Rock Paper Scissors

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER from the author of His & Hers, now a #1 Netflix show, and the hit bestseller My Husband's Wife!
“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 an exciting domestic thriller from the queen of the killer twist, New York Times bestselling author Alice Feeney.

Alice Feeney is the New York Times bestselling author of My Husband's Wife, Beautiful Ugly, Good Bad Girl, Daisy Darker, Rock Paper Scissors, His & Hers, I Know Who You Are, and Sometimes I Lie. Her novels have been translated into over thirty languages, and have been optioned for major screen adaptations. Alice was a BBC journalist for fifteen years, and now lives in the Devon countryside with her family.

Book of the Month Club Selection
Publishers Weekly’s Top 10 Mysteries/Thrillers of Fall 2021
CrimeReads’ Most Anticipated Crime Books of Summer 2021

“Feeney lives up to her reputation as the “queen of the twist”…This page-turner will keep you guessing.”
―Real Simple

“Marriage has never been so disturbing…or so compelling. Alice Feeney has written a staggering novel filled with tension, suspense, and an ending that will leave you flabbergasted. You think you know where it’s going, but you have no idea.”
―Samantha Downing, bestselling author of My Lovely Wife

“Chilling and clever, with a twist so sharp you’ll get whiplash. Rock Paper Scissors is the kind of blistering, one-sit-read that Alice Feeney is just so incredibly good at.”
―Chris Whitaker, bestselling author of We Begin at the End

“I loved it!”
―Sarah Pinborough, bestselling author of Behind Her Eyes

“Entertaining and grippingly suspenseful on every page, this is a book not to be missed.”
―Deadly Pleasures

“Rock Paper Scissors is a perfectly-plotted thriller that hooked me from the opening scene. A really gripping story with clever switch-back twists that kept me off-balance (checking over my shoulder!) the whole nail-biting way. A scissor-sharp portrayal of a marriage on the rocks. Atmospheric, entertaining and clever.”
―Philippa East, author of Little White Lies

“Deliciously dark . . . An exquisitely constructed, hugely entertaining thriller.”
―Catherine Ryan Howard, author of The Nothing Man

“This one’s already been optioned, but I’d encourage everyone to read it before it heads to the screen…The two dovetail towards an explosive conclusion that leaves us with just enough ambiguity to linger in the reader’s mind long after finishing.”
―CrimeReads

"This complicated gothic thriller of dueling spouses and homicidal writers is cleverly plotted and neatly tied up."
―Kirkus

“Sharp, cunning, and packed with shocks, Rock Paper Scissors gives new meaning to the word 'twisty.' A broken marriage, so many secrets, and a setting that will literally give you chills: just when you think you know what's going on, Alice Feeney sets off a new shockwave.”
―Laurie Elizabeth Flynn, author of The Girls Are All So Nice Here

"Not just fiendish but positively Feeneyish – dark, ingenious and very clever."
―Cara Hunter, author of Close to Home

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney is a dark, twisty psychological thriller about a troubled marriage, buried secrets, and the dangerous ways people rewrite the past to live with what they’ve done. The story centers on Adam and Amelia Wright, a couple whose relationship has been slowly eroding for years. Adam is a screenwriter known for adapting books into films, and he lives with a rare neurological condition called face blindness, which means he cannot recognize faces—not even those of his wife or colleagues. This condition shapes his entire world; he relies on voices, mannerisms, and context instead of facial features, and it subtly affects how he connects with people. Amelia works at a shelter for animals and feels increasingly lonely and unseen within the marriage. To try to save their relationship, they enter and win a weekend getaway at a remote converted chapel in Scotland, hoping that a change of scenery and time alone might help them reconnect. However, from the moment they arrive, the trip feels more unsettling than romantic: the weather is harsh, the place is isolated, and something about the chapel and its surroundings seems off.

Their marriage has a strange tradition tied to their anniversary. Each year, Amelia writes Adam a letter she never lets him read, and these letters become an important thread in the narrative. Over the course of the book, some of these anniversary letters are revealed, giving us glimpses into the past and the emotional truth of their relationship. In the present-day timeline, the chapters alternate between Adam’s and Amelia’s perspectives, gradually exposing their resentments, fears, and suspicions. Both feel that the other is hiding something. Adam is frustrated that his career hasn’t gone where he wanted and feels misunderstood; he believes Amelia doesn’t fully grasp how his face blindness shapes his life. Amelia, on the other hand, feels neglected and suspects that Adam may be having an affair or at least emotionally investing more in his work than in her. Their drive to the chapel is tense, filled with small arguments and silences, and the atmosphere grows more claustrophobic as they settle into the strange building, which is cold, unsettling, and not as welcoming as they hoped.

