The smart & sassy first novel in the ground-breaking Blanche White series by Barbara Neely, the 2020 Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster. Winner of the Agatha and Macavity Awards. “One of the best fictional detectives conjured up in years,” Library Journal Blanche White is a plump, feisty, middle-aged African-American housekeeper working for the genteel rich in North Carolina. But when an employer stiffs her, and her checks bounce, she goes on the lam, hiding out as a maid for a wealthy family at their summer home. That plan goes awry when there’s a murder and Blanche becomes the prime suspect. So she’s forced to use her savvy, her sharp wit, and her old-girl network of domestic workers to discover the truth and save her own skin. Along the way, she lays bare the quirks of southern society with humor, irony, and a biting commentary that makes her one of the most memorable and original characters ever to appear in mystery fiction. “Blanche not only solves the crime, but exhibits familiar foibles and strengths, believes in kitchen-table wisdom, and possesses a wicked sense of humor,” Ms. Magazine “A quirky mystery debut that pits Blanche against a Faulknerian cast of oddballs who may be trying to kill each other off to claim a southern fortune,” Kirkus Reviews “Endlessly entertaining,” Publisher’s Weekly “The uproarious Blanche White, the Southern housekeeper who knows her own mind, opened doors to the nuances of black life for readers and writers alike. Barbara Neely is a trailblazer,” Naomi Hirahara, Edgar Award-winning author Barbara Neely is the 2020 Mystery Writers of American Grandmasters and the multiple award-winning writer and much-admired community activist best known for her innovative and popular Blanche White mystery novels. Neely launched the acclaimed series with Blanche on the Lam, which won the Agatha, Macavity, and Anthony Awards, and followed up with three equally-beloved mysteries featuring her fearless and feisty amateur sleuth, all of which are proudly published by Brash Books. Blanche on the Lam A Blanche White Mystery By Barbara Neely Brash Books, LLC Copyright © 2014 Barbara Neely All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-941298-38-1 CHAPTER 1 "Have you anything to say for yourself?" The judge gave Blanche a look that made her raise her handbag to her chest like a shield. "Your Honor ... I'm sorry ... I ..." "Sorry? It most certainly is sorry! This is the fourth, I repeat, the fourth time you've been before this court on a bad-check charge. Perhaps some time in a jail cell will convince you to earn your money before you spend it, like the rest of us. Thirty days and restitution!" "But, Your Honor ..." Blanche's legs were suddenly weak. Her hands were freezing. Beads of sweat popped out on her nose. She wanted to tell the judge that a jail cell was cruel and unusual punishment for a person who panicked in slow elevators. She also wanted to ask him where the hell he got off, lying about her like that! This was her second, not her fourth charge. Furthermore, just as she'd done the last time, she would have made good on the checks even if she hadn't been summoned to court. Hadn't she already covered three of the five checks she'd written? And right here in her handbag she had the forty-two-fifty she still owed, plus fifty dollars for the fine — same as the judge had made her pay last time. But last time she'd had a judge with his mind already on the golf course. He'd hardly bothered to look at her. There'd been no talk of jail that time. "Your Honor," she began again. The bang of the gavel was like a shot fired in the room. "Next case!" "Come along." The matron's hand was pale as plaster against the deep blackness of Blanche's upper arm. Blanche looked around the courtroom, but no one was interested enough to look back. She was already being replaced before the judge by a stooped, sad-faced white man with cut-up shoes and hands red as raw meat. She was taken to an anteroom with metal tables and chairs that looked like every prison movie she'd ever seen. A dark blond, bullet-headed boy in jeans and cowboy boots sat on a long bench against the far wall. Sheriff Stillwell stood beside him, his short, bandy legs bowed beneath the weight of his belly. His right hand was on his pistol, his eyes were boring a hole in the opposite wall. Blanche tried to catch the boy's eye, to see and be seen by someone before they both disappeared into ... She clutched her stomach and half-turned to the matron. "I gotta use the toilet!" The matron gave her an annoyed frown, looked at her watch, then pulled Blanche through another doorway that led onto the back corridor. Diagonally across the hall, between the staircase and the men's room, was a door marked LADIES. A dingy skylight threw murky light down onto a cracked marble floor. A mottled basin and a toilet stall were crowded together in a space hardly large enough for the two women. Blanche entered the stall and padded the seat with to