47 pages • 1 hour read
Nita ProseThe Mystery Guest: A Maid Novel
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 19-24 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary: “Before”
Molly walks in on Mr. Grimthorpe and sees him threatening and trying to sexually assault Gran. When he sees Molly, he stops, but Molly realizes that even though he looks like a man, he is actually a monster.
Chapter 20 Summary
In the present, Molly faints, and Mr. Preston catches her. He tells her not to call Lily a rat and warns her not to make the same mistake twice. Molly recovers and brings Lily to the Social to explain. Lily says that a maid is indeed to blame, but she isn’t that maid. She explains that Cheryl forced her to pull the fire alarm so that Cheryl herself could take the box. Cheryl also made Lily give her the tips, saying that she would make sure that Lily would lose her job if she failed to comply. Molly is furious. She lures Cheryl to the Social with free food. When confronted with the website and Lily’s suddenly strong accusation, Cheryl tries to bribe the others.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Before”
Reflecting on earlier years, Molly now understands why some days were hard for Gran. She is amazed at how Gran always rallied. In a flashback, the young Molly doesn’t want Gran to go back to the mansion to work, but Gran insists. Molly pretends to steal the Fabergé egg and hides it in the silver pantry. Mrs. Grimthorpe is furious at the apparent theft and throws the Gray women out of the house. When Gran asks Molly why she took the egg, Molly doesn’t answer, but she is happy to know that Mr. Grimthorpe cannot hurt Gran anymore.
Chapter 22 Summary
In the present, Molly tells Mr. Snow that he needs to deal with a big rat. They show him the website, and Cheryl doesn’t deny her guilt; instead, she blames her behavior on Mr. Snow’s bad pay and the fact that nobody locked the valuables away. With Molly’s encouragement, Lily speaks and tells the truth about Cheryl. She says that Cheryl’s screen name connotes murder. They call Detective Stark. When Stark asks Cheryl what was written on Mr. Grimthorpe’s cue cards, Cheryl admits ignorance. One buyer bought almost all of the items and has been connected to a P.O. box. Molly asks where the spoon and honeypot are, and Cheryl says she wishes she knew, as they would make a good sale. Molly asks why Cheryl didn’t blur the contents of the Moleskine notebook on the website, and Cheryl said it was all doodles and nonsense. This creates a revelation for Molly, who suddenly realizes a potential motive for the murder of Mr. Grimthorpe. He didn’t write his own books.
Chapter 23 Summary
Molly tells Detective Stark about her childhood with Mr. Grimthorpe, reasoning that if he stole her idea about how to get rid of a body, he would willingly steal everything else as well. She theorizes that Mr. Grimthorpe’s secretary wasn’t just typing; she was writing the books for little pay and no credit while Grimthorpe got rich and famous from her hard work. Stark realizes that she has underestimated Molly and asks for her help investigating the Grimthorpe mansion. They get a search warrant and go together. The mansion is run-down, but the man who answers the door is the gardener, Mr. Jenkins, who recognizes Molly. He lets them look around and says that Mrs. Grimthorpe died from a stroke five years ago. Molly takes Stark to Grimthorpe’s study, which is full of scribbled-in Moleskines. Stark finds the hidden entry to the secretary’s office. On the desk is a picture of the secretary and a little girl whom Molly recognizes as Serena Sharpe, Mr. Grimthorpe’s current assistant.
Chapter 24 Summary
Serena finds them in her office and confirms that her mother wrote all of Mr. Grimthorpe’s books. She couldn’t tell the police about this because she had signed a contract that stipulated that if Mr. Grimthorpe could announce it and Serena didn’t leak any information, her mother would be given all the credit as the writer as well as five million dollars and the royalties going forward. Her lawyers now say that Serena cannot reveal the truth without losing the money. Serena confesses to hating Mr. Grimthorpe but says that he was better use to her alive. She confirms that he physically assaulted her mother and used this threat to control her. He tried to do the same with Serena, but she was too strong and hurt him. Now, Mr. Jenkins brings them tea, and the clinking of the silver spoon in the porcelain gives Molly another revelation. She tells Detective Stark that they need to get to the hotel.
