And so she was subversive in that sense but in a very both fun and telling way.ĬHANG: That's Joel Goldman, the co-founder of Brash Books, Neely's publisher. JOEL GOLDMAN: Here was a protagonist, an amateur sleuth who was African American, whose name, for all practical purposes, was White White. But as Neely said at a Prague literary festival in 2012, she soon realized mysteries were a perfect vehicle.īARBARA NEELY: While people were reading the book to find out who killed who and why, they were also getting a lot of information about race, class, gender, all of the issues that I cared about.ĬHANG: Her books were full of sly commentary, starting with Blanche White herself. Her book "Blanche On The Lam," published in 1992, was originally meant to be a social commentary. Neely didn't consider herself a mystery writer at first. She's best known for her protagonist, the sharp-eyed crime-solving housekeeper Blanche White. Barbara Neely was one of the first black women to break into the mystery genre. A pioneering author of crime fiction has died.
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