WASHINGTON POST CELEBRATES THE RETURN OF BARBARA NEELY’S “BLANCHE WHITE” BOOKS
Written byBrash Admin
The Washington Post ran a terrific piece today
about our reissues of Barbara Neely’s ground-breaking “Blanche White”
mystery novels. The series explores race, culture, politics and sexism through
the prism of a compelling, entertaining, and highly-original crime story. These
books are prime examples of our dedication to publishing “the best crime novels
in existence.” The article includes interviews with Barbara and Brash Books
co-founder Joel
Goldman. Here’s an excerpt:
Before
“The Help” there was Blanche White, an African American housekeeper with a
knack for getting tangled up in murder mysteries.
Yet as
fascinating as the character Blanche White is, the story of Barbara Neely, the author behind the books, is even
more so. She’s worked as an activist and radio talk-show host and producer,
designed a women’s corrections system and written a play she hopes to expand
and have produced. Plus she’s earned two master’s degrees — the first in
urban planning and the second in creative writing.
Neely’s
the kind of person who explains, when talking about her career taking yet another
turn, “I wanted to find out how to do what I didn’t know how to do.”
Her
ground-breaking mystery series premiered in 1992 with “Blanche on the Lam.” It won three of the four major mystery
awards that year for best first novel: The Agatha, the Anthony and the
Macavity. Three more books followed, but all are now out of print.
Until
Brash Books, founded by bestselling authors Lee Goldberg and Joel Goldman, with
the goal of publishing “the best crime novels in existence,” reissued Neely’s
first novel as an e-book last year. The second book in the series will be released in
February.
“Neely
blazed a trail for other women and minority crime novelists,” Goldman said.
“She gives a voice to a character who was previously invisible.”
Be sure
to check out the article for an interview with Barbara and more fascinating
background on her and the books.
Tags: Barbara neely, Blanche Among the Talented Tenth, Blanche Cleans Up, Blanche on the Lam, Blanche White, Brash Books, crime writing, female crime writers, Joel Goldman, Lee Goldberg, mystery novels, Mystery Writing, Washington Post, whodunit
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