‘I straighten the apron wrapped around my waist and swipe the key card in the guest room door.
As I place the cleaning bucket by my feet,
I see the woman lying unmoving on the plush carpet, her eyes frozen.‘
– The Hotel Maid
[ About The Hotel Maid ]
Each morning, I arrive at the luxury Cedarwood Manor hotel, put on my crisp maid’s uniform and clean the rooms. I take great care in my work as I slip from one floor to the other.
Most guests barely know my name. I’m invisible to them. That’s ok. I prefer people didn’t know my secrets.
But today a woman has been found dead in her room and a ten-year-old little girl has been reported missing from the hotel.
Today, someone has left me a note saying they know who I am.
But they must be mistaken. I’ll make sure they are.
[ My Review ]
The Hotel Maid by Michelle Dunne will be released August 23rd with Storm Publishing and is described as ‘a tense ‘just one more page’ emotional rollercoaster of a read that will have you racing to the twisty end.’
June Calloway has worked for many years as a maid at Cedarwood Manor Hotel, a luxury hotel on the outskirts of Cork city, a place ‘exclusively for the rich and powerful’. June relishes the anonymity of her role as guests check-in and check-out with barely a glance at her. She is almost an invisible presence within the walls and is noted for being a loyal and conscientious employee. She is fastidious in her preparation every morning before starting her rounds, always watching, always listening, always observing. But there’s a reason
‘June Calloway has been keeping her mouth shut all her life. She kept her own secrets, and those of so many others, locked away in the vault of her memory.’
When the body of woman is found dead in her hotel room, there is the inevitable shock and investigation that would be expected but someone knows more than they are revealing. And that someone has their reasons. In a narrative that spins between different POVs, Michelle Dunne delves deep into a darker and more sinister tale, one that unfortunately has its roots in fact as opposed to fiction. Criss-crossing timelines the story unravels revealing lies, grief, regret, revenge and too many secrets for anyone to keep alongside their sanity.
June Calloway is a young woman with a story to tell. Her days are routine. Her life is sparse. Her intentions are slightly skewed but June Calloway’s story is no ordinary story and June Calloway will tell it to you in her own idiosyncratic way. (Because I’m saying no more as it would be all to easy to drop a spoiler accidentally!)
The Hotel Maid is, at times, quite a distressing and disconcerting read. Yet I have come to expect that from the pen of Michelle Dunne. As an author, Michelle Dunne is unafraid of delving into the dark and the downright deplorable, as anyone who has read The Good Girl will attest to. The Hotel Maid is a complex and twisty tale with multiple layers that all do come together at the end. With quite the cast of characters, consider The Hotel Maid as a literary game of Cluedo. Who is the murderer? Why did they kill this lady? Where is the weapon? Mysterious stuff indeed!!
The Hotel Maid ~ Preorder/Purchase Link
Note: My thanks to Storm Publishing & NetGalley for an advance copy of The Hotel Maid in exchange for my honest review
[ Bio ]
Michelle Dunne is a crime writer from Cork whose new psychological thriller The Hotel Maid, will be released in August 24. Her bestselling thriller The Good Girl published in March 24. Michelle also wrote While Nobody is Watching and The Invisible, a series of thrillers following former soldier and UN Peacekeeper Lindsey Ryan as she tries to adapt to her new life in the clutches of PTSD. The series is currently in development for television and is inspired by Michelle’s own experiences as an infantry soldier and United Nations Peacekeeper. Michelle is organiser and programmer of the Spike Island Literary Festival – a crime-themed festival set in Ireland’s very own Alcatraz!
X ~ @NotDunneYet
