Episode 345: A Chat with Patricia Raybon

Because Fiction Podcast

Patricia Raybon has such a compelling author voice, and combined with rich characters and historically riveting settings, her Annalee Spain mystery series keeps readers on their toes. Listen in to learn what inspires Patricia's writing and what you may learn from it.

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One of the coolest things about Patricia Raybon's writing is that it shows part of American history that we don't often see. We're familiar with KKK activity in the South, but Denver?

Add to that a character who is a theologian with her own family secrets to uncover even as she works to find out who killed someone and why, and the story grips you from page one and won't let you go.

Additionally, Patricia's handling of racial tensions and atrocities serve to educate without being preachy. She handles these situations in a compassionate and intelligent way, offering readers a look into history that can be tough to encounter.

I for one, can't wait for the next... and the next... and...

Truth Be Told by Patricia Raybon

Denver's newest detective. A garden's deadly secrets. On a lovely June night in 1924, amateur detective Annalee Spain is mingling bravely at a high-class political fundraiser in the lush backyard garden of famed political fixer Cooper Coates, one of the wealthiest men in Denver's Black neighborhood of Five Points. When Coates’s young daughter discovers a pretty stranger dead in her father’s garden shed, Annalee is thrust onto the baffling new case just as she’s reeling from another recent discovery—a handwritten letter, found buried in her own garden, that reveals the identity of her mother. Not ready to face the truth about her hidden past, Annalee throws herself into solving the mystery of the young woman’s demise. With the help of her pastor boyfriend Jack Blake, her orphaned buddy Eddie, and her trustworthy church friends, Annalee follows the clues to three seemingly disconnected settings—a traveling carnival set up downtown, a Black civic club, and a prestigious white seminary on the outskirts of Denver. Intriguing advice also comes from a famous, real-life Denver visitor. But is Annalee on the right track or just running in circles, fleeing from conflicts racing in her heart? In a taut, heart-gripping narrative driven by secrets, romance, and lies, Annalee must unravel a case with higher stakes than she imagined—one where answers about a lovely woman's death point to truths and tensions still throbbing today.

• A clean historical mystery featuring an amateur female detective, from the Christy Award–winning author of All That Is Secret
• Third installment in the Annalee Spain series
• Includes discussion questions for book groups

You can find out more about Patricia on her WEBSITE and follow her on GoodReads and BookBub.

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