The funny thing is, Blanche had just been thinking that her life had finally settled down. It's been three years since she had to grab the kids and scurry out of Farleigh, North Carolina. Now they've all settled into life in the Roxbury section of Boston, and Blanche herself is feeling like she may finally be free to enjoy life -- at least a little.

But before Blanche can say, "Breakfast is ready," she gets suckered into standing in as cook-housekeeper to one Allister Brindle, a Boston Brahmin politician, and his do-gooder wife. Blanche is quickly enmeshed in a festering canker of scandal that moves from the Brindles' house (a.k.a. Prozac House) to her own black community as she tries to figure out the truth behind the swimming-pool death of a young black man who knew a little too much.

With life suddenly getting just a bit too interesting on both the home and work fronts, Blanche finds herself dealing with a love triangle with bent angles, teen pregnancy, phony spirituality, environmental skulduggery, homophobia, a letter she wishes she hadn't read, a friend whose life she might have saved, and at least one person who doesn't mean her any good.

In-Print Edition: Penguin Paperback ISBN 0140277471 Published 4/91