Blanche on the Lam

By Barbara Neely

Group Comments:

I felt like I’ve met some of these people! And I definitely don’t like the South in the 90s. Author got that. I felt authentically annoyed. I liked Blanche, I was rooting for her the whole way. Lots of flashbacks for such a short book. The mystery was medium. Not super complicated. A little bit charming. The setting was a bit generic. Story a bit short.

Simple, sparse, but very serious. Cozy on the surface, but not underneath. Loved the commentary on race and class. Appreciated how observant Blanche was. Author did an amazing job putting us in Blanche’s shoes. The mystery was kind of light. I liked the next level fight scene!

Some very graphic parts, so not really a cozy. I liked the inclusion of the character Mumsfield. The mystery was kind of obvious. Awesome fight scene at the end. Some of it was quite distressing. I’m white, and it made me uncomfortable. Blanche is a really compelling character.

I didn’t like Blanche as a character. A lot of graphic stuff. I did like the inclusion of the Mumsfield character. Mystery took too long to appear.

This book was written to highlight race and class. Very serious. So much disparity. I really enjoyed this book.

I especially liked Mumsfield. I liked Blanche’s ability to connect to people.

I liked it very much. Charming and very serious. Really portrayed the aches of black people and how they are disregarded. I loved it. My heart ached every time Blanche went through something.

Not a good book to listen to. A lot of bitterness. I lived in the south and saw a lot of this situation. Really good premise for a mystery series with a reluctant detective. Tedious to get to the actual murder. More social and racial commentary than mystery. Loved the fight scene at the end.