Barbara Neely--one of my favorite authors

Blanche White #1

Barbara Neely, one of my favorite authors, died on March 2. She was 78, and died of a heart ailment, according to her sister, Vanessa Neely-Peterson.[1]

At a meeting of my mystery book club, several people mentioned that our selected books skewed to ones written by white authors, both American and British, but not often to minority authors who deal with society from that point of view.

I knew exactly what we needed, and the next time it was my turn to choose a book, I suggested Barbara’s first book, Blanche on the Lam (1992), as our subject.

Barbara grew up in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, a very rural area where she

Blanche White #2

was the single black student in her classes. She was also one of the few students fluent in English, as most of her classmates primarily spoke the Pennsylvanian German dialect commonly known as Pennsylvania Dutch.

After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, Barbara became a social activist, creating a community-based housing program for female felons. She continued her work and began to write short stories. Her first one was “Passing the Word” (1981) in Essence.

Eleven more years would pass before her first novel, Blanch on the Lam, appeared.

Her protagonist, Blanche White (whose name means white twice) is a heavy-set, dark-skinned middle-aged woman who works as a maid and housekeeper.

Blanche White #3

Blanche is good at what she does, and is proud of her work. She also comes to know her employers on an intimate level. When she was being interviewed for the Boston Herald, Barbara said “Who knows you better than the person who sweeps under your bed?” She continued, “A cleaning person is not noticed. Blanche’s invisibility allows her to overhear all kinds of things. Nobody is concerned about talking in front of their vacuum cleaner.”

She brings an intense sense of social injustice and resignation to Blanche, whose white employers “seemed to think she ought to be delighted to swab their toilets and trash cans for a pittance.”

Sometimes she ends up needing to solve murders, or run the risk of being accused of them herself.

With the series, Barbara wanted to write about race and class in an entertaining way, with grace and humor. At one point Blanche wonders if

Blanche White #4

there is a special section in fine department stores that carries rough, itchy sheets to buy for the housekeeper’s bed.

Blanch on the Lam was an outstanding success.  It received an Agatha Award for best first novel (1992), an Anthony Award for first best novel (1993), the Go on Girl! Award from the Black Women’s Writing Club for the best debut novel, and a Macavity Award for the first best mystery novel (1993).

Barbara wrote three more novels in the series: Blanche Among the Talented Tenth (1994), Blanche Cleans Up (1998) and Blanche Passes Go (2000).[2]

I always hoped Barbara would write more Blanche books, but it was not to be.

With so many of us confined to our homes because of COVID 19, we are reading even more than we usually do. Barbara Neely’s books would make an entertaining and enlightening addition to anyone’s reading list, either as a first read or a reread.

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[1] Washington Post, Barbara Neely, author of Blanche White mystery series, dies at 78. Emily Langer, March 10, 2020.

[2] Wikipedia contributors. “Barbara Neely.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 13 March 2020. Web. 11 Apr. 2020