New York Times Book Review
Unearthing history. Revealing mystery. Anchored in faith.
FROM NEWSROOMS
TO NOVELS
SHORT BIO: Patricia Raybon is a Christy Award–winning Colorado author, essayist, and novelist who writes devotional content for Our Daily Bread Ministries and daring and exciting historical mysteries at the intersection of faith, race, and grace.
LONG BIO: A newspaper journalist right out of the gate, Patricia grew up near Denver and turned to writing historical mystery and suspense fiction during the pandemic.
Her debut novel, All That Is Secret, won a Christy Award for first novel. It also was a Parade Magazine pick for "Mysteries We Love" and a CrimeReads' "Most Anticipated Books of 2021." NBA All-Star Steph Curry picked it as a selection for his Literati book club.
MORE ACCOLADES
The sequel, Double the Lies, won the 2024 Christianity Today Book Award for fiction. The third in the series, Truth Be Told, was a New York Times Book Review pick among "The Best Historical Fiction Novels (Thrillers) to Read Right Now." Patricia's protagonist Annalee Spain was named by the Times among "4 Great Fictional Detectives."
Her nonfiction writing includes My First White Friend, winner of a Christopher Award, and I Told the Mountain to Move, a Book of the Year finalist in the Christianity Today Book Awards.
With her upcoming stand-alone novel, The Sedalia Code, Patricia follows her maternal roots to North Carolina. The story's setting is inspired by the real Palmer Memorial Institute, a historic Black boarding school in Guilford County—a short hour from Durham, her mother's hometown.
NEWSROOM BEGINNINGS
Patricia cut her writing teeth at two big-city Colorado newsrooms—The Denver Post, where she was Sunday Contemporary Magazine editor, and at the Scripps Howard Rocky Mountain News. At both papers, she was a magazine feature writer, winning mutiple awards for newspaper feature writing.
Midcareer she taught newspaper and magazine journalism for fifteen years at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Patricia's journalism degrees are a B.A. from The Ohio State University and an M.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
PERSONAL ESSAYS
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. Patricia was inducted into the Colorado Authors' Hall of Fame in 2021.
Born into the C.M.E. (Christian Methodist Episcopal) church, Patricia is now an active member of her A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopal) congregation in Denver. She's also a member of Mystery Writers of America, Crime Writers of Color, Sisters in Crime, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.
A Colorado resident from early age, Patricia and her family enjoy movies, popcorn, college hoops, and historical dramas and mysteries on Masterpiece on PBS. Join her Readers' Circle at patriciaraybon.com and get her free e-download, "The Busy Person's Guide to Hearing God."
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