'Blanche and the Talented Tenth' by Barbara Neely

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Have you ever wondered what 'Murder She Wrote' would look like if Jessica Fletcher was a PoC with a fairly good dose of political consciouness? OK, so I never really did either, but having read 'Blanche and the Talented Tenth' I now know!

'Blanche and the Talented Tenth' is a fairly cozy murder mystery novel, featuring Blanche White who originally appeared in 'Blanche on the Lam' which has been reviewed here before. This time the cleaning woman detective Blanche is off on holiday, at an exclusive all Black resort in Maine. The novel is really as much about the issues thrown up by this resort - colorism, classism and the divisions people put up between each other - as it is about the mysterious deaths that occur whilst Blanche is visiting.

Honestly, the mystery isn't that exciting. It's all solid and reliable enough, but the plot isn't really that complicated and most of the twists felt as if they were being very clearly sign posted from a long way away. What is interesting are Blanche's observations on the world around her - race, colour and class - and how sharply she dissects the issues that the average cozy murder tends to ignore.

The other interesting thing that this novel brought up for me was how shamefully few dark skinned Black actresses there are. One of my habits whilst reading a novel is to mentally 'cast' the book - for example, in this book I imagined that Mattie, the dignified academic, would look like Nichelle Nichols - but when it came to Blanche I actually had a mental blank. I couldn't think of any full figured, dark skinned Black actresses, and that makes me sad.

I've now ordered a couple more books in this series - I'm interested to see some more of Blanche, and found Barbara Neely's work really quite thought provoking.

Definitely recommended.

Comments

[pene.livejournal.com]

oh brilliant. I was just hoping for more cosy mysteries in my life.

[sophinisba]

I'm really glad to see this review here. I'd felt sort of bad about my negative review of the first book being the only one here because I know the series has a lot of fans. Also I'm happy for you that you liked this book and are planning on reading more of the series. :)

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

I like cozy murders, so it is the kind of thing I'll always go for. I did agree with a lot of your points - it isn't great literature at all, and I don't think it's the cleverest book out there, but I did enjoy it.

[falena]

I'm reading Blanche Passes Go and as I usually 'mentally cast' characters too I found myself picturing Blanche as a Whoopi Goldberg. :)

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Oooh...interesting. I think I rejected Whoopi as being too small, but I think facially and in terms of mannerisms you might well be right. I can see that.