Blanche Cleans Up

I always enjoy Neely's Blanche White books and I am a bit sad that there is only one more left. She always does a good job inserting a lot of social commentary into what would otherwise be a typical murder mystery. This books is no exception. Blanche is filling in as a maid at a rich Bostonian politicians home while her cousin is away on vacation. When her cousin's son drowns in a local public pool, Blanche gets to work to figure out how he drowned and who might be responsible. In these books the mystery is not always in the forefront of the story, instead Neely through Blanche makes observations on the life in black communities in the 1980s. She tackles the problem of lead poisoning and its effect on black boys, the view of lgbtq show more people in the black community, how the well known leaders of the community sometimes care about power more than their neighbors, the shaming of sex workers, and of course racism and classism. Addressing these issues makes the characters and the story more real because it tethers them to a deep description of the times and the people. I will definitely be reading the next book in the series. Blanche is a great character and I am glad there is at least one more story in the series. show less

It only took a few pages for me to recall with comfy joy why I love Blanche White. She is so strong and unconventional, wise, witty, insightful.

In this episode, Blanche has been in Boston for a few years with her two adopted kids who are becoming teens. She takes on a one-week temporary job in the Brindle household, filling in for her cousin's friend. The big cheese, Allister Brindle, is a pretty lousy person—snooty, racist, and mean—but he's preparing a run for governor. There's a lot of racial tension in several areas, in the household and the community. The Brindles have some marital problems to boot. As usual, Blanche gets all the scoop about them from the hired help. There are a couple of shocking murders, and it gets much show more wilder from there, but I'll skip plot summary.

Barbara Neely writes really well about race relations, interpersonal issues, and just about everything under the sun. This was first published in the late 1990s and stands up well... quite relevant to the USA of the moment.

Oh, for the record: if this book were a film, it would totally pass the Bechdel Test. It also contains a fair bit of "language" that might not be suitable for pre-teens, and many racial/sexual themes that might be "difficult" for children. Then again, in the USA of 2018, maybe most tots have heard it already on the evening news. show less

The other day I was thinking about what a mystery story would be like if the main character wasn't an investigator, or an ex-cop, or a rich person with a penchant for trouble. What would a story be like, I wondered, if someone found themselves in it, so to speak? And then along comes Blanche Cleans Up to answer my question.

Blanche White has been working as a household domestic and has recently moved with her sister's two children up to Boston from South Carolina. As a favor to a cousin, she agrees to temporarily replace Miz Inez as the housekeeper-cook for the wealthy Brindles so Miz Inez can vacation with Cousin Charlotte.

Although there are two Blanche books before this one, here is where Neely really hits her mystery stride. It's more show more complicated than prior mysteries, although parts are perhaps a little passé, coming from the perspective of 1998. Maybe not. But still, it is good. It reads quickly and is moderately suspenseful.

"Blanche always called her employers ma'am and sir to their faces. It put just the right amount of distance between them and her and was good cover when she couldn't remember their names."

What's really the most enjoyable here is Blanche. Her reflections on the social dynamics at the house of her temporary employers, her efforts to provide a safe environment for her kids, her participation and support of black women and the larger Black community; as she goes about these things, the reader experiences them with her, and occasionally even learn with her. There's quite a diversity of experiences and thoughts, and if there's a social message that may seem a little heavily applied at times, it doesn't last long, or it is balanced out with humor or interesting characters.

I recognize's Blanche's tendency to 'poke the bear,' as we used to call it, in one of her interactions with another worker at the Brindle's:

"'I don't get it,' Blanche said. 'You Christians say god made everything and everybody, which has gotta include lesbians. But then you say lesbians are ungodly. Seems to me that you, your pastor, or your God is very confused, honey.'

Carrie looked at her as though Blanche had just grown horns. 'I'm gonna put you in my prayers.' She hurried away to the laundry room and closed the door firmly behind her. Blanche could hear her shrieking some hymn about being delivered from the heathen. It was so tuneless and off-key, Blanche suspect Carrie had made it up for her benefit."

I can't help but chuckle a little at her obstinacy. But she keeps working at building a relationship as well as opening Carrie's mind to positive acquaintance-ship, if nothing else.

She ends up getting a resolution to the various puzzles she encounters not because she's determined necessarily to solve a mystery, but because she wants to help a friend, or to make things right. A quick read with a lot of broad insight into what life might be like for an empowered woman of color. Recommended.

Trish's review has a lot of interesting insight as well as some information and links about Neely: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1281790121?book_show_action=true&from_...

Three and a half stars, rounding up show less

Who could blame Blanche White for assuming that filling in for a week as a cook-housekeeper as a favor to someone would be easy? After all, Miz Inez, who normally had the gig at the stately Brindle mansion, didn’t usually have a strenuous job. However, Blanche hadn’t counted on blueblood Allister Brindle’s campaign for governor of Massachusetts. Or on the disappearance of Allister’s estranged son, Marc. Or on the mysterious death of Miz Inez’s son Ray-Ray just a few days into the temporary job — with more deaths to come.

At the request of an old lady, Blanche promises to find out who killed the handsome, self-assured Ray-Ray. She begins to connect the disparate clues — and to realize that she and the niece and nephew show more she’s raising as her own are in serious danger.

Blanche Cleans Up has less of a social message than Barbara Neely’s first two novels, Blanche on the Lam and Blanche Among the Talented Tenth. While I miss Neely’s straightforward voice on race relations in America — whether between the races or within the African-American community — Blanche Cleans Up brims over with so much suspense that readers won’t be able to put it down. Special thanks to Brash Books for re-releasing this page-turner, just as fresh and riveting as when it was first published in 1998!

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Brash Books in exchange for an honest review. show less

This third installment of the Blanche White series sees Blanche living in Boston and temporarily working for an aspiring politician and his wife. She soon finds herself embroiled in a whole series of events: blackmail, corruption, and multiple gruesome murders. Blanche Cleans Up was very readable, and Blanche is as vivid a character as ever, but I didn't enjoy this as much as previous installments. There were times when a lighter hand might have served Barbara Neely better in making some of points she was trying to put across here, and near the end the novel took a twist into some very dark issues that I'd prefer to avoid. Readable, but not one I'll be revisiting.

Blanche is a bit hard to take the first half, but there is interesting commentary here, the ending with the Ex-Cons for Community protection, her struggles and memories with motherhood and abortion. My favorite of the Blanche mysteries so far.

I came across this book in the library while looking for a new mystery series. There's a lot of things I like about Blanche White in Blanche Cleans Up -- she's smart, independent, sexy in thought, language and action. Traditionally built, and interested in justice, Blanche is often funny, most always right, and good company. She cleans houses as a profession and gets to the bottom of several truly messy situations, cleaning them up as well. What I don't like about the book is author Barbara Neely's tendancy to trowel on her points. A little more mystery and a little less social pontificating would make for a better book, and might also deliver Neely's passionate messages more effectively.
Also stereotyped characters (and thinking) comes show more in all colors. show less