Rock paper scissors by Alice Feeney

What do you get when you get a bunch of dysfunctional protagonists who are writers. Their dysfunctionality combined with storytelling skills is a crime thriller. 

Spoilers ahead - 

The book could not be more aptly named. Rock for marriage, paper for writing and scissors the weapon. It has the right mix with quirky characters who came with murky pasts. Loss of a parent, self centeredness of another and growing alone. When you haven’t seen love you believe when anyone shows you a little. You start needing it being addicted to that love. For years of a dead marriage which survives only for the common misery shared by the two. But it takes three to tango as the past catches up with the protagonists. Like a game of RPS it can land anywhere. 

The book builds up brilliantly, in a quirky shady lonely place in the outskirts of Scotland. Perfect setting for a murder and a thriller. The characters opening up like layers of an onion. The self talk, epistolary confessions and their writing showing their thoughts and building the plot. Their actions suspicious and incomplete. The author does an amazing job of keeping the reader hooked ending each chapter at a cliff hanger, each chapter narrated by a different medium and character. The people blur and reactive actions leading the story further. 

Only at 80% of the book the suspense opens up. I could have never guessed that twist. I have taken much pride in predicting the crime thrillers at about 40% of the book. But not this time. I went back a few chapters to review if I had missed something but the story was water tight. 

A wonderful read and I would give it 3.5 stars. Why not 4 well the ending was not as satisfying as I thought. There was something that didn’t fit well. How could things end so calmly, why did the detective had to make an appearance. May be it was authors attempt to give a closure. 

Is it important that a good book must have a  good closure. Sometimes it’s just unfinished business which leads to curiosity and the reader grudgingly accepts it but rates it lower. After all, I want more but I don’t want it to be obvious. An ending that should take me for a surprise would have been brilliant but sometimes it just has to be real. 

PS it was even more special as the first book of my new book club. The book was satisfying and so was the discussion on a Saturday night. The joy of reading as much as talking about them.