Synopses & Reviews
It was an affair...to regret.
Rachel Blakely's charmed life is significantly tarnished after her husband Nick's infidelity, but she wants to give her marriage a second chance. Then a business trip to sun-drenched Rome with her best girlfriend Kit leads to a night of passion with a stranger — a one-night stand meant to signify the end of a painful chapter in her life.
Rachel returns home determined to put the past behind her, and at first life seems golden again. Nick is more loving than ever, and following his promotion to senior partner in a prestigious plastic surgery practice, the couple is welcomed into Chicago's high society, where beautiful people live beautiful lives.
But there is a dark side...one that sends Rachel's life spiraling into a nightmare.
It's clear everyone is guilty of something. But whose secrets will lead to murder?
Review
"This is Caldwell's most exciting book yet, with a plot that begins with an extramarital affair and develops into a tale of betrayal that makes an affair seem like the least of one's worries... It's a summer must-read." Chicago Sun-Times
Review
"This book blew me away. The Rome Affair is a fabulous, hypnotic psychological thriller. Not only did I wait for the other shoe to drop, but then the next shoe, and the next... Laura Caldwell is a force we can't ignore." New York Times bestselling author Stella Cameron
Review
"Caldwell expertly plucks at the reader's nerves building dread and doubt at a slow but deliciously inexorable pace. Almost Hitchcockian in its execution, this novel has the feel of a 50s film noire." Romantic Times
Synopsis
In The Rome Affair, a Chicago society couple rides a roller coaster of infidelity, blackmail and murder. Rachel Blakely and her husband, Dr. Nick Blakely, have been dealing with marital issues due to Nick's affair. While away on vacation with her best friend, Rachel commits her own act of infidelity with an intriguing Italian artist. The only one who knows about her affair is her travel companion and best friend, Kit. Upon returning to the states, Rachel goes back to her well-heeled lifestyle while her friend Kit's life and mental state begin to unravel. Kit decides to blackmail her best friend. In trying to keep her Rome affair a secret from her husband, Rachel goes to great lengths both emotionally and financially. The blackmail continues to increase and Rachel begins to lose control of her perfect life.
Reading Group Guide
Add something unique to your next meeting by including the perspective of the author. Laura Caldwell would like to chat with any book club or reading group that chooses one of her novels. Learn firsthand how the novels were written and sold. Interested book club members should send an email to
[email protected] and leave their email addresses and phone numbers. Laura will contact them to set up a mutually convenient time for a chat.
- What did you think of what Rachel did in Rome? Can traveling somehow open up a person and make them consider things they wouldn't in their own country?
- Have you ever found yourself jealous, though you know you shouldn't be, of a friend? How does one handle it when friends' lives take them down very different paths than one's own? What if those seem paths like successes compared to yours?
- Are there friends close enough that you'd "bury the body" for them? Is that a good thing unequivocally? What if you discovered, in the worst possible circumstances, that your friend didn't feel the same loyalty toward you?