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A review by frannook
The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose
funny
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
Never fear a new beginning. One chapter must end for another to begin.
I need to get notebook wherein I can write and collect all Molly's grandmonther's sayings because they are lovely and intelligent and deep and precious and I just love them, okay?
In The mystery guest we are once again back in the Regency Hotel where Molly has now been promoted to head-maid: she is in charge of all the maids, valued and appreciated by the hotel manager Mr. Snow and her coworkers and has even written a handbook for the Regency Hotel maids.
Her boyfriend Juan has left for Mexico to go visit his family and she is busy with preparing the brand-new renovated hotel's decadent tearoom for a big event: the mysterious author JD Grimthorpe will address for the first time his adoring fans to give a big announcement.
Unfortunately, just when he's about to reveal his secret, he takes a sip from his cup of tea and immediately drops dead, right there in front of readers, journalists and hotel's personell.
And who had prepared the tea cart? So it is that Molly and her maid in training Lily find themselves once more at the center of a police investigation.
What can I say, I just love Molly as a character and I love the whole cast of characters, particularly Molly's grandmother - yes, because even though she died even before the beginning of the first book, she is right there in every moment and every page, never leaving Molly, always offering words of encouragement or having the right saying for every situation in which Molly finds herself in.
It is such a great cozy mystery series, with such good and lovable characters and appealing settings, filled with drama and it perfectly balances more serious topics (such as child abandonment, sexual assault, drug use, grief ) with humor and lightheartedness, which is not at all an easy task!
I truly deeply hope that this is not the last we see of Molly and that her adventures will continue in other books!
... About that. I do have a suggestion for the third book, so follow me okay?
Dear Nita Prose, just get rid of Juan. Nobody cares about him and there's no chemistry there. But Molly and Detective Stark?! I can totally see Molly as a neurodivergent bisexual woman (a great and quite common intersectionality) and Detective Stark as a fearsome butch!
Like, it's an enemies to lovers that writes itself, the foundation was so clearly there on a silver platter in this volume.
All you have to do is give it a little push and there we have it, a third book with a budding sapphic romance between Molly the officer in training and Detective Stark! Pretty please?!
In The mystery guest we are once again back in the Regency Hotel where Molly has now been promoted to head-maid: she is in charge of all the maids, valued and appreciated by the hotel manager Mr. Snow and her coworkers and has even written a handbook for the Regency Hotel maids.
Her boyfriend Juan has left for Mexico to go visit his family and she is busy with preparing the brand-new renovated hotel's decadent tearoom for a big event: the mysterious author JD Grimthorpe will address for the first time his adoring fans to give a big announcement.
Unfortunately, just when he's about to reveal his secret, he takes a sip from his cup of tea and immediately drops dead, right there in front of readers, journalists and hotel's personell.
And who had prepared the tea cart? So it is that Molly and her maid in training Lily find themselves once more at the center of a police investigation.
What can I say, I just love Molly as a character and I love the whole cast of characters, particularly Molly's grandmother - yes, because even though she died even before the beginning of the first book, she is right there in every moment and every page, never leaving Molly, always offering words of encouragement or having the right saying for every situation in which Molly finds herself in.
It is such a great cozy mystery series, with such good and lovable characters and appealing settings, filled with drama and it perfectly balances more serious topics (such as child abandonment, sexual assault, drug use, grief ) with humor and lightheartedness, which is not at all an easy task!
I truly deeply hope that this is not the last we see of Molly and that her adventures will continue in other books!
... About that. I do have a suggestion for the third book, so follow me okay?
Dear Nita Prose, just get rid of Juan. Nobody cares about him and there's no chemistry there. But Molly and Detective Stark?! I can totally see Molly as a neurodivergent bisexual woman (a great and quite common intersectionality) and Detective Stark as a fearsome butch!
Like, it's an enemies to lovers that writes itself, the foundation was so clearly there on a silver platter in this volume.
All you have to do is give it a little push and there we have it, a third book with a budding sapphic romance between Molly the officer in training and Detective Stark! Pretty please?!
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Drug abuse, Death, and Murder