Elizabeth Buchan is always an excellent writer and Two Women in Rome is no exception. The protagonist, Lottie, is an unusual character and made so real and believable by the author that everything that she says and happens to her seems true. Lottie's being given away at birth, without knowing either parent, is a tragic backstory and her coming together with husband Tom was truly magical and the start of her journey to Rome to become an archivist. An unusual but particularly rewarding job where you can literary dig up someone's past and bring them to life once again, Lottie wonders who Nina Marie Lawrence is when she finds the name on a box but further details. The box contains a rare and valuable painting from a manuscript and this is truly where the story unfolds and these 'two women', one dead for over forty years and one very much alive, come together in Rome.