. Molly is on the housekeeping staff of the Regency Grand Hotel, "a five-star boutique hotel that prides itself on sophisticated elegance and proper decorum for the modern age". Molly describes her role succinctly in the novel's prologue.

Molly is fastidious. She is a neatness freak who possesses extreme attention to detail. A such she makes an excellent maid. In striking contrast to those traits she is also unique in her cluelessness when it comes to reading people's actions and expressions. She reminds me of a housekeeper version of Dr Shaun Murphy who is a young autistic savant surgical resident on the ABC TV show The Good Doctor. A well-portrayed cast of characters – her wise grandmother, a fatherly doorman, a hardworking dishwasher, a charismatic bartender, a patient boss, two maid friends – round out her daily interactions. A wider circle of co-workers look upon her with disdain or disgust because of her odd social behaviors. 

Two key plot points drive the story and happen early on in The Maid. First, Molly lives in a small fifth floor walkup apartment with her grandmother who raised her. Her grandmother passes away from cancer and Molly is alone. Second, while cleaning a penthouse suite, Molly comes across the body of the client, dead in bed. Her attention to detail is helpful to the police, but her cluelessness and misplaced trust in people allows her to be framed for the murder. Many of her interpretations of the actions and intents of people are misguided; her naive responses, when I read them, brought a smile to my face or a slight giggle to my lips. It is refreshing in its simplicity yet clever in its plot twists. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and rate it five stars.

★★★★★ Great! Read it!

I am reminded about the following grook by Piet Hein. A grook (Danish: gruk) is a form of short aphoristic poem or rhyming aphorism, created by the Danish poet, designer, inventor and scientist Piet Hein, who wrote over 10,000 of them, mostly in Danish.

NAIVE

Naive you are

if you believe

life favors those

who aren't naive.