The Mystery Guest

The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose is the sequel to The Maid, a book I read for book club last month. The book description says, "Molly Gray is not like anyone else. With her flair for cleaning and proper etiquette, she has risen through the ranks of the glorious five-star Regency Grand Hotel to become the esteemed Head Maid. But just as her life reaches a pinnacle state of perfection, her world is turned upside down when J. D. Grimthorpe, the world-renowned mystery author, drops dead—very dead—on the hotel’s tearoom floor. When Detective Stark, Molly’s old foe, investigates the author’s unexpected demise, it becomes clear that this death was murder most foul. Suspects abound, and everyone wants to know: Who killed J. D. Grimthorpe? Was it Lily, the new Maid-in-Training? Or was it Serena, the author’s secretary? Could Mr. Preston, the hotel’s beloved doorman, be hiding something? And is Molly really as innocent as she seems? As the high-profile death threatens the hotel’s pristine reputation, Molly knows she alone holds the key to unlocking the killer’s identity. But that key is buried deep in her past, as long ago, she knew J. D. Grimthorpe. Molly begins to comb her memory for clues, revisiting her childhood and the mysterious Grimthorpe mansion where she and her dearly departed Gran once worked side by side. With the entire hotel under investigation, Molly must solve the mystery posthaste. Because if there’s one thing she knows for sure, it’s that secrets don’t stay buried forever."

This was another fun, light read. I feel like it's kind of rare to find clean adult books, so I just feel like these books are kind of refreshing and fun. I think Molly is a great character, and this book brought back some characters I liked from last time but also some fun new characters. The book did some back and forth (like half the book was her remembering a sequence of events from her childhood), which wasn't always my favorite format, but it totally made the book work to do it like that. I feel like this author is interesting because I always expect the book to end way sooner and then there's just a ton more book left to tie up loose ends and wrap things up. It's just a different style. There was a part toward the end where Molly was asked if she knew what was going on in the hotel, and she just said, "How would I know? I'm just the maid." (When she heavily involved in what was going on.) And I thought that would have been a perfect ending to the book. But then there was like an hour left in the audiobook haha. But I did enjoy getting all the extra stuff that the book cleared up in the rest of the story.

Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)