Rock Paper Scissors: A Novel

Alice Feeney

Sep 2021 · Sold by Flatiron Books

About this ebook

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Feeney lives up to her reputation as the “queen of the twist”...This page-turner will keep you guessing.” —Real Simple
Think you know the person you married? Think again...

Things have been wrong with Mr and Mrs Wright for a long time. When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs. Self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He can’t recognize friends or family, or even his own wife.

Every anniversary the couple exchange traditional gifts--paper, cotton, pottery, tin--and each year Adam’s wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read. Until now. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they didn’t randomly win this trip. One of them is lying, and someone doesn’t want them to live happily ever after.

Ten years of marriage. Ten years of secrets. And an anniversary they will never forget.

Rock Paper Scissors is the latest exciting domestic thriller from the queen of the killer twist, New York Times bestselling author Alice Feeney.

Ratings and reviews

Adam and Amelia Wright have been married ten years .. but things have been a little rocky. Every anniversary the two exchange traditional gifts .. paper, leather, tin. Each year Amelia writes her husband a letter .. but she never gives them to him. Recently Amelia won a weekend away to Scotland. Amelia has determined that this weekend will either bring them closer together .. or the marriage will dissolve. But Amelia did not randomly won this trip ... one of them is lying and someone wants the happily ever after .. destroyed for good. Very well written, the story is told in part by the letters Amelia has written. Alternate chapters are voiced in turn by Amelia and then Adam. They both know this weekend .. this anniversary ... will make or break them. They each have secrets they've kept from each other and there are twists and turns that change first this way and then the other. The characters are solidly drawn and Adam, in particular, is unique in that he has been inflicted with face blindness. he can't recognize friends or family, or even his own wife. The suspense lasts throughout leading to an unexpected conclusion. Many thanks to the author / Macmillan Publishers / Macmillan Reading Insiders Club / Netgalley for the digital copy of this domestic thriller. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

This was a brilliantly plotted and shrewdly paced and captivating tale that kept me tethered to my Kindle. I didn’t see this ending coming at all. The writing was cleverly observant and witty, wryly humorous while chillingly cunning, easy to fall into yet tense and prickly, and featured multiple POVs of people who intrigued me but weren’t all that likable most of the time. I fell right into the author’s trap and was totally bamboozled. I had several pages of favorite quotes and highlights. Alice Feeney is a sly minx - her word voodoo is strong. I was sucked right into her characters' narratives and even though I live in the tropics, I felt the bone-chilling and teeth-rattling temperatures of the unheated stone buildings in the Scottish Highlands. It was tense and gripping with impending peril right around the corner, yet the observant humor was snarky and smirk-worthy witty on the way there. I'm greedy for all her clever arrangements of words and have just added her entire listing to my TBR.

I was at 80% of the book before something actually happened. It was a pretty boring read up until then. every chapter ended with a cliff hanger but then the next chapter would be like "just kidding, that's not what you thought it was" and it became predictable that nothing was going to happen. the ending was a decent twist but ive certainly read better.

About the author

Alice Feeney is a writer and a journalist. She spent fifteen years with BBC News, where she worked as a reporter, news editor, an arts and entertainment producer, and a One O' Clock news producer. Alice has lived in London and Sydney and has now settled in the Surrey countryside, where she lives with her husband and dog. Alice is the New York Times bestselling author of Sometimes I Lie, I Know Who You Are, and His & Hers. His & Hers will be adapted for TV by Jessica Chastain’s Freckle Films, and Sometimes I Lie will soon be a major Warner Bros. TV series, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and produced by Ellen DeGeneres. Rock Paper Scissors is her fourth novel.