The Sedalia Code

Author: Patricia Raybon
Genre: WWII Historical Fiction
Pages: 352
Release Date: October 13, 2026
Publisher: Tyndale Fiction

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.

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Reviewer: Jeanette Durkin

Wow! This is a wonderful book! It was set in North Carolina in 1943 at La Porte Academy.

The cast of characters are written brilliantly! Laurette is AMAZING!! She rises from poverty to become a teacher at La Porte Academy. Life has dealt her some hard blows but she's ready for this next chapter to begin. Nev is my favorite! He's someone who sees the glass as half full. He's intelligent, compassionate and brave. Jenny is the best friend that everyone needs in their life. Dr. Clarice Dodd Widener is a passionate and wise woman.

The Sedalia Code parts of the book are my favorite! Laurette uses her math skills and intelligence to crack a code that contains a threat to America.

Laurette is also on a spiritual journey. One day during a chapel service, a preacher talks about Jeremiah. "Ah, Lord God! Behold, thou hast made the heaven and earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is NOTHING too hard for thee."

I was provided a complimentary ARC copy of the book from Tyndale House Publishers via NetGalley through Interviews & Reviews. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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