When she unexpectedly finds an opportunity to slip away from the bailiff, she takes it quiet as you please. This is her second offense so she knows the judge is going to throw the book at her: thirty days in jail if only to set an example. When we first meet her in Farleigh, North Carolina, she is waiting to go to jail convicted of writing bad checks. ( )īlanche White is a special kind of sassy woman not your average maid. His portrayal, while intended to be positive, is rather cringe-inducing 30 years on.
One caveat: where this book is really dated is in its treatment of one of the main characters, who has Down Syndrome. I'd definitely read more of this series, particularly if Neely managed to get a better grip on plotting as she went. She's observant, smart, and really clear-eyed about the world around her-she's less a detective in the traditional mystery mold than she is a woman who's trying to survive the circumstances she's found herself in. A fat, dark-skinned, working-class Black woman, Blanche leaps off the page.
But for me the redeeming feature of this book is the voice that Barbara Neely gives to the main character, Blanche. The whodunnit is so obvious that the fact that there was no twist or subversion is what's really surprising. As a murder mystery, Blanche on the Lam is only so-so: a housekeeper in late 80s/early 90s rural North Carolina figures out that there's murder afoot in the household of her rich employers.
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