Nita Prose brings back our favorite maid in "The Mystery Guest"

Note: Text has been edited and does not match audio exactly.

Yvonne Durant: Hello. Audible Editor Yvonne Durant here. And today I'm chatting with Nita Prose, the bestselling author of The Maid series. The first of the series, The Maid, was a big hit in 2022 and it made Audible's Best of the Year list, topping the mysteries and thrillers genre. Nita is back with a new title in the series, The Mystery Guest. Hi Nita, welcome, happy to meet you, and how's Molly?

Nita Prose: Oh, hello, Yvonne. Very happy to meet you too. And Molly is, well, as she would say, delightful.

YD: [Laughs] Let's start with your name, Nita Prose. I said to myself, "Is that possible? A writer with that last name?" Prose. Talk about the perfect aptronym. But we now know it's a pen name. Can you tell us about that?

NP: Yeah, it's a good question. My real last name is Pronovost, and the spelling is impossible. There's a silent -st at the end. I'm still learning to spell that name, and it doesn't exactly fit very nicely on a book cover. And for many years—I work as an editor in my day job—all of my colleagues have called me Prose. You know, "Prose, will you have a look at that manuscript?" "Prose, do you think you can edit this copy?" And so that became my pen name at work, so to speak. And years ago, when I went on Twitter, I decided that would be my handle, and so that's been my shortened last name for so many years that it felt like a natural fit. My first name is my first name. I was born with it and it's too late to change now. So, Nita it is.

YD: We don't want you to do that. So, okay, got that out of the way. I was so curious. And you know, I love The Maid and couldn't wait to get the early audio for The Mystery Guest, where I see Molly has been promoted. We also get some important background information on her. It answered some questions I had. One example of new information, for me anyway, is the teacher explaining to Gran certain issues Molly has. I'm just going to come out with it: Is she on the spectrum or not?

NP: You know, I wanted to give a glimpse into her early life and what it would have been like for Molly in school. But my goal with this book, and with the first book, is to let the reader decide. My concern is that if I put a big label on her forehead or I say in the descriptive copy, “Molly is this or Molly is that…,” it exonerates the reader from really investing in her journey. I want you as a reader to live behind her eyes, to become Molly, and to experience life as her. And I was so afraid that if I announced that she was this or that, many readers might see her as other, as different, as not them. And the whole point of the book is to see through Molly that we are all the same in different ways, you know?

And so that early chapter that you're talking about in the book is a glimpse at what it feels like to academically not belong, to be placed in a circumstance where despite her great success in many ways, she's still deemed unacceptable by an institution. I'm pretty sure that many people have felt that, maybe in different ways, but they felt it in a similar way to Molly. And I hope that readers respond to that.

YD: Yeah, because I read a lot of conversation online that I'm sure you're aware of. And I also saw that you taught special education?

NP: I did, for many years. Before I was an editor, I worked with special needs high school students. And I think about them all the time. I'm still friends with many of them. And it was such an important time for me. I loved these kids. They were challenging, they were difficult, they were wildly imaginative. At the beginning they hated reading, and at the end they loved stories more than anything, and that for me was like a great achievement.

"The whole point of the book is to see through Molly that we are all the same in different ways."

But one of the great difficulties about teaching these kids wasn't so much the teaching, it was getting them out into the world. And so we'd go on field trips, and of course we'd go to the art galleries and the museums and all those sorts of things. But something I really loved to do was just to take up space with them in public. So sometimes we'd just go to the donut shop across the street and we'd have a donut and a coffee or whatever. And most of the time, people treated these teenagers with grace and dignity—except for the people who didn't. And you never forget those people. It always shocked me that somebody could belittle or subtly condemn somebody just for the smallest difference. A twitch or a twinge, or a way of being, or the fact that one of my students might have rocked, you know, as a way of soothing themselves.

But these kids were so amazing, they were so compassionate and kind to other people, and yet that respect that they naturally had for others and that deep compassion wasn't always something they received. And that is something I never forgot, and I think it found its way into Molly's experience. I hope it did.

YD: It did. And I must say, I was reading one conversation, someone referred to her as an oddball. I did not like that at all. So, do you feel the need to protect her in the future? Do you think you're going to have to say, "Now, wait a minute..." In your words, in Molly's words, or you know, just setting people straight. Do you think that day's going to come?

NP: I try to in my own way, as I have even in this conversation, to explain my decision-making behind some of the processes. And why I'm comfortable saying one thing but not, you know, presenting her with a label. But I think that with a character like Molly, she's out of my hands now and she belongs to the readers.

YD: True.

NP: She's not mine anymore. And if anyone's going to defend her, it's not going to be me, it's going to be them. And believe me, they really do.

YD: You know what, that's so interesting, because, yeah, as readers and fans, I'm a fan of Molly. I might have to enter one of those chats and tell someone where to go.

