Spoiler Discussion for The Maid

Did you read The Maid by Nita Prose and need a plot summary or a list of characters? Looking for a discussion of the plot? Want to talk spoilers? Looking for book club discussion questions? Check out my Spoiler Discussion for The Maid! Also, check out my review of book two in the series, The Mystery Guest!

Spoiler Discussion for The Maid

Welcome to my post on The Maid by Nita Prose. If you do NOT want spoilers, read my thoughts about The Maid here.

The Maid was on many Best Mysteries of 2022 lists, won awards, and was the GMA Book Club Pick. That doesn’t mean you will like it, so let’s discuss!

Here’s what this Spoiler Discussion for The Maid contains

List of Characters in The Maid by Nita Prose

Plot Summary of The Maid by Nita Prose

Who Are the Suspects in the Murder?

Spoiler Discussion of The Maid by Nita Prose including the answers to questions like “What Makes Molly ‘Special?'” and Where Does the Maid Take Place?

List of Characters in The Maid by Nita Prose

• Molly Gray – has worked as a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel for four years. She was raised by her grandmother after her mother’s death.
• Flora Gray – Molly’s grandmother, who died recently.
• Charles Black – a business tycoon found dead in his room by Molly.
• Giselle Black – young wife of the victim.
• Victoria Black – Charles Black’s daughter
• Mr. and Mrs. Chen – frequent guests of the hotel
• Detective Stark – assigned to the Charles Black Murder case
• Wilbur Brown – a guy Molly had a crush on. He stole Molly and her Gran’s life savings.
• Charlotte Preston – Molly’s lawyer (and Preston’s daughter)

Characters: Employees at the Regency Grand

• Alexander Snow – manager of the Regency Grand Hotel
• Mr. Preston – the doorman at the Regency Grand
• Cheryl Green – Molly’s supervisor. Molly finds her lazy and sloppy and she steals Molly’s tips.
• Sunshine and Sunitha – two other maids
• Juan Manuel Morales – a dishwasher in the kitchen of the Regency Grand.
• Rodney Stiles – head bartender at the Regency Grand

Plot Summary for The Maid by Nita Prose

I am putting possible clues in BOLD.

Monday

Molly arrives for work for her job as a maid at the Regency Grand Hotel. She tells the reader that she struggles to decode social cues and understand jokes.

As she arrives to clean Black’s room in the penthouse on the fourth floor, she sees Giselle Black, who looks upset and runs into the bathroom.

Molly cleans the suite except the bathroom, telling Giselle that she will be back. She cleans the rest of the rooms on the floor. Then she goes to the kitchen to visit Juan Manuel, her friend, in his job as a dishwasher. She helps him by finding him empty hotel rooms to sleep in.

Molly Makes a Shocking Discovery

Later that afternoon, she returns to the Black’s suite to clean the bathroom. She finds the bedroom safe open and Mr. Black dead on the bed.

She alludes to seeing something terrible reflected in the mirror but doesn’t explain what. On the bedside table is medication that Molly recognizes as belonging to Giselle. She calls Mr. Snow on the room phone to report the murder.

As Molly sits in Mr. Snow’s office, she tries to remember her movements on the day of the murder. She visited Juan Manuel and saw red marks on his wrists, which he said are burns from the dishwasher. She chatted with the Chens, a couple of return guests.

Molly then went to pick up the morning newspapers from Rodney at the hotel bar, who was wearing an expensive new watch. The paper featured a story about Charles Black and the tension in his family over control over his business.

Molly recalls that she and Rodney discussed Giselle, Charles Black’s second wife. Then Molly went to the Black’s suite. As she arrived, Mr. Black stormed out of the room, a document marked “deed” sticking out of the pocket of his suit. Inside the room, Giselle was sitting in the living room, looking as if she’d been crying.

Giselle then went into the bathroom and Molly began to clean. She saw two plane tickets to the Cayman Islands and noticed bottles of scotch and gin missing from the minibar. She then told Giselle she would return to clean the bathroom.

The police arrive and Detective Stark takes Molly to the police station to get her witness statement. Molly says that the only thing out of place in the Black’s room were the pills strewn over the bedside table.

