Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney

 

This was SO GOOD!!! I'll have to read more of Alice Feeney's books for sure, because this is my first one! Woo hoo!! This book had me going, and the middle had some slower parts, yes, but I loved the twists towards the end, and everything made sense, at least to me. I also just LOVED the way we learned about the dissolution of the marriage, from his point of view and her point of view. I feel for both of them, just like in many marriages, it's not one person's fault, and you feel the strong love they have for each other... It's so good!!!

Rock Paper Scissors is a story about a screenwriter, Adam, who suffers from face blindness. The book starts with Adam and his wife Amelia, driving to a remote location for a free weekend retreat at Blackwater Chapel - something Amelia thought she won through work. Amelia thought this might help with their struggling marriage. The book jumps around in timeline, as we are told what Adam's wife did for him for each of their wedding anniversary - she would write a letter and give him a gift. We assumed this was Amelia, but we later find out it's actually Adam's first wife, Robin. Adam and Amelia are stuck at this scary compound because of snow and power outage and later, slashed tires. Their dog also became missing. We find out from flashbacks that Adam was struggling with his writing career and Robin helped him get his first big break by writing the screenplay of a novel by his favorite author, Henry Winter. As a reader, we should have dwelled on this a little longer and thought about how Robin (which at the time we probably thought was Amelia) could have so easily gotten this for Adam, but I didn't. We find out later that Henry Winter is actually Robin's father. The screenplay is a hit, and Adam becomes friends with Henry, even though Henry is quite a recluse. He writes more screenplays for Henry. Even though Henry doesn't think that highly of the screenplays, he does like Adam and these screenplays all turn out to be very successful. Robin doesn't like her father - he was mostly an absent father growing up because of his obsession with writing and she believes that he's to blame for her mother's death (drowning in a tub). She never told Adam of her relationship with Henry because she wants Adam and Henry's relationship to stop. Henry uses Adam as a way to get closer to Robin. Turns out, Blackwater Chapel was Henry's place of residence until he died. Robin was best friends with Amelia, who became jealous of Robin because Adam seemed so perfect. Amelia started imitating Robin, changing her hair color and style. One day - on his 10th year anniversary with Robin, Robin comes home to find Adam in bed with Amelia. Adam claims he thought it was Robin - due to his face blindness, but Robin realizes he's lying because he blushed. She files for divorce and leaves. Amelia quickly moves herself in and takes Robin's place, even though Adam wasn't quite ready for that. Henry called Robin to come visit him because he's dying. Robin visits Henry at the Blackwater Chapel and realizes he named everything after Robin - his laptop password is Robin, his pet rabbit is named Robin, etc. He told her to cremate him after death, and told her how to share his death with the outside world, but she decided to bury him in the backyard and not tell anyone. Then she assumed Henry's identity and started publishing her work as his, which turned out to be very successful. She moves into Blackwater Chapel permanently and starts caring for his rabbit, who she renamed Oscar. She gets into Henry's computer and learns that he had hired a private investigator Sam to follow Robin and Adam for many years. From Sam's emails, Robin finds out that Amelia was the driver that ran over and killed Adam's mother when he was only 13. Amelia was a foster child who liked stealing cars for joy rides back then. Robin realizes she can win Adam back - she knows Amelia likes freebies, so she made up this free getaway and sent it to Amelia's workplace. Even though Amelia only entered once, she "won" the prize. After messing with Adam and Amelia at the retreat, she slides a letter to Adam, lets him know the truth behind Amelia, the fact she killed his mother. She gives Adam 3 choices, rock, paper, scissors, asking Adam to get back together and telling him he can finally get his "Rock Paper Scissors" screenplay into a movie. Amelia is hyperventilating at the discovery of the fact Adam knows she killed his mother. She reaches for her inhaler and realizes it's empty. She grabs a kitchen knife and tries to kill Adam. Robin shows up and kills Amelia with a pair of scissors. Then we find out Amelia technically wasn't the driver - it was Adam. Amelia and Adam knew each other when they were 13, and Amelia convinced Adam to drive faster and faster. Amelia also took Adam's virginity. When Adam hit his mother, he ran out of the car, held her and cried. Amelia jumped into the driver seat and sped off. Adam genuinely couldn't help locate her because of his face blindness. Everyone else assumed he was walking the dog with his mother. Now Amelia is dead, Adam and Robin are back together, living happily with their dog and rabbit. After years of not getting paid, Sam decides to visit Henry in person. The public still doesn't know about Henry's death at this point. Sam uses his investigative skills and finds Henry's Blackwater chapel. At the property, he discovers Henry's headstone. It says "Killer of One, Author of Many". Next to it, is a recently dug grave and a sapphire ring with a severed finger. When Amelia died, Robin wasn't able to remove the ring off her finger. Completely startled, Sam ran away as fast as possible.