NP: Well, this is it, right? And I think that is the great thing about presenting a character who feels real to a lot of people. And many writers are able to do that. And I think for some readers, they feel that Molly is a kindred spirit. They see in her themselves, which I really didn't realize when I was writing this book that a character that was so personal to me would become so universal. But in the end, now looking back, it kind of makes sense to me because, of course, we all experience that feeling of lacking a sense of belonging at some point. Part of our human nature is to want to belong and to have a social community. And we all know the feeling of what it's like to be the last one picked on the team, or the last one out, or the one spoken about behind our backs, and so on. And I think that really speaks to a lot of readers.

YD: Yeah, I can certainly relate to that, being a Black woman and often the only one in the space. So, I totally get that.

NP: I'm sure you would, yes.

YD: Let's talk about Juan Manuel. What qualities did you want him to have that would qualify him to be in a relationship with Molly?

NP: That is such an interesting question. I wanted the reader to fall in love with him as much as Molly does, and as much as I have. I wanted him to be someone who was capable of standing on his own two feet, but in circumstances that were extremely difficult. And that in his own way, he doesn't belong. He's been taken out of his country, he's in a new set of circumstances, he's working really in a lower echelon in a hotel and struggling to be seen and to choose the right moral path. And yet people around him keep undoing him. And I think, in different ways, there may be a foil. Molly, too, has her own unique moral universe, and she tries to follow her own notion of what is just and good. And so does Juan Manuel. And the two of them I think become protectors for each other in some unique and compelling ways.

YD: I really appreciated his character, and with all the discussion and conversation around immigration and they're treated as less-than, you know?

NP: 100 percent. I wanted to investigate that notion of a hotel and what happens behind the scenes and downstairs in a hotel. I mean, these are little microcosms where the hierarchy is very traditional and very conservative and one of the few places where that is actually not only allowed but revered. And I wanted to place him there and not have him stay there, have him triumph the way that Molly triumphs in the end.

YD: Yeah, I loved when he came back and he had the pictures of his family, sent her notes and all that. That was very sweet. I liked that relationship. Do I hear wedding bells?

NP: I think you do, Yvonne. I think you've got a very attuned reader's ear there. Will you go to the wedding if you get an invitation?

YD: Definitely, definitely. And please send me the registry.

NP: I will, I will.

YD: I will not be buying a Fabergé egg.

NP: No, but I can imagine you purchasing a lovely tea set.

YD: Yeah. That's me, that's me. By the way, thank you for more of the background on the Fabergé egg.

NP: Oh, yes. Thank you for picking up on that. Sometimes I think that there is a strange bric-a-brac antique store in my writer's mind where I go and select objects to put in a book. Some of these objects are real-life objects around me that are in my history or my background, and others are just things that I've always dreamt about and that exist in a strange corner of my mind. And they find their way, Yvonne. They find their way onto the page. I don't know what that's about. But it's kind of interesting.

YD: I love that, that bric-a-brac shop in your mind. And you go to it.

NP: It's like a little shopping trip to a thrift store where these objects become touchstones, not only for memory, but a certain feeling. And the Fabergé has a feeling. It's all about wealth and poverty, having and not having, about the difference between ersatz and real. Covetousness and miserliness. And it becomes a symbol for all of that in the book.

YD: Yeah, it does. So, this is one of my favorite questions, and I'm going to really delight in this one since you're a book editor. I may give you a rough time. Did you receive a lot of rejections for The Maid, if any?

NP: Of course I did. Of course I did! It is not a book for everybody. It is a book that has pleased—and I'm delighted it has pleased—so many people. But a few years ago, it wasn't the most obvious choice in the world. And now, you know, there's been a resurgence in the cozy mystery, and certainly in the pandemic the whole notion of home and heart and hearth became central to our recuperation from that trauma. And I published into that. But I wrote the book before that. So, I experienced all kinds of rejection.

One of my fall-down-on-my-knees moments was when my agent, Madeleine Milburn, out of the UK, did not reject the work, the early manuscript. Because I knew what that meant. She is the kind of agent who really has an eye for understanding what is going to be universal. The kind of book that is going to transcend just one continent or one country and is going to have appeal in a broader way. And when she understood the work, I was so delighted. But, of course, not everyone did. And of course, like every writer, that is disappointing and sad and you have to get over yourself and just keep going.

YD: Any of those rejection letters, and I don't know what your style of rejection is—it all hurts—but has it informed the way you now reject work?

NP: It has informed not only the way I reject but the way I treat all of my authors, whether I'm working with them or decide that they're not for me. I always had some sensitivity to the author's plight and just how vulnerable it feels to write. Oh, but let me tell you, Yvonne, it's a whole other thing to feel a sense of compassion rather than feel that dagger yourself, isn't it?

YD: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes.

NP: And it's important for us to have those experiences, even the bad ones, because it grows us into more compassionate people, and that most definitely happened to me in this process.

"It is really one of the highest compliments when I hear from a maid who feels seen, who feels like that cloak of invisibility, which Molly carries in both books, comes off for a moment and they feel like somebody has understood what it's really like to do such a difficult job and to commit to it so fully and yet not really be seen, not really be there."

