Christian Historical Fiction Talk is listener supported. When you buy things through this site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Become a patron and enjoy special perks and bonus content.
Patricia Raybon joins us for the very first time on the podcast, though she isn’t a new author. We discuss her latest release, Truth Be Told, if writing a mystery is hard for her, what she’d like readers to take from the book, and what makes a good mystery. Patrons will find out what her current favorite movie is and why.
Truth Be Told by Patricia Raybon
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
Get your copy of Truth Be Told by Patricia Raybon.
Christy Award winner Patricia Raybon was reared near Denver, Colorado under big sky, bright sunshine, and the humbling mystery of Christ. A newspaper journalist who turned to historical fiction, she authors devotional writing for Our Daily Bread and writes the Annalee Spain Mystery series set in Colorado’s dangerous 1920s Klan era.