Mystery Book Club: After Grafton - The Rise of the Female Detective

For the spring semester, Carole Shmurak will be leading a five part series on the theme After Grafton: The Rise of the Female Detective. After Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone and Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski made their sensational debuts in 1982, publishers – and readers – eagerly sought out female detectives. These women are judges, lawyers, teachers, housekeepers, and taxi-drivers  — and for better or worse, they have lovers, nieces and nephews, mothers and fathers, sisters and lots of brothers, all of whom complicate their lives

For the month of April, we will be reading Blanche Cleans Up by Barbara Neely.

Blanche White is working as a temporary cook and housekeeper for a right-wing, Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Alistair Brindle when someone tries to blackmail him. It’s an ugly mess that Brindle’s political team is eager to sweep under the carpet and that Blanche can’t resist cleaning up herself…especially after a young black man is killed who knew too much about Brindle’s dirty laundry. Her investigation raises dark secrets involving sex, environmental contamination, and political corruption, difficult stains on the white, conservative Brindle family that someone is trying to remove with murder.

Carole B. Shmurak, Professor Emerita at Central Connecticut State University, is the author of eleven books, including four mysteries featuring professor/sleuth Susan Lombardi: Deadmistress, Death by Committee, Death at Hilliard High, and Most Likely to Murder. As Carroll Thomas, she co-authored the Matty Trescott novels, one of which (Ring Out Wild Bells) was nominated for the Agatha Award for Best Young Adult Mystery. Carole leads monthly mystery groups at the Simsbury, Southington, and Wallingford libraries. Visit her website carole-books.com