A darker shade of crimson Book

I've read three books in this series, and three books in Barbara Neely's Blanche White mystery series about a Black maid. But while Blanche keeps getting deeper and deeper, I get the opposite feeling from the "Ivy League" protagonist Nikki Chase. Maybe it's her Prada backpack and frequent references to designer clothing. Maybe it's her conservative (but very handsome) white, Italian American heart throb who never says anything interesting.

On the plus side, it's the author's personally-felt picture of both the "glass ceiling" and the liberal racism faced by African Americans of any income bracket in the most genteel of settings. Still, even though the time frame is more contemporary than the Blanche White series, the "Ivy League" books seem dated politically. The masses - students on campuses from Harvard to City College - are demanding "Black Lives Matter" and ripping down Confederate statues. Neely's books were - and still are - in the vanguard in their analyses of race, class, and sexual politics. Neely's working class characters and community are real people, and treated with respect. "Ivy League" tends to treat radicals in a stereotypical fashion.... but what can you expect from the 1%-bound?