Molly doesn’t mention the open safe. She also recalls a prior conversation with Giselle Black, who told her that she was miserable with her husband, that his family hated her, and that he’d given her bruises. Giselle gave her a gift, a brass hourglass timer.

Detective Stark asks Molly if she knew Giselle well, and Molly just asks her why a guest would talk to a maid.

Tuesday

Molly arrives at work. Mr. Snow shows her a newspaper story about tension in the Black family and possible fraud in his financial dealings. He then asks Molly if she has ever seen any sign of nefarious activity from the Blacks, and she says no. Mr. Snow tells her he’s moved Giselle to a second floor room to protect her from the press.

Molly goes to see Juan Manuel and gives him a key card for a room on the second floor. She then stops at the bar, where she’s shocked to see Rodney with a black eye. He asks to meet her after work so she can tell him every detail of the Black murder.

As Molly cleans, she thinks about Rodney. One day she opened the door of a supposedly vacant room to find two burly, tattooed men, a navy blue duffel bag, Rodney, and Juan Manuel.

Rodney then makes a threatening remark toward Juan Manuel’s family in Mexico, which Molly misinterprets as friendly.

Rodney invites her out to dinner, and tells her that the two men are Juan Manuel’s friends. He tells Molly that Juan Manuel is an undocumented immigrant and that Rodney has been finding him vacant hotel rooms to sleep in. Molly offers her help.

Molly meets Rodney for their date and he immediately asks her what she saw in the Black’s hotel room. She tells him about the medication and the plane tickets and he asks her what she told the police.

Arriving home after her date, Molly sees Giselle waiting in front of her building. She is crying and says she was questioned by the police about her husband’s death and accused of murder by Charles’s daughter, Victoria.

Giselle says that she and Charles had a huge fight the day he died. She’d asked him to tear up their prenup or give her title to their villa in the Cayman islands. He’d stormed out of their room, furious.

Molly tells Giselle about the missing liquor, the pills, and the open safe. Giselle says she’s staying at the hotel until Charles’s cause of death is determined and his will is read. Giselle then asks Molly to retrieve a gun that is hidden in the penthouse suite at the hotel.

Wednesday

At work, Cheryl tells Molly that the police are done in the penthouse and that Molly can clean it. Molly tells Rodney that Giselle came to visit her. Rodney asks Molly to let Juan Manuel sleep in the penthouse and gives her the navy duffle bag to store there.

In the penthouse, Molly retrieves Giselle’s gun from a panel in the bathroom ceiling and puts the navy duffle under the bed. She finds a man’s ring in the room. She hides the gun in her vacuum and pawns the ring to pay her rent.

When Molly gets back to the hotel, the police take her in for more questioning. They ask Molly about the timer that Giselle gave her and accuse her of conspiring with Giselle. Back at home, she calls Rodney to tell him about her interrogation, and the gun, which he promises to dispose of. She also tells him about pawning the ring.

Thursday

Molly is arrested. Detective Stark tells her that Charles Black was drugged with Giselle’s medication and then smothered. Cheryl, who followed Molly to the pawn shop, told the police about the ring. The police found the gun in Molly’s vacuum, as well as traces of cocaine on her cleaning cart.

Molly calls Mr. Preston, who gets his daughter Charlotte, a lawyer, to help Molly. Charlotte posts Molly’s bail and she and her father takes Molly home. Molly then tells her all about the day of the murder.

Mr. Preston tells Molly that Rodney used Cheryl to tip off the police about the gun and the ring. Molly tells the Prestons about Juan Manuel, the duffel bag and the guys with tattoos. They ask Juan Manuel to come over, and he tells them Rodney asked him to help bag drugs in exchange for help with his work permit.

Juan Manuel also says them that Rodney was giving stacks of money to Mr. Black, and that Rodney and Giselle were having an affair.

The four make a plan. Molly texts Rodney, asking to meet. When they do, she lies to Rodney, telling him that the police suspect that Mr. Black’s murder had to do with his will, and that Giselle received nothing in the will.

She also confesses to Rodney that she told the police about the men and the duffel bag. Molly offers to get him the key to the penthouse suite so he can clean up the room.

