Spoiler: 5-star rating from me.
Oh, I wouldn’t spoil the book for you. But I will scream “read it,” as loud as I can. This is the first I’ve read by Alice Feeney, and one of the best books I’ve read since Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. The two books are dissimilar, but both are equally a fantastic read.
I picked Rock Paper Scissors for the subject of prosopagnosia, and because it is about a writer, Adam Wright. Adam writes screenplays. I write short story fiction. Adam has prosopagnosia. Face blindness. One of my favorite authors on writing, Heather Sellers, does, too.
Ms. Feeney does an excellent job weaving suspense and intrigue in her story. When she revealed the main plot twist, the one that lets you know what is going on I was shocked, stunned, amazed, and made glad. No way in all the slaughtered trees of earth would I have guessed the ending.
To summarize, a weekend getaway to Scotland will reset the troubled marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Wright. The trip, Amelia won in a staff raffle, is a long eight-hour drive from their London home. The weather is treacherous for driving. The destination, Blackwater Chapel, is in a remote part of the Scotland Highlands. Very remote.
No cell phone service. No bathtubs. No gas stations. No land lines. No restaurants. No civilization. No electricity, when the storm chooses to knock the power off.
Blackwater Chapel is a converted church a few hundred years old. And, haunted. So, the claim goes. Can a weekend at a creepy chapel restore love to a waning marriage? It does. Albeit, not in the way I thought as I read through this page turner.
About Adam. His mother died wearing a red kimono, struck by a hit-and-run driver, when he was thirteen years old. Because he feels responsible, nightmares about watching his mother’s death haunt him throughout his adult life.
Producer after producer rejects Adam’s original screenplay Rock Paper Scissors. But he lands his big break, when asked to write a script for a world-famous author of crime and horror, Henry Winter.
About Adam’s wife. Adam’s wife writes him an anniversary letter every year. She never lets him read any of them. Except the last one. This is when truth bears witness. The last letter reads How well do you really know your wife? Suffice it to say he never would have guessed his wife’s true identity.
Again, I scream “read it.”
Bravo! Way to go! Congratulations, Alice Feeney. And, thank you for a great read. Your reading audience increased by one!
Thunder Rock Writers 