Book 21 Rock Paper Scissors

 

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney fulfilled the category “Book with the Name of a Board Game in the Title” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge.

Okay, so it’s not a board game. It’s still a game. I read plenty of other books with “game” titles. For example, I read A Crafter Knits a Clue and Mrs. Jeffries Dusts for Clues. Just about every cozy mystery fits this category. Instead, I picked a suspense book because it had more meat. Oh dear, such meat…

Rock Paper Scissors has a format similar to Gone Girl, where there is a diary and a couple. This couple is going on a vacation that they won to northern Scotland during a snowstorm. When they arrive at the tiny little church lodging, no one else is around. They’re almost out of gas and everything is a mess. Weird events start to happen. There’s only one cottage a hundred feet away from the church, and it seems empty.

In the narrative, both main characters, Adam and Amelia, throw jibes at each other. Then we have the wife’s diary entries about their anniversary. She writes about what happened that year. She gives every year a special word. This couple definitely is on the outs.

The mystery unveils with tons of twists and turns. We must figure out if the couple likes each other, will they reconcile, and the identity of the mysterious woman in the cottage. This character pops up and seems to sabotage their weekend. I will spoil nothing, but the twists are a-plenty.

Almost too many.

No, wait, definitely too many.

I’m not spoiling, but Gone Girl is one of my favorite books. The twists were just right, and Gillian Flynn understands when to stop twisting. Unfortunately for me, Ms. Feeney did not stop twisting and ruined the story by the end of the book. I don’t want to be mean, spoilery, or say “don’t read this story because of…” I’m still including it in the blog because it has merit.

Lately, in suspense books, authors bury readers in plot twists until you’re not sure which way is up. The 7 and 1/2 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle also had that, but the author executed it well. I’m not saying the execution wasn’t good in this book. I enjoyed it until the last chapter when it became too much.

I don’t know if it’s a product of editors telling authors to do it or it’s the author’s vision. Maybe suspense books are all trending this way. I don’t read a ton of suspense and thrillers. I like a plot twist. Every cozy mystery has “This is the killer. Twist! Nope, it’s somebody else.” That’s fine. But to twist the tail so much? It reminded me of Harlan Coben’s Tell No One—twisted to the point where the story would not have happened if this last chapter was true. The rest of the tale was great. The suspense was nail-biting. I couldn’t put it down. I needed to find out who these people were, what their problem was, would they divorce or kill each other.

Long and short, Rock Paper Scissors is a good book. It has interesting characters, compelling plot twists, tons of suspense. If you enjoy a thriller, this is a fantastic novel for you. In my opinion, it hasn’t lived up to the hype of its bestseller status. (We all know I don’t love best sellers.)

I give Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney Four Screenplays with a Twist.