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leasummer's review
3.0
I’m not sure what I was expecting but this was a surprised. In the “post racial” South, Blanche discovers the family she’s working for while hiding out from the police is up to no good. Lots of things are “off”, but slowly it comes together. There is a lot of set up during this story and it took me awhile to get into it and find the rhythm of the storytelling but overall very entertaining.
rants_n_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
amkozy23's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
When this book started off, I was not sure I would like it. I did not like the idea that Blanche was going to be a fugitive for a check-cashing case. As the story unfolded, I fell more into the plot and it was a quick read for me. The plot was twisty and engaging and the characters were fun and unique. I will have to check out the second book in the series as I found Blanche to be funny and smart.
dlk77's review against another edition
1.0
Feisty crude (repeated references to Blanche's crotch) brawny black heroines are as much a stereotype as anything else. The era seemed all wrong for the story.
lovelyday2day's review against another edition
3.0
I had a hard time getting into it but I really liked Blanche and am glad I stuck with her. Book picks up a lot in the second half. This book reminded me of Get Out and how a different genre or structure (mystery novel or horror film) can be used so effectively to reveal racism and sexism. Very thought provoking vs. an escape.
librarianinperiwinkle's review against another edition
3.0
Blanche White (yes, that's really her name) has written one too many bad checks, thanks to meager wages not promptly paid, and she's facing jail time. Panic leads her to sneak out of the courthouse during a commotion and flee, ending up bluffing her way into a job for clients she'd had to cancel on thanks to the court appearance. Luckily for Blanche, the family soon heads to their summer home in another town, providing her a place to hide out while she figures out her next steps. Her employers have dangerous secrets of their own, however, and Blanche must pry into them if she is to stay alive.
I finished reading this nearly two months ago, but it's taken me a while to try and process what I think of it. I did enjoy reading it, although it was not what I was expecting, based on the blurb. For one thing, it's set in the present day (or, well, the present day of the early 1990s when it was written), but I was terribly confused at first because it felt like something out of the 1950s or 1960s. Are there really still African American maids and gardeners and other domestic workers in North Carolina who are treated like second-class citizens or worse? I suppose there might be, given all the recent racial tensions and violence in the news lately (currently the rioting in Baltimore).
It's truly a different world from the one I know. Although we can now finally afford to pay someone to come and clean our house every couple of weeks, and we just hired a landscaping service to take care of our yard because we simply can't keep up with it, we pay them well, and I cannot fathom treating any of the people doing the work with anything less than the utmost respect and deep gratitude for the time and energy they are saving us. I don't know anyone at all who has ever had "hired help" in the manner depicted in this book, and even if anyone had, no one I know would ever treat people so badly. It's an alien concept--just as much as if this were a sci-fi novel instead of a contemporary mystery.
The sad thing is, Blanche has experienced such a long history and culture of racial bigotry and inequality, that it--understandably, if unpleasantly--colors her perspective on everything. She is intelligent, even when she doesn't make the wisest choices. She loves her adopted children, and I'd love to eat her cooking, but she has a huge chip on her shoulder that keeps her from fully bonding with Mumsfield, a mentally slow sweetheart of a young man, just because he's white and related to her employers. Keeping her distance is a defense mechanism, and her bitterness and cynicism made for difficult reading at times. It was an interesting book, and I am curious to know what the next one in the series is like.
For readers' advisors: character and setting doorways. Some crude language and, strangely enough, a couple of descriptions of Blanche adjusting her underwear when it had ridden up.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free ebook copy I received in exchange for my honest review.
I finished reading this nearly two months ago, but it's taken me a while to try and process what I think of it. I did enjoy reading it, although it was not what I was expecting, based on the blurb. For one thing, it's set in the present day (or, well, the present day of the early 1990s when it was written), but I was terribly confused at first because it felt like something out of the 1950s or 1960s. Are there really still African American maids and gardeners and other domestic workers in North Carolina who are treated like second-class citizens or worse? I suppose there might be, given all the recent racial tensions and violence in the news lately (currently the rioting in Baltimore).
It's truly a different world from the one I know. Although we can now finally afford to pay someone to come and clean our house every couple of weeks, and we just hired a landscaping service to take care of our yard because we simply can't keep up with it, we pay them well, and I cannot fathom treating any of the people doing the work with anything less than the utmost respect and deep gratitude for the time and energy they are saving us. I don't know anyone at all who has ever had "hired help" in the manner depicted in this book, and even if anyone had, no one I know would ever treat people so badly. It's an alien concept--just as much as if this were a sci-fi novel instead of a contemporary mystery.
The sad thing is, Blanche has experienced such a long history and culture of racial bigotry and inequality, that it--understandably, if unpleasantly--colors her perspective on everything. She is intelligent, even when she doesn't make the wisest choices. She loves her adopted children, and I'd love to eat her cooking, but she has a huge chip on her shoulder that keeps her from fully bonding with Mumsfield, a mentally slow sweetheart of a young man, just because he's white and related to her employers. Keeping her distance is a defense mechanism, and her bitterness and cynicism made for difficult reading at times. It was an interesting book, and I am curious to know what the next one in the series is like.
