The Rome Affair - Karen Swan

1974 and Elena Damiani lives a gilded life. Born with extreme wealth and beauty, no door is closed to her, no man can resist her. At twenty-six, she is already on to her third husband when she meets her love match. But he is the one man she can never have, and all the riches in the world can’t change it.

2017 and Francesca Hackett is living la dolce vita in Rome, leading tourist groups around the Eternal City and forgetting the ghosts she left behind in London. When she finds a stolen designer handbag in her dustbin and returns it, she is introduced to the grand neighbour who lives across the piazza – famed socialite and Viscontessa, Elena. Elena is overjoyed: the bag contains an unopened letter written by her husband on his deathbed, twelve years earlier.

The two women begin to work together on the Viscontessa’s memoirs. As summer unfurls, Elena tells her sensational stories, leaving Cesca in her thrall. But when a priceless diamond ring is found in an ancient tunnel and ascribed to Elena, Cesca begins to suspect a shocking secret at the heart of her new friend’s life….