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 13-18 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary: “Before”
Molly is embarrassed by her report card, which states that her social behavior is extremely poor. Gran makes her feel better and gives her some tips on how to behave, then leaves to do laundry in the basement. Suddenly, a stranger knocks on the door. It is a young woman with pock-marked skin and nervous energy. She answers questions that prove that she knows Gran, so Molly lets her in. (The narrative will later reveal that this is Molly’s mother.) The woman is too overwhelmed to talk to Molly and begins crying, but she soon stops when she sees the envelope of rent money on the table. She asks Molly for a Band-Aid but leaves before Molly comes back. Molly is pleased with what she believes to be a positive social interaction, but Gran is horrified to hear about the visit, and Molly realizes that the cash is gone.
Chapter 14 Summary
Molly cannot sleep because she now suspects Mr. Preston of theft, so she demands a meeting later that day. Mr. Snow is nervous and tells Molly that Detective Stark has assigned plainclothes police to the hotel. Beulah, the LAMBS member covered in cat hair, tells Molly that there is rivalry in the ranks of the LAMBS. She describes herself as the only biographer of Grimthorpe, but Gladys quickly reminds her that she is only an unofficial biographer. There is a rumor that Birdy once used poison on a speaker who slighted Grimthorpe’s work by putting laxatives in their brownies. Beulah suggests that Birdy has struck again out of jealousy. Gladys accuses Beulah of making her room look as though a pack of rats has moved in. Molly escapes and finds Cheryl stealing tips again. Cheryl claims that the other maids agreed to pool the tips, and Lily cannot bring herself to speak out against her.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Before”
The landlord insults Gran and Molly when he finds they cannot pay their rent, even though this has never happened before. He turns off their electricity, leaving them in pitch blackness. Molly can hear Gran crying on the floor.
Chapter 16 Summary
Molly aggressively confronts Mr. Preston about selling a stolen book but is humbled when he says that the book was his from when he worked at Grimthorpe mansion. He reveals that he was the gatekeeper and knew Gran and Molly when she was a little girl there. He tells Molly that Mr. Grimthorpe was a bad person who mistreated her gran. Molly is ashamed to have suspected Mr. Preston and asks for forgiveness. He has something else to tell her but says that it can wait.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Before”
Gran lights candles and entertains Molly in the semi-darkness until bedtime. The next day, she goes to visit the gatekeeper, who agrees to lend her enough money for the rent. Meanwhile, Mr. Grimthorpe is ecstatic about Molly’s plot idea and says that she has given him the perfect solution to his novel. He now feels invincible. He tells her that Gran used to visit him when he was feeling bad. Molly suggests that he go to see her downstairs. Before returning to polishing, she cuts a rose from the garden and leaves it for the gatekeeper, thanking him through the intercom.
Chapter 18 Summary
Molly feels terrible about wrongly accusing Mr. Preston even though he is gracious and kind about her mistake. Angela shows them both a website where a vendor called “The Grim Reaper” is selling Mr. Grimthorpe’s stolen items, including things from the missing box and his cue cards. One of the books for sale is signed to Lily. Molly immediately blames Lily, and Mr. Preston reminds her not to rush to conclusions again.
Chapters 13-18 Analysis
The narrative continues to build intensity by going deeper into both the modern conflicts and the past. As more painful memories come to light, the culpability of the Grimthorpes becomes more prominent, and Mr. Grimthorpe’s blasé willingness to take credit for Molly’s idea foreshadows the later revelation that he does not even write the books for which he is famous. He is therefore cast as someone who takes advantage of others, and this character flaw strengthens the impression that he also exploits those under his employ, rendering Molly and her gran increasingly vulnerable. The pair’s susceptibility to mishaps is further strengthened when Molly’s mother steals their rent money. However, this incident also illustrates the fact that while Gran’s vulnerability is a symptom of economics, Molly’s is due to her unique way of seeing the world, for she does not always discern the undercurrents of deception. As she admits to Detective Stark, she is good with details but sometimes misses what is obvious to others, such as the fact that the unknown stranger is her mother and is nonetheless not to be trusted. Despite these more serious moments, Prose keeps her narrative from becoming too dark by combining moments of danger with instances of kindness, as when Mr. Preston’s generosity in both the past and the present saves Molly from falling into literal and metaphorical darkness and disillusionment. The pairing of his kind actions with the mistreatment that the Gray women experience keeps the novel firmly in the lower-stakes realm of a cozy mystery.
Even so, Prose offers a variety of subplots and secondary character development to keep the pace and tone of the novel lively. For example, The Struggle to Belong is further developed as several supporting characters show the universality of this inner quest. The infighting of the LAMBS provides a humorous example, making it plain that the compulsion to carve out an appropriate social niche exists even in well-established groups that supposedly guarantee acceptance. This expansion of the theme to secondary characters also reestablishes the broader suspect pool by showing multiple people who feel snubbed by Mr. Grimthorpe.
The primary plotline also heightens the conflict between certain members of the LAMBS as two accuse another of poisoning a previous speaker with laxatives, and they also try to diminish each other’s relationship with Mr. Grimthorpe. As this squabbling unfolds, the symbolic rat is referenced again amid the accusations, serving as a subtle indicator that even these secondary antics might have a bearing on the novel’s primary conflict. For example, Gladys notes that Beulah’s room “looks like a pack rat moved in,” and this seemingly offhand comment is the vital clue that ties back to Gran’s story at the beginning of the novel; it also connects to the moment in which Molly notices the anomalous spoon in Room 404 (159). However, because the clues are widely separate from each other in the text and are stated in different terms, the killer is not yet definitively exposed, especially as the information is delivered while the speaker implicates an entirely different poisoner in the LAMBS (19). However, the reference does indicate that key details are beginning to fall into place.
