Gather Night Girl (Blanche White #1) Created By Barbara Neely Issued As Textbook

is the first book in the Blanche White Mystery series and it was enjoyable, I would not classify it as a cozy mystery, but it has many cozy elements to it.
The book opens with Blanche being sentenced todays in jail for passing bad cheques, When a disturbance occurs in the halls of the courthouse, Blanche slips out and is now, "on the lam.
" She heads off to the house where she was originally taking a job for a few weeks as a domestic helper.
They are getting ready to head off to their summer home and they are not taking any of their regular help with them, they are getting some time off.
Blanche thinks this will be a good way to lay low and off she goes with the family.
What she did not expect was that she would become embroiled in a murder and family money issues.
Unlike many amateur sleuths, Blanche is a reluctant investigator, adding a more realistic angle to the story.


I enjoyed Blanche, She is an AfricanAmerican domestic worker, recently moved to North Carolina after unsettling events in NYC, Shes barely making ends meet, living with her opinionated mother and taking care of her deceased sisters two children.
She is irreverent but knows if she speaks her mind, she will be out of a job.
We are privy to her thoughts which are often in direct contrast to what comes out of her mouth.
This book is an intriguing look at the interactions between 'domestic help' amp their employers back in thes ands.
It gives interesting insight into black/white relationships in the United States at that time, The mystery was well written and believable, I was not surprised when the killer was revealed as well as the reason behind it, but there were some other twists along the way that were unexpected.
I loved the character of Mumsfield, He was the one redeeming character in the Carter family that Blanche was working for, I found this to be a very character driven story, with the mystery taking a backseat to Blanche's story.
As this was the first in the series, I will continue reading/listening to the series to see what changes happen along the way with Blanche.
I listened to this book and the narration was good, I enjoyed listening to this book and liked Blanche's voice, I read about this in a recent article in "The Root" about Kathryn Stockett's "The Help, " The Root article said that Stockett isn't the first to write from the perspective of black Southern maids, and mentioned Neely's series about amateur or accidental detective and professional housekeeper Blanche White.
The article suggested that Blanche is the counterpoint to Mosley's betterknown Easy Rawlins,

Based on "Blanche on the Lam," I'd say Neely's novels aren't as complex, and are definitely more domestic.
But they're not "cozy", and they have a strong black, feminist, realist perspective, Blanche deals with the same racial, social, economic issues, but in a different environment than Mosley's hardboiled LA.


It was a quick, enjoyable read, and I really appreciated Blanche's perspective, her commentary on her employers, her information sources, and the structure of the world she lived in.
I'll likely check out another Blanche novel in the future, This could have easily been an average cozy/mystery book, Barbara Neely's ability to grasp and convey race and class issues while also delivering a fun mystery make this book much more than average.
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Remember how I said I grew up on Christie It took college to really open my eyes to the insight that I had read very few books by authors who were not white and from an American or British tradition.
It became a personal project to increase the diversity of my reading while still hanging in my favorite genres of mystery, scifi and fantasy.
I was scanning through my colleges small bookstore, looking for my books for the semester when I saw the Penguin paperback edition of Blanche, no doubt on the list for some literature class.
I quickly grabbed it and settled down for a read, Blanche on the Lam held my attention, but even more than that, it shares and affirms an experience seldom portrayed in literature.


Blanche is an AfricanAmerican domestic worker, recently moved to North Carolina after unsettling events in NYC.
Shes barely making ends meet, living with her opinionated mother and taking care of her deceased sisters two children.
When called into court for a bounced check, nerves and claustrophobia get the best of her and she makes a run for it before she can be taken into jail for a multiplemonth sentence.
Needing someplace to stay, she decides to show up at a temporary agency job she had already refused, claiming to be her replacement.
It turns out a couple, their elderly aunt and disabled cousin will be traveling to their country retreat for a week, giving the normal servants a week off.
As she tries to mitigate the idiosyncrasies of her new employers and come up with a strategy to deal with being a fugitive, she realizes her employers are acting extremely strange, even for white people.
When an elderly black gardener shares his own concerns with Blanche, she starts to fear for her safety.


Once I got past my struggle with the idea that Blanche would become a fugitive over a checkcashing case, I enjoyed the plot.
It begins more like literary fiction, with Blanche primarily focused on solving her current problem, as well as developing a strategy for caring for herself and the children.
Tempted to go AWOL from her life, the story is about her as much as the mystery.
In fact, while she notes the oddness in her employers household, she isnt really drawn into their troubles until the black gardener is found dead.
Unlike many amateur sleuths, Blanche is a reluctant investigator, adding a more realistic angle to the story.


“Blanche had learned long ago that signs of pleasant stupidity in household help made some employers feel more comfortable, as though their wallets, their car keys, and their ideas about themselves were all safe.
Putting on a dumb act was something many black people considered unacceptable, but she sometimes found it a useful place to hide.
”

Characterization is interesting, and clearly a strong point of the mystery, Blanche is a practical, straightforward person that has realized that sometimes the best way to get along is to keep her mouth shut, but shes only able to do that for so long.
Despite her own relative

poverty, Blanche has had a wealth of experiences providing insight into human nature.
Neely stated in an interview that she started the Blanche story as a way to deal with writers block on another project and was surprised by the enthusiastic reception Blanche received.
As a lifelong activist, she was interested in presenting “political fiction” as she wrote from the perspective of the underrepresented, that of a “poor black woman a nice interview with Ms.
here.

Theres aspects that do make this feel like a first book, Although the plotting and characterization are quite good, the tone can be a bit didactic, with Blanche doing a great deal of telling through her inner voice.
While insightful, it could have been less heavyhanded, done through memories or experiences, During my second read, I found myself far less tolerant of it not that I minded the message, but that it could have been so much meaningfully relayed through action.
Otherwise, the writing style is sophisticated, with nice variety, Blanches observations give a nice sense of the opulent homes and the Carolina setting,

A number of the reviews Ive seen mentioned that they found this book through criticism of The Help, and Id definitely encourage reading about Blanche over the moviefied version.
I recommend the series it if you are a mystery fan interested in broadening your reading experience.
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