PATRICIA RAYBON
HERE'S MY LATEST!
Annalee Spain Mystery #3
Denver, 1924. When a pretty stranger is found dead in a rich man's garden, and detective Annalee Spain prays to unravel the crime, will she also unearth the truth of her own deepest secrets, longings, and lies?
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW PICK!
"Threading the needle [of mystery and religion] in just the right way." Sarah Weinman, New York Times
"Heart-gripping perfection." Michelle Shocklee, Christianity Today Fiction Winner for Count the Nights by Stars
AVAILABLE NOW.
GET MORE HISTORY
IN MY MYSTERIES!
FOR OUR HEARTS & SOULS:
MY DEVOTIONAL and INSPIRATIONAL WRITING
- My First White Friend, Patricia's racial-forgiveness memoir—and a nonfiction classic (25 years in print). Winner of the Christopher Award and a Books for a Better Life Award. (Viking Penguin.)
- I Told the Mountain to Move, Patricia's deeply candid prayer memoir. A 2006 Book of the Year Finalist in Christianity Today Magazine’s annual book awards. (Tyndale House Publishers)
- The One Year® God's Great Blessings Devotional , Patricia's best-selling daily study of 52 Bible virtues that God blesses. Let God build your character -- and richly bless you -- as you deepen your daily journey with Him. "One of the best of the One Year series." (Tyndale House)
- Undivided: A Muslim Daughter, Her Christian Mother, Their Path to Peace. A "vulnerable conversation" between Patricia and her younger daughter Alana Raybon, the book explores their mother-daughter struggle to forge interfaith peace. "Engaging. Fascinating. Highly recommended." (Christian Booksellers Association). "As fresh as this evening's news." (Jerry B. Jenkins). (Thomas Nelson Publishers.)
- Bound for Glory, a tribute book honoring African American spirituals by acclaimed calligrapher Timothy Botts, with reflections by Patricia. (Tyndale House)
- Beautiful Blessings from God, a purse-sized "sampler" version of Patricia's best-selling One Year® daily devotional, God's Great Blessings. (Tyndale House)
Patricia's Recognitions
A SHORT BIO
Patricia's essays on family and faith have been published in The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, USA Today, USA Weekend, Country Living Magazine, Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post, Guideposts, In Touch Magazine (In Touch Ministries), Our Daily Bread, Christianity Today, Today's Christian Woman, popular blogs including (in)courage at DaySpring, the Washington Post's Acts of Faith and Her.Meneutics, and aired on National Public Radio.
Her essays and articles include several first-place winners for feature writing and news reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists (Sigma Delta Chi), National Press Women, Colorado Press Women, Colorado Association of Black Journalists, the Colorado Authors League, and the National Mental Health Association.
In 2021, Patricia was inducted into the Colorado Authors' Hall of Fame.
As Seen In...
Patricia's Bio
A newspaper journalist right out of the gate, Patricia turned to writing historical mystery novels during the pandemic and hasn't looked back. Her first fiction is the award-winning Annalee Spain Mystery series whose debut, All That Is Secret, won a Christy Award for First Novel and was picked by NBA All-Star Stephen Curry as a Literati Book Club selection. The series' second installment, Double the Lies, won the Christianity Today Book Award for Fiction. Third in the series, Truth Be Told—named by the New York Times with Annalee Spain as one of "Four Great Detectives," released in June 2024.
Patricia cut her writing teeth in high-pressure newsrooms. A winner of multiple awards for feature writing, she worked a dozen years at Denver newspapers—including The Denver Post, where she was a Sunday Contemporary Magazine editor, and Scripps Howard's Rocky Mountain News, where she was a feature writer.
Mid-career she joined the journalism faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder where she taught print journalism for 15 years to bright, hard-working graduate and undergraduate students, getting promoted to professor emerita in 2006.
She now writes full-time authoring novels and books at the daring intersection of faith and race. Her personal essays have been published in the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, USA Today, USA Weekend, Guideposts, In Touch Magazine, Christianity Today, the Washington Post, and for National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition. A devotional writer, she’s also a regular contributor at Our Daily Bread Ministries.
Patricia’s nonfiction books include two notable memoirs, My First White Friend, a winner of the Christopher Award and a Books for a Better Life Award, and I Told the Mountain to Move: Learning to Pray So Things Change, a Book of the Year finalist in Christianity Today’s 2006 Book Awards. Patricia was inducted into the Colorado Authors' Hall of Fame in 2021.
A member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., PEN America, the Authors Guild, and INK: A Creative Collective, Patricia was also accepted into Mystery Writers of America, Crime Writers of Color, Sisters in Crime, Sisters in Crime-Colorado, Rocky Mountain Mystery Writers of America, and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. A recent member of the board of trustees at Denver Seminary, Patricia enjoys speaking at church, library, book club and community groups, serving also at writing workshops and conferences nationwide.
Passionate about God's Word and the power in reading, studying and obeying it, Patricia feels blessed to teach Sunday school once a quarter at her Denver church, also supporting Bible translation and literacy efforts worldwide through the Wycliffe Bible Translators.
A lifelong Colorado resident, Patricia is mom to two grown daughters, a “Grammy” to five grandchildren, mother-in-law to one “son,” and the wife of 48 years to her husband Dan Raybon, a retired educator. Patricia and Dan share a passion for movies, popcorn, college hoops, and historical dramas and mysteries on Masterpiece on PBS.
In all of this, Patricia seeks to live in the spirit of one of her favorite Scriptures: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." (Romans 1:16, KJV).
Join her Reader’s Circle at patriciaraybon.com and get her free prayer download, “The Busy Person’s Guide to Hearing God.”
"Everybody has a backstory. The Today Show did a great job explaining mine." (Click here to watch.)
"When our youngest daughter became a Muslim, surprising our entire Christian family, I used my training as a journalist to explore the challenges of our faith journey in memoirs and essays on faith, family and culture -- digging deep into personal questions to discover God's timeless answers."
WHAT I WRITE ABOUT
Faith. Life. Healing. Reconciling. Christ.
WHAT I TEACH ABOUT?
Love.
WHY?
To inspire people to know and love God--and each other.
WHY PEOPLE READ ME?
Transparency. Encouragement. Reconciliation. Christ.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." (Romans 1:16, KJV).
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