When Molly arrives at the hotel, Mr. Snow tells her she’s fired. She manages to sneak the master key to Rodney. She then calls Giselle and tells her that she knows that Rodney is Giselle’s boyfriend. She asks Giselle if she knew about the drug operation.

Giselle says yes, that she and Rodney were planning to escape to the Cayman Islands. Molly tells Giselle to head to the airport immediately. Then Molly watches the police arrest Rodney.

Suspects in the Maid by Nita Prose

• Giselle – as his wife, she’s the obvious suspect
• Molly – she was friends with Giselle, who showed Molly her bruises. Molly also had some violent revenge fantasies toward Wilbur.
• Rodney – he’s obviously shady.
• Victoria Black – though she owns 49% of the company

Who was the murderer in The Maid by Nita Prose?

Molly returns home, where Juan Manuel has made her dinner. The police arrive with the Prestons and tell Molly that Rodney has been arrested and charged with drug offenses and the murder of Charles Black. They also tell Molly she can have her job back.

Mr. Preston says that he knew Molly’s mother and grandmother, Is he Molly’s grandfather?

Molly recalls how she helped her Gran take her own life when she was terminally ill. She put painkillers in her Gran’s tea and smothered her with a pillow. WHOA!

Several Months Later

Moly has testified in Rodney’s trial. Molly has been made Head Maid at the hotel. Juan Manuel and Molly have moved in together. Giselle is still on the run. At the trial, Molly explains what she saw in the mirror when she discovered the body: someone holding a pillow. Molly says she didn’t get a good look at the person, and then fainted. Molly gets a wire transfer of $10,000 from Giselle.

Molly recalls that the person with the pillow was a middle aged woman, Mr. Black’s first wife.

Molly saw her in the mirror and was about to faint, but Mrs. Black gave her chocolate and water. She tells Molly that Mr. Black was a bad man and that sometimes a good person has to do the right thing.

Spoiler Discussion for The Maid by Nita Prose

Possible Book Club Questions for The Maid by Nita Prose

1. What did you think of Molly as a detective? Can you think of other detectives she reminded you of?

This book reminded me a fair amount of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which featured a main character on the autism spectrum who solves a murder. (I assume that is Molly’s situation, though the book doesn’t clarify.

I listened to an interview with the author and she definitely does not want to clarify or specify what makes Molly “special” at all. )

As portrayed in the book, Molly is observant and detail oriented. She judges people on their actions, not their words, and doesn’t see much nuance in people. So she decides that Giselle and Mrs. Black are “good” while Cheryl and Mr. Black are “bad.”

But when it comes to other people, Molly is really NOT a good judge of character at all. Where she seems to go wrong judging people is with guys she has a crush on: Rodney and Wilbur.

2. Did it bother you that Molly was an unreliable narrator?

Molly seems to thrive on routine and be a huge rule-follower. Yet she never tells the police that she knows who Mr. Black’s killer was. Was this because of her unique sense of right and wrong? She protects both Giselle and Mrs. Black.

Molly outright lies on the stand and says she didn’t see the person holding the pillow, but tells the reader that she told “her truth” which “focused on what I see best and obscures what I fail to understand.” I feel this gives her a little too much self-awareness, but okay.

3. What Did You Think of the Book’s Morally Gray Quality? (Molly Gray/Morally Gray?)

Did Molly withheld the truth because Charles Black was killed in the same way that Molly helped her Gran die?

Maybe because Molly didn’t want to acknowledge what she did, she can’t hold Mrs. Black accountable?

Early in the book, Molly talks about Robin Hood, which I thought was interesting. Molly says that Robin Hood takes for the greater good, restoring justice to those who have been wronged.

4. In an interview I listened to, the author of The Maid says she feels that The Maid is an “uplift book,” which I thought was an interesting comment.

She’s Canadian and says that this means a “feel-good” book. Do you agree or not?

WHAT ARE YOUR OTHER THOUGHTS AND QUESTIONS? Please leave me a comment and join the discussion!

Also, be sure to check out my review of The Mystery Guest, book two in the Molly the Maid series!