For readers' advisors: character and setting doorways. Some crude language and, strangely enough, a couple of descriptions of Blanche adjusting her underwear when it had ridden up.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free ebook copy I received in exchange for my honest review.
arkwen452's review against another edition
I'm struggling with the setting of a black woman in her fourties? Cleaning and doing house work going on the run from bounced checks just to pretend to be the help in her still (present day) racist town.
And I don't think Blanch is a character I am going to like and if I dont at least like her why am I reading this book?
And I don't think Blanch is a character I am going to like and if I dont at least like her why am I reading this book?
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism
axmed's review against another edition
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
this book was so good! i always try to find a mystery novel without copaganda and so glad i came across this series! i just hope that in the following novels the story is less about white ppl, which is of course understandable in the context of the setting of this first novel. the calls with Blanche's mom and bestie were great. so were her memories of her childhood, her nephew and niece, friends, etc. hopefully there will be more of her being with and around Black people in the rest of the series.
some of my fave passages:
But Cousin Murphy and Night Girl gave Blanche a sense of herself as special, as wondrous, and as powerful, all because of the part of her so many people despised, a part of her that she'd always known was directly connected to the heart of who she was.
[..]
Nate hooked his thumbs in the straps of his overalls. “I worked for her daddy and her daddy's daddy. Outlived both them suckers.” Nate chortled a vicious little laugh and headed for the back door. “I was looking forward to going to Miz Em's funeral, too,”
[..]
She wasn't against stealing from this sort. A lot of what they owned really belonged to people like her, who were grossly and routinely underpaid, who worked in the factories and mills and made the money for the big boys. She just didn't believe in taking big risks for nickels and dimes.
[..]
Blanche hissed some broken Swahili and Yoruba phrases she'd picked up at the Freedom Library in Harlem and told the boy it was a curse that would render his penis as slim and sticky as a lizard's tongue. The look on his face and the way he clutched his crotch lifted her spirits considerably. Nina Simone's version of “I Put a Spell on You” came rolling out of her mouth in a deep, off-key grumble.
[..]
All through Blanche's New York years, through the year in which Blanche had lived in California as a grownup runaway, through Ardell's crazy marriage and religious conversion (and unconversion), they'd supported and encouraged each other with an intensity and constancy that had often made their men jealous and suspicious.
[..]
Blanche was unimpressed by the tears, and Grace's Mammy-save-me eyes.
some of my fave passages:
But Cousin Murphy and Night Girl gave Blanche a sense of herself as special, as wondrous, and as powerful, all because of the part of her so many people despised, a part of her that she'd always known was directly connected to the heart of who she was.
[..]
Nate hooked his thumbs in the straps of his overalls. “I worked for her daddy and her daddy's daddy. Outlived both them suckers.” Nate chortled a vicious little laugh and headed for the back door. “I was looking forward to going to Miz Em's funeral, too,”
[..]
She wasn't against stealing from this sort. A lot of what they owned really belonged to people like her, who were grossly and routinely underpaid, who worked in the factories and mills and made the money for the big boys. She just didn't believe in taking big risks for nickels and dimes.
[..]
Blanche hissed some broken Swahili and Yoruba phrases she'd picked up at the Freedom Library in Harlem and told the boy it was a curse that would render his penis as slim and sticky as a lizard's tongue. The look on his face and the way he clutched his crotch lifted her spirits considerably. Nina Simone's version of “I Put a Spell on You” came rolling out of her mouth in a deep, off-key grumble.
[..]
All through Blanche's New York years, through the year in which Blanche had lived in California as a grownup runaway, through Ardell's crazy marriage and religious conversion (and unconversion), they'd supported and encouraged each other with an intensity and constancy that had often made their men jealous and suspicious.
[..]
Blanche was unimpressed by the tears, and Grace's Mammy-save-me eyes.
lauraborkpower's review against another edition
3.0
I'd really give this 2.5 stars.
It's enjoyable, but not great. A fun cozy mystery with a likeable character. My biggest complaint is that the elements of the murder came a bit too easily--discovered more by word-of-mouth via the underground network of domestic workers and other Black folks unseen by the Southern white society of the story. I loved the idea of this network, but would have preferred if Blanche had discovered more concrete clues herself.
I'll read another in the series for sure.
It's enjoyable, but not great. A fun cozy mystery with a likeable character. My biggest complaint is that the elements of the murder came a bit too easily--discovered more by word-of-mouth via the underground network of domestic workers and other Black folks unseen by the Southern white society of the story. I loved the idea of this network, but would have preferred if Blanche had discovered more concrete clues herself.
I'll read another in the series for sure.