May 17, 2021
Patricia King has had a long, extraordinary career —and she continued to evolve over the last decade, taking on a new literary identity as Annamaria Alfieri. In Part 1 of Ron Roel’s conversation with Pat earlier this year, she talked about her time as an international management consultant, working with Fortune-50 companies like PepsiCo, Chase Bank, and Pfizer and publishing five business books, including Never Work for a Jerk, which landed her on the Oprah Winfrey show. In today’s conversation with Pat — Part 2 of her extraordinary journey — she talks about how she made the transition to yet another career as a historical mystery writer Annamaria Alfieri. It wasn’t easy. Pat will reveal how she used her writing and research skills to produce finely detailed historical mysteries—and get a publisher to take a chance on a first-time novelist. Pat will take us through her early mysteries, set in South America, which have garnered critical acclaim. Some years later, she moved across the Atlantic to set her second series of historical novels in British East Africa. Described as Out of Africa meets Agatha Christie, Strange Gods, The Idol of Mombasa, and The Blasphemers are stories that capture the beauty and complexities of imposing a colonial culture on a foreign land. These adventures, in turn, have led to a surprising chapter in Pat King/Annamaria Alfieri's real-life story: a transcontinental effort to radically change the future of young Maasai girls in Kenya.