Excerpts-

• From the cover Chapter 1
  
  My gran loved all holidays, but her favorite by far was Christmas. Every year, when December rolled around, she’d take out the Advent calendar she’d made herself, repurposed from an index cabinet discarded by a library after computers rendered the card catalogue system obsolete.
  
  Gran polished that cabinet until the grain was tiger-­striped and golden. On each one of the twenty-­five tiny drawers, she hand-­painted a date in December, and below each number, she added a Christmas-­themed flourish—­a snowflake for December 3, a Santa hat for December 12, and for Christmas Day, the three Magi, heads bowed, each wise man cradling a glorious gift in his palms.
  
  When I was a child, and well beyond, Gran would fill each of those twenty-­five drawers with a wondrous treasure she’d scavenged for all year long and had saved just for me—­a soft-­pink seashell, a cherry chocolate wrapped in red foil, a miniature silver spoon.
  
  On December 1, she’d bring home a fresh-­cut Christmas tree given to her by the Coldwells, the last family she’d worked for as a maid. We’d haul that tree up several flights of stairs, dragging it into our apartment and festooning it with popcorn garlands and an assortment of homemade ornaments.
  
  Then, on Christmas Day, we’d wake up early, and still in pajamas, we’d open our presents. One year, Gran made me an entire crate of orange marmalade, my absolute favorite. Another year, she gave me a silver necklace, a gift, she said, given to her by a dear friend decades earlier. I gasped when I opened the box and saw the chain shimmering against the white cotton batting.
  
  “But it’s your necklace, Gran,” I said. “I can’t accept this.”
  
  “Of course you can. It will look lovely on you.”
  
  And so it did. I wore that silver necklace from that day forward.
  
  But no sooner had I received the beautiful gift than I recognized a new problem. “Oh dear,” I said.
  
  “What’s the trouble?” Gran asked.
  
  “The gift I got for you is useless now,” I replied.
  
  I picked up the parcel I’d wrapped for Gran in brown paper and topped with a red satin bow. My gift to her was a heart-­shaped jewelry box I’d thrifted from a nearby store. Pure brass, it was filthy and tarnished when I bought it, which is why I got it for next to nothing. I polished and buffed that heart until it gleamed and glowed.
  
  “Oh, Molly,” Gran said when she opened it. “It’s a beautiful jewelry box.”
  
  “Beautiful but useless,” I said. “You have nothing to put in it now.” We both knew that the only jewelry Gran possessed was the necklace she’d just given to me.
  
  “No matter. I shall treasure this gift always.”
  
  She placed that heart-­shaped box on her bedside table, where it remains to this day.
  
  Each year when the holiday season rolls around, I find myself taking stock of my life and ruminating about Christmases past. Gran died several years ago, and yet here I am, remembering her fondly at this special time of year. After Gran died, I thought I’d never know joy again, that I’d spend the rest of my existence living like a mushroom in the dark. But it is not so. I live with my beloved boyfriend, Juan Manuel, who reminds me how to shine. He’s a beacon of light adding hope and good cheer to all of my days. Sometimes, I have to pinch myself. My life is so good, I wonder if it’s actually real. And if it is...

Reviews-

• Narrator Lauren Ambrose is back for the latest Molly the Maid installment, and her crisp diction and emphatic tones are perfect for the neurodivergent title character. Molly and her boyfriend, Juan, are intent on making Christmas festive in this heartwarming story. Instead of solving a murder this time, Molly is trying her best to decipher the secretive behaviors of everyone around her. Is it due to the upcoming Secret Santa gift exchange at work? Or has Molly trusted the wrong people? Ambrose uses a soft, adoring voice for exchanges between Molly and Juan. Listeners will enjoy Molly's flashbacks to memories of her grandmother and new moments with her grandfather. Ambrose uses a slower pace for these two characters, reflective of their patience and love for Molly. A.L.C. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
• 

  September 30, 2024
  Molly Gray, head maid at the Regency Grand Hotel, returns in Edgar winner Prose’s charmingly low-key sequel to The Mystery Guest. As a child, Molly and her grandmother had little money, but Gran made every Christmas special by creating an annual Advent calendar filled with “upcycled” trinkets. Now Molly and her boyfriend, pastry chef Juan Manuel, follow the same thrifty pattern. The couple are deep in the honeymoon phase, doting on each other, turning their bathtub into a makeshift spa, and admiring their “misfit” Charlie Brown tree with its macaroni star topper. But Molly starts to doubt Juan’s faithfulness when he begins withholding details about his whereabouts and grows evasive about the hotel staff’s annual Secret Santa exchange. Eschewing violence altogether, Prose focuses instead on the mysteries of romantic relationships, which brings the stakes way down from the previous Maid novels. Still, breezy prose, appealing characters, and sitcomesque storytelling propel the entertaining plot to its sweet, albeit predictable, conclusion. This is sure to put readers in the holiday spirit. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Literary.
  

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