The chapel itself is almost like a character in the story: isolated, eerie, and clearly designed with some secrets of its own. Power outages, locked doors, odd noises, and an overall sense of being watched contribute to a creeping dread. As the night progresses, Amelia and Adam discover that someone has already been staying there or at least left traces—things that suggest they may not be alone. At the same time, the anniversary letters pull us back into the past, showing how their relationship began with attraction and excitement but slowly became built on half-truths and unspoken frustrations. The letters reveal details that neither Adam nor Amelia admits openly in the present. We learn about moments of tenderness and intimacy, but also about betrayals, lies, and hidden motivations. The more the letters unfold, the more it becomes clear that what each of them believes about their marriage is incomplete or distorted.

Adam’s face blindness adds an important layer of uncertainty and tension. Because he cannot recognize faces, readers are constantly aware that he might misinterpret who he’s seeing or fail to notice someone important. His condition makes him vulnerable and dependent, and also creates opportunities for deception. In the chapel, this vulnerability becomes dangerous. Strange events escalate: items move, doors slam, and unsettling details appear that neither of them can explain. The isolation, the storm, and the failing electricity make leaving difficult. Both begin to suspect that the trip was not just a random prize, but connected to something more deliberate and personal. The book plays with the idea of who is the hunter and who is the prey within the relationship, and whether someone orchestrated this trip with a darker purpose than reconciliation.

As tension builds, the story begins to hint that someone else may be involved—a third presence connected to their past. The anniversary letters gradually reveal not only the state of their marriage, but deeper secrets about their histories, including another woman who has a powerful influence on Adam’s life and career. Suspicion, jealousy, and long-standing grievances simmer beneath the surface. Small clues suggest that one of them might have planned this trip to confront the other or even to hurt them. The narrative skillfully keeps readers off-balance, making it unclear who is telling the truth, who is manipulating, and who is in real danger. The shifting perspectives and incomplete information give the sense that everyone is lying—whether to each other, to themselves, or to the reader.

In addition to the marital tension, “Rock Paper Scissors” explores how memory can be selective and unreliable. The anniversary letters, written year after year, become a record of how Amelia perceived their marriage at different points in time. Some letters are full of love and hope, others are steeped in disappointment and anger. They show how small choices and secrets accumulate until they become impossible to ignore. As readers, we gradually discover shocking revelations that reshape our understanding of both characters. We learn that the origin of their relationship was not as straightforward as it first appeared, and that certain events—like how they met, who pursued whom, and what they sacrificed—carry hidden layers of meaning. The book uses these reveals to keep twisting the story, making earlier assumptions feel naive or incomplete.

The title “Rock Paper Scissors” reflects a recurring motif in their relationship: little games, choices, and the idea that different “weapons” can beat or be beaten by others. Throughout the novel, power shifts between Adam and Amelia. At times, Adam seems to hold the upper hand with his career and his guarded nature; at other times, Amelia seems to know more and be more emotionally resilient than he realizes. As they are forced to confront the truth in the remote chapel, the game becomes more dangerous, moving from emotional battles to potential physical harm. The atmosphere moves from chilly unease to outright menace. Everything in the story builds toward a series of big twists, where identities and motives are revealed in sudden, startling ways.

By the final stages of the book, key secrets come to light: the real purpose behind the trip, the truth about the letters, and the full story of the third person connected to their marriage. The revelations force us to reconsider who has been victimized and who has been orchestrating events in the shadows. The thriller element intensifies, and the couple must face not only each other’s betrayals but an external threat that arises from their past choices. Ultimately, “Rock Paper Scissors” is about how love can curdle into resentment, how a marriage can become a battleground of hidden agendas, and how the stories people tell themselves—about who they are and what they deserve—can be as dangerous as any physical trap. The remote Scottish chapel serves as a crucible where all their long-buried emotions and secrets erupt, pushing the characters to a point where they must either face the truth or be destroyed by it.