The River Within

Three women. Three lies. One chance to tell the truth. For thirty years Foreign Correspondent Greer Madison has competed brilliantly in a man’s world. But the hardships of a life spent reporting from war zones have caught up to her and she returns to the States to recuperate at the home of her best friend, Darlene Richardson. Darlene has secrets of her own and for the first time in their thirty-year friendship keeps Greer at a distance. Kate, Darlene’s spontaneous, willful daughter is desperate to bring her struggling family together after the death of her brother, Chris. The bonds the three women share are strained, reforged, and ultimately strengthened as they struggle to choose between the lives they think they should have and the lives they want. But first they must choose whether to stay on the safety of the known shore or to dive into the uncharted but healing waters of The River Within.

Baxter Clare Trautman earned a Masters degree in Biology at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and promptly turned her hand to writing. Her thesis became Spirit of the Valley, published by Sierra Club in 2000, and was immediately followed by Bleeding Out, the first in the critically lauded L.A. Franco mystery series. A practicing wildlife biologist, Trautman lives in central California with her wife, dogs, cats, and chickens.