Patricia Raybon: The Sedalia Code

 By Kelly Bridgewater

 A courageous young woman struggles to rise above her dirt-poor beginnings and outsmart a Nazi threat on U.S. soil during WWII in this thrilling Southern tale of bravery, love, and forgiveness.

Sedalia, North Carolina, 1943. While war rages overseas, Laurette Lowe faces a more personal battle when she lands a job teaching math at La Porte Academy, a prestigious Black finishing school. Determined to rise above her sharecropping roots, deep family hurt, and the suffocating limits of Jim Crow, Laurette quickly learns that survival and success demand constant vigilance, carefully measuring every step and word to earn her place among the social elite.

A chance encounter with Nev Pierce, a handsome Army lieutenant from nearby Camp Butner, threatens to derail her plans. Though she first dismisses him as an unwelcome distraction, she’s drawn in by his request to decipher a cryptic message passed to him by an Italian POW. What begins as an intellectual puzzle becomes a chilling revelation: details of a Nazi plot to assassinate the U.S. president.

Cracking the cipher, however, only brings a more troubling puzzle. Army officials at the segregated base are unlikely to heed a Black schoolteacher’s warning and Nev could land in serious trouble for involving an unauthorized civilian. With time running out, Laurette and Nev enlist a small circle of allies from the school in a cunning and courageous ploy, boldly risking their futures and lives to stop a deadly threat no one else sees coming.

 

My Thoughts:

The Sedalia Code by Patricia Raybon opens readers’ eyes to a whole different view of World War II. I loved how she didn’t shy away from the racial tension of the time. It happened, and I’m glad she stayed true to the period. As for the plot with the codebreaking, it was important to advance the storyline along. Without these clues left in the hero’s knapsack, then the heroine would not have gotten involved with trying to stop Nazi sympathizers who were on American soil. As for the romance, I had a really hard time believing that the couple would fall in love so fast. Yes, I believe they could have feelings for each other, but to say that they wanted to spend forever with each other. No. Honestly, they really don’t know much about each other to justify their quick wedding. Overall, The Sedalia Code by Patricia Raybon is a unique view into the world of World War II in the South. Readers that enjoy World War II novels might enjoy this novel too.

I received a complimentary copy of The Sedalia Code by Patricia Raybon, but the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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