Thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Release Date: September 7th, 2021
304 Pages
Synopsis: 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. (Goodreads)
If you’re a fan of Alice Feeney, you already know that she excels at misdirection and Rock Paper Scissors is a perfect example of how splendidly she does this without annoying the reader.
The story is told from the POVs of Adam and Amelia, as well as a mysterious person named Robin who lives near the vacation getaway that Amelia won. Once I got past my disbelief over why anyone would take off to the remote Scottish Highlands in the winter on a vacation they supposedly “won” with such little information, I was thoroughly sucked into this mesmerizing page-turner. Unsurprisingly, none of these characters are reliable, and I’ll be honest and admit I absolutely loathed Adam despite my initial sympathy for him because of his Prosopagnosia (face blindness). However, they absolutely fascinated me and the more I read, the more I was dying to find out more about them.
This is a creepy, atmospheric, multi-layered story that’s fleshed out even more by the letters from Adam’s wife, one written on each wedding anniversary for the ten years they’ve been married. It was an ingenious way to add to their backstory and give you a tantalizing peek at what led up to where they are now.
Having read Feeney’s previous books, I was prepared for surprises, but this really kept me on my toes. Except for a couple of minor ones I was truly shocked at the direction the story took, and didn’t see even the final big reveals coming. These were jaw dropping in every way!
Rock Paper Scissors in my humble opinion is one of Feeney’s best books yet, and I highly recommend it to both fans of the bestselling author as well as readers who haven’t tried her books yet. It’s an exciting psychological/domestic thriller tinged with horror and I guarantee that it will grab you and not let go until you’ve reached the last page. Suzanne Mackie’s Orchid Pictures has already optioned this for a six-part Netflix series. Mackie is Executive Producer of The Crown, so I’m really excited about seeing this brought to life on the screen. That said, don’t wait. Read this fabulous book first!
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