She put just a touch too much salt in the omelette and made the salad dressing a bit too tart. The rhythms of Blanche’s day form a nice counterpart to her enquiries into the crime, and sometimes they go together: In this story Blanche takes a job to get herself out of trouble – she goes off with a white family to their country home, and can immediately tell there is something funny going on. Neely convincingly shows a world of racism, snobbery, exploitation and just plain unpleasantness – but Blanche is more than equal to everything thrown at her. It took an additional 15 to 50 before she was acknowledged as a bona fide member of the human race.’ It suits the genre: Blanche is smart, and observant, and has seen life: her employers of course under-estimate her.Īs the book says ‘Usually it took three to five cleaning sessions for a new employer of the racist jackass variety to stop talking to her in loud simple sentences. I, like many people, relished this, and relished the simple trick of seeing the villainous goings-on through the eyes of a servant. But Blanche is an African-American woman who earns her living by cleaning, and that made her pretty much a unique protagonist at that time. The mysteries and the settings and the characters in the books are very well-done, but not earth-shaking. This was the first of this 1990s series, and I read it when it came out, so can attest to the fact that it was ground-breaking. Observations: The Blanche books are being republished as ebooks. “We like our bed linen changed every three days at this time of year… and please remember, just a a hint of starch in Mr Everett’s shirts.” Blanche had hoped to slip up the back stairs to put away some of the laundry she’d done after breakfast… In the shallow clothes closet there were two washed and starched gray uniforms with white collars and cuffs and small white aprons to match…. “I’ll be waiting in the kitchen when you’ve changed.” She closed the door firmly behind her.

She might have to sleep in this mousehole, but she’d be damned if she’d act grateful. “Well, it ain’t going to spoil me, that’s for sure,” Blanche told her. Grace took Blanche up the back stairs to a small room… “It’s a pleasant enough little room, don’t you think?”

Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neely