ROCK PAPER SCISSORS by Alice Feeney
Flatiron; 9/7/21
CBTB Rating: 4/5
The Verdict: inventive domestic suspense with an explosive finale
If you love domestic suspense and aren’t reading Alice Feeney yet, you’re missing out. The author of deliciously twisty and dark thrillers including His & Hers and Sometimes I Lie returns this week with her newest suspense novel ROCK PAPER SCISSORS, a winning blend of chilling atmosphere, cinematic setting, and unpredictable characters. In ROCK PAPER SCISSORS, a couple’s anniversary getaway takes a dark and dangerous turn… and their happily ever after might be ending sooner than they thought. True to form for Feeney, ROCK PAPER SCISSORS is a domestic suspense novel that stands out thanks to a masterful twist (or two, or maybe more…) and vividly-drawn characters who leap off the page. While ROCK PAPER SCISSORS may not be my personal favorite of Feeney’s thrillers—that title still belongs to Feeney’s 2020 release His & Hers, which has one of my favorite final reveals of any thriller I’ve ever read—it is nevertheless a standout in the domestic suspense space, a must-read for anyone who loves stories that delve into the darkest corners of interpersonal relationships.
Plot Details:
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.
Alice Feeney has a knack for writing truly memorable suspense novels that stand out from the pack thanks to their vivid character development and jaw-dropping twists—and the same can absolutely be said of her newest novel, ROCK PAPER SCISSORS. In ROCK PAPER SCISSORS, Feeney delves into the dark secrets that exist between a seemingly happy couple. Sounds familiar, right? In Feeney’s capable hands, this relatively straightforward premise takes twist after unpredictable twist. Meet Mr. and Mrs. Wright: a couple whose relationship has been going wrong for a long time. Adam is a screenwriter who lives for his job, and is particularly obsessed with his role as the screenwriter for TV adaptations of crime novels by his favorite author, Henry Winter. Adam lives with face blindness, and is unable to recognize those closest to him, including his wife, Amelia. Amelia, meanwhile, feels like she is constantly playing second-fiddle to Adam’s work, and desperately craves connection with Adam. Amelia is thrilled, then, when she wins a raffle for a weekend getaway at a converted chapel in Scotland—this trip, perfectly timed to her and her husband’s anniversary, might be just the thing she and Adam need to reconnect. But as Amelia and Adam arrive at the isolated chapel that will be their home for the weekend, things quickly take a strange and sinister turn. Could someone have it out for Mr. and Mrs. Wright? Suddenly, the question isn’t just whether the couple’s marriage will survive another year… but whether they themselves will live to see their next anniversary at all.
I have always loved Alice Feeney’s books for their vivid characters and genuinely clever twists, but in ROCK PAPER SCISSORS, Feeney gave me another element of her storytelling to fall in love with: her book’s setting. If you love stories with strong atmosphere and sense of place, the isolated Scottish chapel that provides the stage against which Mr. and Mrs. Wright’s ill-fated anniversary trip plays out will more than satisfy your bookish wanderlust. The unexpected perfection of the setting of ROCK PAPER SCISSORS—a chapel converted into a guest house, a place where a couple’s marriage is put to the test once an for all—brings Feeney’s story to life from the book’s first pages. Add in a chilling, wintry atmosphere, coupled with the geographic isolation of the chapel in Scotland, and you’ve got the perfect backdrop for Feeney’s twisty and surprisingly sinister tale of marital bliss-gone-wrong. And, as always, Feeney has cast the perfect pair to navigate the rocky path she sets out for her characters in ROCK PAPER SCISSORS. Adam Wright is a workaholic with a fragile ego, a man obsessed with his writing and willing to sacrifice his relationship with wife Amelia in the name of bettering his craft. Amelia Wright is a loving wife who, when we meet her, is doing her best to rekindle the romance in her marriage. Feeney is a master of character development and interpersonal sleight of hand, and over the course of ROCK PAPER SCISSORS, she cleverly doles out unexpected pieces of information that ultimately reveal the true nature of both protagonists to readers. Nothing about these characters is to be trusted, and readers will relish the masterful way in which Feeney establishes facts about her books’ protagonists, only to subvert expectations over and over again with shocking twists and revelations.
Feeney’s previous thrillers have, in my experience, been defined by the kind of pacing that starts out a bit slower, drawing the reader in bit by bit before ratcheting up to a gripping, jaw-dropping finale. That was exactly my experience with ROCK PAPER SCISSORS, too. What begins as a relatively straightforward domestic suspense story takes turn after turn, becoming increasingly strange, sinister, and engrossing with each new piece of information revealed to readers. Short chapters keep readers hooked throughout, and Feeney is a pro at juggling multiple points of view and perspectives without losing readers’ attention or muddying the waters too much. Chapters told from the perspectives of both Adam and Amelia ratchet up the tension and give readers a 360-degree understanding of the increasingly bizarre events occurring on this ill-fated anniversary trip. Meanwhile, the addition of letters written by Mrs. Wright for Mr. Wright on each of their previous anniversaries sprinkled throughout the main narrative add an intriguing backwards-looking perspective on our story’s central relationship, one that slowly but surely reveals just what exactly the faultlines in this relationship really are. While my personal favorite Feeney novel remains her utterly dark and twisted His & Hers, ROCK PAPER SCISSORS nevertheless delivers strong entertainment value, interpersonal secrets, and shocking twists, particularly well-suited for readers who tend to gravitate towards lighter suspense and stories about hidden agendas and secrets within a marriage. Fans of Feeney’s previous novels plus fans of authors like Lisa Jewell and B.A. Paris won’t want to miss this twisty and engaging story of manipulation, secrets, and the ties that bind.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. All opinions my own.
Book Details:
Publisher : Flatiron Books (September 7, 2021)
Language : English
Hardcover : 304 pages
ISBN-10 : 1250266106
ISBN-13 : 978-1250266101
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