Chapters 19-24 Analysis
As new facts come to light, the flashback chapters suddenly take on more prominence, for the seemingly inconsequential details within them prove to hold the key to unraveling the mystery of Mr. Grimthorpe’s death. Thus, Molly’s frequent ruminations become far more than a quirk of narrative structure and instead allow her to express an unprecedented degree of agency and power as her epiphanies drive the plot forward. These revelations also establish Grimthorpe as one of the unquestionable villains of the book, and this detail aligns with the cozy mystery trope that the person who dies is often the most unlikeable character in the story.
Molly’s decisive moment in the spotlight counteracts the darker themes of this section, and this pattern is also seen in the flashback chapters as well. For example, even though stealing the Fabergé egg technically conflicts with Molly’s moral code, she knows that some rules need to be broken in order to protect those she loves, and her well-meaning mindset therefore highlights The Contrast between Good Intentions and Guilty Motives. While Molly is deeply moral, she is not a blind rule-follower, and even as a young girl, she uses her sense of justice to pursue dramatic positive change. Although her actions cause their immediate eviction from the mansion, Molly still declares a form of victory because she has successfully protected her grandmother from Mr. Grimthorpe’s predations. After this memory is unearthed, the adult Molly takes it as renewed inspiration and begins actively pursuing the symbolic rats in her sphere, coming to new realizations about the identity of the killer. Thus, Molly’s memory of being the hand of justice in the past helps to bolster her present-day crime-solving activities for the remainder of the novel.
Standing as a distinct counterpoint to Molly’s enthusiastic amateur sleuthing, Detective Stark transforms considerably from her original role as an antagonist in The Maid. Now, she puts aside her suspicions of Molly and fully acknowledges the protagonist’s potential as a justice-bringer and skillful investigator. This shift allows Molly to gain greater access to the investigation, and she will also be in an ideal position to identify the suspect during the novel’s climactic scene. Detective Stark’s realization also suggests that Prose is taking a longer view of how the series itself will progress, and this shift in Molly’s status indicates that future installments of the novel will offer her an even greater scope for her natural talents. When Stark offers Molly a job as a detective, the invitation compels her to question the staying power of her current role as a maid, and it also draws an implicit connection to her gran’s long-ago comment that she should aim for more ambitious goals. If nothing else, Stark’s offer also implies that if Molly does not join the police, she will nonetheless have a valuable official connection and ally in future novels.
The Value of Unnoticed Work also manifests in both positive and negative ways in this section. While Molly’s unnoticed deductive skills are finally acknowledged as valuable by Detective Stark, the plight of the average maid continues when Cheryl points out that her own work is underpaid and undervalued. Similarly, the lifelong ghostwriting of Serena’s mother reveals that she has long been undervalued for her work, for Mr. Grimthorpe has ridden to fame and fortune on an undeserved wave of glory and acclaim that should have been hers by all rights. Thus, when Molly’s work is finally appreciated, she stands as the sole positive example this theme and is able to move forward with confidence as a result of Stark’s recognition. As Stark accepts Molly’s help in the investigation, Molly finally feels as though she has won The Struggle to Belong. Detective Stark’s switch from saying “She’s just a maid,” to admitting “You’re better than a lot [of detectives] I’ve worked with” (65, 246) is an enormous shift that boosts Molly’s self-worth and satisfaction. With this powerful new support, Molly can finally solve the crime and set a trap for the killer.
The symbol of the Fabergé egg takes on its full meaning in this section. Up until this point, it has been a symbol of power and riches that are unobtainable to Molly. In the latest flashback chapter, however, she takes this power for herself by pretending to steal it to paradoxically save Gran by getting her fired. While the Grimthorpes have neglected the egg and let it tarnish, Molly uses it constructively to protect the innocent, and by polishing it, she literally makes it shine. Thus, Molly’s use of the egg indicates that she is using her power for good, not for her own selfish gain. She also knows that the egg itself is not as important as protecting her family. Throughout the novel, other characters call their loved ones their “Fabergé” eggs, and here, Molly discovers that her gran’s safety is much more important than any manifestation of physical wealth.
