Cry Me A River: A Novel

Claire Eppington feels unfinished.

Her mother died when Claire was young. Her father raised her in a home suffused with grief and loneliness. When she was an adult, her father left her with a gift from her mother: a journal full of memories, hopes, and regrets.

Claire can barely bring herself to open the porcelain-encrusted memorial. She is full of resentment, a fear of death, and a nagging sense of incompletion. It is ironic, then, that Claire chooses a career overseeing the final rites of people whose families want their ashes spread at exotic or distant locales.

On a trip to Colombia to bring the remains of a client to a remote village on the Rio de Magdalena, Claire finds that her job may be more deadly than she expected.

Her assignment allows her to work with Manny Villareal, a handsome and rugged photographer. What Claire does not know is that Manny used to work as a security chief for his family's cartel.

When Manny's brother becomes threatened, Claire becomes a pawn in a dangerous game. Pursued by an assassin and pressed by military groups, a rogue DEA agent, and a greedy relative seeking to overthrow the cartel, Manny is forced to make a choice. Does he save his family, or the woman he is beginning to love?

Claire is faced with her mother's legacy, a dangerous assignment in a country full of beauty and romance, and the possibility that her greatest fear may become a reality.