YD: Right. As a listener, working at Audible, that's all I do is listen. And I love what Lauren Ambrose does with Molly. They become one. You know, she just delivers. When did you know that Lauren was the one? What caught you immediately?

NP: I agree with you entirely. Her performance of Molly is so pitch-perfect. I was sent various auditions of voices, and hers stood out. There is a crackle in it. It is as though her voice runs toward the edge of a cliff and then stops in front of it. And you never know if she's going to stop or not. And it’s that quality in her voice that to me was the heart of Molly, you know, running toward and yet the danger is right there and she might fall off that cliff. And that tension, that drama along with this boxed-in perfection that Molly aspires towards, her voice embodies all of that. And I found it electrifying when I first heard it.

YD: I love the enunciation, you know, it's so precise. Molly's so precise.

NP: Indeed, she is. And I think Lauren gets that exactly. And her voice descended upon me before Lauren's voice has kind of replaced it in my head. But when I was first coming up with this idea, I could hear Molly's voice, and it was clean and crisp and precise and each letter was enunciated. So, to hear that in Lauren without me ever having to say it, she just understood from the text and brought a life to it that was bigger and better than what I put on the page.

YD: That's amazing. What you just said, clean and crisp and all of that, and Lauren just did it. I thought she was directed.

NP: Well, I'm sure she was, but she also just clearly had a talent and an understanding of the character.

YD: Right. I'm going to go to the discourse on women today. Maids. Did you ever say, "Well, you know, women are going into space. There's a woman in America, she's the vice president.” At the time you started this we probably didn't have Kamala Harris. But there are a lot of women powerhouses in Canada, United States, all over the world. Did you ever say, "Well, gee, I don't know. Is this the time? Is it right to do a series about a maid? Am I going forward or backward?"

NP: You know, I think two truths can be true at the same time. And I think what you're pointing to is exactly that. We have made so many strides as women, and most definitely women are able to take positions of power and showing themselves to lead in new and dynamic ways that we've all been clamoring for. And yet, dot dot dot, and yet there is still the maid. There are still many workers, not only female ones, who are at the bottom levels of the hierarchy. And I think most especially during the pandemic, we became hyper-aware—and rightly so, as we should have been long before—but it did take the pandemic for us to realize that service workers are integral to the functioning of our society and that without them nothing can happen. And so we started to honor them and understand that their wages just needed to come up, their working conditions needed to get better, and they deserved a whole lot of credit and more understanding about the hard labor they put in to make our lives better and to make our lives work.

YD: Right.

NP: And so, you know, yes, to your point. Yeah, it's really wonderful that in the real world rather than the hyper-real one I created on a page, change is possible. Advancement is possible, not only for women but for all kinds of marginalized groups. But the battle isn't over. It's far from it.

YD: Right. Have you heard from any actual maids? Any maids following this series? Tell us about that.

NP: I have, I have. And it is really one of the highest compliments when I hear from a maid who feels seen, who feels like that cloak of invisibility, which Molly carries in both books, comes off for a moment and they feel like somebody has understood what it's really like to do such a difficult job and to commit to it so fully and yet not really be seen, not really be there. So that is always lovely. Of course, I've had a couple of maids say, "Well, this isn't exactly factual" or “You know, a five-star hotel does not work exactly this way." But as I always like to explain, you know, fiction writers need a little bit more elbow room in order to create. And sometimes one has to prioritize story or character or voice above some of those factual niceties.

YD: Exactly. So, can we expect to spend more time with Molly in 2024?

NP: You know, that is something that I'm certainly considering. When my publishers came to me and said, “Please, please will you write The Mystery Guest? Will you write a second book that is a Molly book?” I said I would try. But you know what I was afraid of, Yvonne? I was deeply terrified by that point of disappointing my fans who had invested in Molly and who had gone on a journey with her of understanding and building that compassion, which to me is a major point of the book.

And so I told people, “Well, I'll try, and you'll only see what I produce if I can produce something I think is more rather than less.” And so we have The Mystery Guest, because I did my best. I was pleased that I was able to put something down that I think is a tribute and shows another layer of growth to Molly as a character. And so my long answer to your very short question is: I will try again. And if I fail you will never see that manuscript come out of my drawer [laughs].

YD: Aw, I don't want you to fail. Just an idea that you might want to consider: Any new promotions for Molly? Any new jobs? I only ask because—you know why I'm asking.

NP: I do. And again, you're a very perceptive reader. And I think she does have a promotion coming her way in the future. And we'll see about her job and how that takes her on new adventures. I do believe the Regency Grand has had a lot of death and that starts to strain against believability, so I'll need to do some thinking on that.

YD: Well, this has been great. I really like you. I don't know you, but I know you in a way through your writing. I know that you're a sensitive, kind person, thoughtful. I look forward to hearing more from you, and I'm not alone in this, I know this.

And listeners, you can get The Maid and The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose on Audible now. Thank you.

NP: Thank you so much, Yvonne. You are wonderful.