Blanche Passes Go: A Blanche White Mystery, Paperback

Blanche White returns to Farleigh, North Carolina for the summer to help her best friend with her catering business. It's a homecoming rich with the potential for new romance and fraught with the pain of facing the man who raped her at knife-point years ago but was never prosecuted for the crime. Shortly after Blanche arrives, a young woman is murdered and the clues point to the rapist. Blanche investigates, determined not to let him get away with another crime... nor is she willing to let his money-hungry sister marry a sweet, mentally challenged man for his wealth. With her usual persistence, feisty wit, and indomitable spirit, her quest for the truth reveals the racism and sexism that still permeate the new south, but also the conflicts that divide her own family...and that might prevent her from accepting the love she so richly deserves.

The author of the innovative Blanche White series of mysteries, Barbara Neely is an award-winning writer and activist who's penned everything from novels to short stories to plays. Neeley's popular Blanche White mystery novels are beloved by fans in part because of her unique heroine - a strong and independent African American woman who works as maid and an amateur sleuth. The first book in this series, Blanche on the Lam, won the Agatha, Macavity, and Anthony Awards. Critics and fans continued to cheer on the feisty detective as she unraveled conspiracies and scandals in three more mysteries in the series... Blanche Among the Talented Tenth, Blanche Cleans Up and Blanche Passes Go. The multi-talented Neely has also authored a number of short stories that have appeared in anthologies, magazines, university texts, and journals. In addition to her writing career, Neely designed and directed the first community-based corrections facility for women in Pennsylvania and was the director of Women for Economic Justice, a Boston-based women's advocacy organization. She also produced radio programs for Africa News Service and was the host of Commonwealth Journal, an award-winning weekly interview program on the radio station of the University of Massachusetts, Boston. In honor of her activism, Neely received the Community Works Social Action Award for Leadership and Activism for Women's Rights and Economic Justice, and the Fighting for Women's Voices Award from the Coalition for Basic Human Needs.