Double the Lies is the second novel in Patricia Raybon’s Annalee Spain Mystery series, following the Christy Award-winning All That is Secret (click here to read my review).
I found Double the Lies as engrossing as All that is Secret.
The novels are set in 1920s Denver, a corrupt time and place, where the city police and most other people of power are members of the Klan. They overtly discriminate against Black people, Mexicans, Catholics, and Jews, which gives rise to secrets and lies as characters try to avoid the police .. or hide their ties to the discriminated groups.
Annalee finds herself at the centre of a murder investigation after comforting a distraught young woman, then accompanying her home to find her husband dead in their small house. Being found at a murder scene with an alibi wouldn’t be an issue for most people, but Annalee Spain is Denver’s colored detective, and the police are not her friends.
So Annalee is effectively on the run, trying to find who murdered Jeffrey, where her beau, Jack, has gone, and what’s the connection with the smuggling barnstormers. Annalee is also trying to find her mother, who gave her up when she was a baby in the town of Annalee … how she got her name.
Annalee is an intelligent woman, and I do enjoy reading novels about intelligent women, especially those who are stepping outside the norm for their time and location – which Annalee certainly is.
I liked the Sherlock Holmes references, even though I haven’t read any Sherlock stories and probably missed many of the subtleties. I also liked the subtle references to the biblical story of Jacob and Esau, especially given that parts of the story relate to twins and brothers and family secrets.
I thoroughly enjoyed Double the Lies.
I recommend it for fans of clean or Christian mysteries, historical fiction, and fiction by BIPOC authors or featuring BIPOC characters.
Thanks to NetGalley and Tyndale House for providing a free ebook for review.
About Patricia Rayborn
Patricia Raybon is an award-winning Colorado author, essayist and novelist who writes top-rated books at the daring intersection of faith and race.
A writer of faith by day and mystery by night, Patricia Raybon is a Christy Award-winning Colorado author, essayist, and novelist who writes daring and exciting novels and books at the intersection of faith and race.
After a notable career in newspaper journalism and journalism education, Patricia turned to fiction with release of a 1920s mystery series about a prim, poor but clever Black theologian—a fan of Sherlock Holmes–who solves murder and crime in Colorado’s dangerous Klan era. The series’ acclaimed debut, “All That Is Secret: An Annalee Spain Mystery,” won the 2022 Christy Award for First Novel and was a Parade Magazine Fall 2021 “Mysteries We Love” selection, a Masterpiece on PBS “Best Mystery Books of 2021” pick “As Recommended by Bestselling Authors,” and Stephen Curry’s March 2022 personal choice for his Literati Book Club.
Patricia’s personal essays on faith, family and race have been published in The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, USA Today, USA Weekend, Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post, Rocky Mountain News, the Charles Stanley Ministries In Touch Magazine and featured on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition.
Find Patricia Raybon online at:
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About Double the Lies
On a cold spring night in 1924, Annalee Spain offers her new fancy lace handkerchief—a gift from her pastor boyfriend Jack Blake—to a young woman crying in a Denver public library. But later that night, when police find the handkerchief next to the body of the young woman’s murdered husband, Annalee becomes the number one suspect, and her panic doubles when she learns that Jack has gone missing.
With just days to solve the murder before the city’s Klan-run police frame her for the crime, Annalee finds herself hunting for clues in the Colorado mountain town of Estes Park. She questions the victim’s wife and her uncle, a wealthy Denver banker, at their mountain lodge, desperate for leads. Instead, she finds a household full of suspects and even more burning questions. Who keeps threatening her, why can’t she find Jack, and will a dangerous flirtation be her undoing? Her answers plumb the depths of the human heart, including her own, exploring long-buried secrets, family lies, even city politics—all of which could cost the young detective her fledgling love . . . and perhaps even her life.
Find Double the Lies online at:
Amazon | BookBub | ChristianBook | Goodreads | Koorong
