Sometimes she must solve murders, or otherwise risk being accused of them. She brought an intense awareness of social injustice to her characterization of Blanche, who is tired of white employers who ‘‘seemed to think she ought to be delighted to swab their toilets and trash cans for a pittance,’’ and who hold their purses conspicuously close when she is in the house. Neely made her literary debut after she turned 50, following a career that included running a YWCA, leading a community-based correctional program for women in Pennsylvania, working for a nonprofit that served low-income women in need of housing, and hosting a local radio show in Boston. Blanche’s invisibility allows her to overhear all kinds of things.” ‘‘Who knows more about you than the person who sweeps under your bed?’’ Neely remarked to the Boston Herald. But she was possessed of an uncanny ability, as Washington Post book reviewer Maureen Corrigan once observed, to find ‘‘the dust bunnies under her employers’ couches as well as the skeletons in their closets.’’
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