Barbara Neely, Blanche on the Lam, Blanche Among the Talented Tenth, and Blanche Cleans Up, Viking-Penguin

Barbara Neely's murder mysteries are like sugar-coated aspirin -- their engaging plots and lively characters belie the depth of social commentary contained in the text, educating with minimal effort on the reader's part. They are, in other words, perfect for activist-minded readers on summer vacation.

 

Bethlehem Public Library, 1990. Photo: Judith Joy Ross

Blanche White, the main character in Neely's three-book series, is an unusual figure in detective fiction. She's a large-sized, strong-minded, African American domestic worker with caretaking responsibilities for her deceased sister's two children -- a far cry from Agatha Christie's well-known, white, and genteel Miss Marple. In both cases, Christie's more traditional detective novels and Neely's modern re-working of the genre, the murder plot operates as a metaphor for social unrest. The way in which the plot is resolved reveals each author's underlying commentary about the dominant culture. Does the author reinforce the validity of that culture by delivering the criminal to the judicial system that is already intact, or does she question this easy concept of justice and leave the resolution more open-ended?

Barbara Neely plays with the murder mystery format in a number of ways. Neely, like Christie, emphasizes the social invisibility of her protagonist and uses it as a subversive tool in detection. But where Miss Marple is characterized almost as a stereotype of a gossipy old woman, adhering to the conventions of her community even as she unravels its secrets, Blanche defies the dominant culture's expectations for women of color and domestic workers both.

From Blanche on the Lam, the first book in the series, onward, Neely makes it clear that Blanche is no "Aunt Jemima"; she's not impressed with her employer's "Mammy-save-me eyes," nor is she fooled into a one-way "love" for the families whose houses she cleans (a condition she calls "Darkies' Disease"). Instead, Blanche reminds herself of the power imbalance constantly, and asserts her individual self-worth through subversive actions, such as having tea in her employers' guests-only parlor or bathing in their tubs. She's aware of the dangers inherent in her actions -- in some instances, she has been fired when caught -- and this sense of danger serves to remind her of her true position in the household, no matter how kind her employers seem.

Blanche on the Lam establishes these character details and examines the power dynamics between a wealthy white family and an African American domestic worker in a narrative form. It also touches on such forbidden topics as skin color by letting the reader know that Blanche's childhood nickname was Night Girl, invented by a cousin to soothe Blanche, because other African American children taunted her for having extremely dark skin. These topics become central plot points in the second and third book of the series.

Neely addresses Blanche's thoughts about skin color more fully in her second book, Blanche Among the Talented Tenth. The title derives from a W.E.B. Du Bois essay, which Neely quotes in part at the beginning of the book: "The Talented Tenth of the Negro race must be made leaders of thought and missionaries of culture among their people... The Negro race, like all other races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men." Using an easy-to-read narrative form, Neely explores this thesis -- and the politics of skin color, education, and wealth within African American communities -- in her second book.

Blanche Among the Talented Tenth is set at Amber Cove, an all-black resort in Maine. Blanche is invited to Amber Cove by her friends Christine and David Crowley, whose children attend school with Blanche's niece and nephew, Taifa and Malik. The school is an expensive private one called Wilford Academy, and Blanche pays for Taifa's and Malik's tuition with her own funds, but she is invited to Amber Cove as a caretaker for the Crowleys' children as well as her own. As a result, Blanche's perspective at Amber Cove is an unusual one; she is neither completely an insider nor completely an outsider. For this reason, she's able to deliver a lively commentary on color and class divisions and to solve a murder mystery that a more entrenched member of the Amber Cove community could not.

Blanche Cleans Up, the third book in the series, takes place in Boston. Accepting a temporary job as cook and housekeeper for a local white politician, Blanche is launched into the investigation of an unsolved murder that her employer is trying to pin on a young black friend. This adventure provides Blanche the opportunity to reflect on formal political sources of power and the ways that community groups try to tap into them. As usual, Blanche is funny but direct, talking about "what she called The Downtown Leadership -- the black men that the big downtown whitefolks talked to when they needed blacks with positions and titles to support the latest cut in programs for the poor, or to amen some closet racist like Brindle." Using a combination of native insight, community connections, and meditation at her "Ancestor altar," Blanche solves both the immediate crime (the murder) and the broader one (political corruption), guiding the reader through the narrative so gently that you are barely aware of being made to think. Perfect for a lazy summer day.

M. Elaine Mar's memoir, Paper Daughter (HarperCollins), is due out in paperback this August.