Book Review: The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose

I bought this book because I adored the first in the “Maid” series by Nita Prose so much. The Mystery Guest begins a few years after The Maid ended; and if you loved reading about Molly’s adventures then, you’ll appreciate her character development even more in this latest bestseller. This book is an added delight to readers because it features the murder of a mystery writer, with good-natured pokes of fun at the rabid mystery fans that devour his books. These books continue to be incredible bestsellers for this editor-turned author, and the detailed plotting combined with a memorable protagonist and detective are a winning formula.

Plot Summary

Molly is still living in her deceased grandmother’s apartment, but she is joined there by her boyfriend Juan Manuel, and they live a quiet and happy existence together. They both work at the Regency Grand Hotel where Molly is now Head Maid, a title she wears proudly, and takes incredibly seriously. She still struggles to understand emotional and cultural cues, but she’s getting better at reading faces and showing more sensitivity, which Juan is helping her with. Everyone in the hotel is excited for the special event with bestselling and world-famous author J.D. Grimthorpe, who has chosen the Regency to make a rare appearance. Mere moments before he is about to reveal his big update, he drops dead from poisoning. Molly and the other maids are once again prime suspects for his murder as the same detective who investigated the other murder at the Regency from the previous book is on the case. As Molly tries to clear her name, the novel switches back and forth from present day to Molly’s past, revealing her family’s connection to the now dead author/millionaire with secrets. Through these flashbacks, we also learn more about Molly’s estranged mother, and the reason she becomes a maid like her grandmother.

My Thoughts

Molly is just strange enough to endear her to readers, but keeps enough hidden to remain interesting, and somewhat mysterious herself. Grimthorpe’s appearance excites Molly because it prompted the staff to resurrect a previously-closed down room of the hotel to host this special event, and she loves nothing more than the Regency Grand shining for the public. But we quickly learn through her internal thoughts that Molly has a history with this man, one he doesn’t remember, but she certainly does. Even though the book is written from her first-person perspective, she doesn’t reveal all right away, keeping the suspense of her own life going while at the same time becoming privy to insider information that helps her solve the crime of Grimthorpe’s death.

Molly’s biting observational humour has also returned from the first book, one of my favourite instances being her description of the slightly unhinged group of fans that follow Grimthorpe around:

‘”We’re not just a fan club. We are aficionados of mystery,’ a different, rather buxom-gray-haired woman says as she points to the #1 FAN button fastened to her lumpy brown sweater. The sweater is either made entirely of cat hair or so covered in it that the material underneath is largely invisible.”

-p 63 of The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose

Is the above a description of the future me? Very likely! But for now, I only resemble this woman because of my constantly-covered-in-cat-hair clothes, and a desire to read mystery books all the time. I suspect many mystery lovers will laugh out loud when reading this part, as we can recognize a bit of ourselves in all the different fans of Grimthorpe that make up this colourful cast of characters.

The pacing of the plot is perfect; I never once felt annoyed that we were jumping back and forth through time, and the eventual reveal was reasonable, and believable. I wouldn’t say it was technically ‘fair play’, as I don’t think it was possible to come up with the solution without Molly’s prior knowledge of the hotel and all its ins and outs. However small hints and clues were dropped throughout, so perhaps the die-hard mystery fans out there would have figured it out. Prose has once again dazzled us with a fun and intelligent work of suspense, and I can’t wait to read the third!