SHAPIRO: Fellow author and friend Katherine Hall Page says she'll remember Neely as a person whose deep convictions guided both her writing and her life. In an interview with The Washington Post, she told a story about organizing chambermaids at a Boston hotel, domestic workers not all that different from Blanche White. And she was able to discuss them in a way that made it very digestible.ĬHANG: Barbara Neely's writing was just one part of her social activism. GARRETT: Race is such a hard conversation. She credits Neely with tackling tough subjects with humor and levity.

SHAPIRO: Kellye Garrett writes the award-winning 'Detective By Day' series. And so, of course, I immediately gobbled up all her books. KELLYE GARRETT: She was one of the first times where I actually saw a black woman in a mystery novel.

Barbara showed them that they could do that. GOLDMAN: Barbara broke barriers for a lot of women of color who wanted to write crime fiction. SHAPIRO: Joel Goldman says that's part of what made Barbara Neely such a trailblazer. She was a domestic worker, one of the, quote, 'invisible people who see everything but are rarely seen.' And Neely noted, who knows more than the people who empty your waste baskets and wash your underwear? And Barbara Neely chose Blanche White's profession carefully as well. 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.

Barbara neely blanche on the lam