Blanche not only solves the crime, but exhibits familiar foibles and strengths, believes in kitchen-table wisdom, and possesses a wicked sense of humor, Ms. Along the way, she lays bare the quirks of southern society with humor, irony, and a biting commentary that makes her one of the most memorable and original characters ever to appear in mystery fiction.

So she's forced to use her savvy, her sharp wit, and her old-girl network of domestic workers to discover the truth and save her own skin. That plan goes awry when there's a murder and Blanche becomes the prime suspect. But when an employer stiffs her, and her checks bounce, she goes on the lam, hiding out as a maid for a wealthy family at their summer home. Ĭheck this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.One of the best fictional detectives conjured up in years, Library Journal BLANCHE ON THE LAM Barbara Neely's Smart, Sassy and Groundbreaking Crime NovelWINNER OF THE AGATHA, ANTHONY & MACAVITY AWARDS Blanche White is a plump, feisty, middle-aged African-American housekeeper working for the genteel rich in North Carolina. What she finds is multiple murders–and a family that will pay her to go far away.īlanche on the Lam is listed as one of the 20 Essential Novels for African-American Women. Curious and observant by nature, Blanche decides that she has to get to the bottom of it all. But there are other things going on too–the suicide of the local sheriff, the death of the family’s long-time gardener, and Aunt Em’s disappearance. The family matriach, Aunt Emmeline, is in decline and family members are circling like vultures to get their hands on her money. Not that time with the Mumsfields doesn’t feel like a sentence. The family are off to their country house in Hokeyville, a good distance from the Durham County jail where Blanche is supposed to spend the next thirty days. In this first novel in a four book series, Blanche White, feisty and forty-something, takes a week-long job with a rich family as a way to hide out after she is sentenced to jail on a bad-check charge.

Barbara Neely was sharing insights about the lives of African American women who earn their livings as domestic workers long before The Help hit bookstores.

Blanche on the lam