The Mistletoe Mystery - Nita Prose - ★★★.¼

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AUTHOR: Nita Prose
SERIES: Molly the Maid, #2.5
GENRE: Holiday Mystery novella.
PUBLICATION DATE: October 1, 2024
RATING: 3.25 stars.


In a Nutshell: A Christmas novella featuring Molly the Maid. Contains more mistletoe than mystery. The same setting and characters from the book series. Might be a good option for Molly fans, but not a must-read except for one plot development. Not a standalone.


Plot Preview:
Set a couple of years after Book Two, Molly is still the Head Maid at the Regency Grand. Her beloved Juan Manuel is now a pastry chef. While they had been happy over the past five years, Juan Manuel is now behaving strangely. Molly knows that something is wrong, but she can't figure out what it is. Has Juan Manuel finally grown frustrated with her?
The story comes to us in Molly's first-person perspective.


I had enjoyed the first two books of the Molly the Maid series, and am looking forward to the final book of the trilogy. This Christmas novella, being set in between Books Two and Three, seemed to form a nice bridge to the events of the next, so it made sense to grab it during the holiday season. There's one plot development here that will make Molly fans (and Juan Manuel fans) happy. Other than that, the novella has nothing great to offer.

The titular "mistletoe mystery" is connected to Juan Manuel's secretive behaviour and Molly's doubts about his reasons. But the thing is, we all know Juan Manuel's character from the earlier books, even though he has a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance in the second novel. As such, we know that whatever events were driving up Molly's suspicions have to be baseless. In fact, there are even enough clues to help us guess what Juan Manuel might be up to. All this makes the "mystery" of this story very weak. Unfortunately, as the title promises a mystery, this leads to greater disappointment. At least in the other books, even when the mystery wasn’t that enticing, we could still have some fun guessing the guilty party. But in this novella, there is just no suspense.

Molly, the 'Captain Obvious' of jumping to the wrong conclusions, fails to interpret her boyfriend's actions in any way beyond the literal. This is a bit disappointing, because it would have been nice to see her trust her beau after five years together. It's a little test of our patience to see how long Molly will take to discover the evident truth. She's in her thirties now, and has not been under her grandmother's sheltered influence for so many years now. Surely she should know her partner better!

Because Molly misses out on many clues related to the same mystery, her first-person POV gets a bit repetitive this time. She also tends to wander into flashbacks at random. While the books have always had more telling than showing, I had attributed this to Molly's personality. But this time, the telling gets a bit annoying as it's so clearly incorrect.

Juan Manuel is as awesome, and as cheesy, as ever. I was happy to see him get a proper role in the story this time around. His gen-z style slang makes for a funny contrast with Molly's dictionary-style speech.

Many other beloved characters also make a good appearance in this story. Other than Molly, every character gets a satisfying role that continues well from their established character arcs. It was lovely to see the wisdom of Molly's grandmother popping up even in this story through many worthy aphorisms.

The Christmas spirit is strong in this story, whether through the decorated hotel or the various festive events within the story. At least in that sense, the novella delivers well on the promise made by the title.

All in all, a good story, but not a great mystery. At just 128 pages (2.5 hours on audio), this is a quick read, and even fairly satisfying because of the ending.

Recommended only if you want more of Molly the Maid and to know the latest important update in her life. Don’t pick it up for the titular mystery because that will lead to guaranteed disappointment. The story proceeds from the events of the first two books, so it wouldn't be a good idea to try this as a standalone.

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