Book Review: THE HOTEL MAID

Title: The Hotel Maid

Author: Michelle Dunne

Publisher: Storm Publishing

Pages: 264

My GoodReads Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

 

In the Prologue, we meet June Calloway, a maid who has been working in the Cedarwood Manor Hotel for the last six years, who finds a dead body, Mrs Erica Kelly, in Room 208. When she calls Lauren at Reception to inform her about the dead body, she learns that Mrs Kelly’s 10-year-old daughter, Mia, is missing and that the police are on their way.

Chapter 1 then takes us back in time to a period Six weeks earlier, when June finds a note in her locker, saying, “I know what you did. Keep your mouth shut.” June, who believes in working hard and keeping her mouth shut, has her secrets, but she can’t imagine who might be warning her. Who could have left her the note? Could it be Malcolm Levy, the security head, whose grandparents own the hotel? Or Liz, the hotel manager, who is in a relationship with Malcolm? Soon there is another note with the single word, Killer.

The only support that June receives comes to her from Tess, who lives in the apartment she has rented.

Meanwhile, Mia, the adoptive daughter of Erica Kelly, is subjected to horrible child abuse and mean gaslighting at home.

 

The book is written in the 3^rd person past tense PoV of June and Mia. On the face of it, there is nothing to tie the stories of June, Mia and Tess together. There’s nothing really graphic but the book hints at child abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, self-harm and even paedophilia.

 

WHAT I LIKED:

The author kept us on tenterhooks. There were several mysteries going on at once. What was June’s past? What did Erica Kelly want?

My heart went out to Mia. Her account made for painful reading. She was such a sweet child, yet so vulnerable, going through challenges no child should have to go through. It was sad to see a child being told untruths and lies, and her then building her self-image based on those lies. The humiliation and the belittling that she is subjected to, despite the hard work that she puts in to cook three meals a day for the family and clean the house. I enjoyed the embodied writing in Mia’s PoV. The end of Chapter 20 especially made me want to wreak violence on Erica. I certainly connected more with Mia’s POV than with June’s.

The narration by Jacqueline Milne was very well done, with every voice sounding different and tuned to the situations of the plot.

One quote I really liked in this book: Turns out nobody in this bloody story is who they say they are.

 

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

The book takes on disturbing overtones towards the end.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME:

There is no mention of any cell phones in the novel so it is hard to figure out a timeline. At one point, Mia mentions that she has read the news about Paris Jackson’s suicide, and since that happened around 2013, it gives us some idea, but the complete absence of cell phones throws us off.

The book raises certain questions that aren’t answered. At around 10 years of age, Mia cooks and cleans for the whole family. She was brought into the house when she was a very small child. Who looked after her then? Who cooked and cleaned for the family then? Also, who taught little Mia to cook, clean and keep house?

The identity of the person leaving the notes was never clarified. Towards the end, June has a suspicion about who might have done it, but she has no evidence. Nor does her theory seem plausible.

 

ALL SAID AND DONE:

It took rather long to make its point, but it was an enjoyable read.

 

 

(I read this book on NetGalley. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley.)