Looking for plot summary or spoilers for Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney? Want to discuss the ending? Want the Rock Paper Scissors ending explained? Me too. Check out my Spoiler Discussion for Rock Paper Scissors and let’s figure it out!
Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney was published on September 7, 2021 by Flatiron Books. This post contains affiliate links.
Brief Synopsis: 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 Mr. and Mrs. Wright 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.
Table of Contents:
Plot Summary for Rock Paper Scissors
The Ending of Rock Paper Scissors Explained
Spoiler Discussion for Rock Paper Scissors
NEW: Rock Paper Scissors Movie News!!
Plot Summary of Rock Paper Scissors
Married couple Adam and Amelia, plus their dog, Bob, are headed to Scotland for a weekend trip that Amelia won as a prize in a work raffle.
Adam is a screenwriter with face blindness (could this be a plot device? hmmm) whose screenplay, Rock Paper Scissors, is about a man who writes annual letters to his wife on their anniversary.
Adam was never able to get his screenplay made and now adapts other writers’ novels. Amelia works at an animal rescue charity.
They arrive at their lodging, which is an old converted chapel that seems remote and deserted. Adam notes that he saw Amelia take his phone out of the car and leave it back at home.
Rock Paper Scissors alternates between narrative and anniversary letters written by Adam’s wife, which I will summarize in their actual place in the book.
First anniversary letter (paper): HUGE CLUE: the wife in the letters signs them “your wife” which is a BIG hint that the person writing these letters is NOT Amelia. In this letter, the wife reveals that Adam got a job adapting his favorite novelist’s work because of her, and she’s keeping this a secret.
In the present, Amelia reflects on her unhappiness with their marriage. She sees a face in the window. There’s also no cell service.
Second anniversary letter (cotton): Adam buys a house for his wife as a surprise.
Third anniversary letter(leather): Adam and his wife are at a party with novelist Henry Winter.
False alarm: the face Amelia sees in the window is…. a sheep. Amelia still feels like she’s being watched.
New narrator: a woman named Robin, who lives in a cottage near the chapel. She watches the couple arrive and settle in.
Amelia goes down into the cellar to get wine, but the lights go out and she is trapped. Adam finds Amelia and brings her asthma inhaler. They find their bedroom, which has been painted the same color as their bedroom at home, with the same bedding. Mysterious!
While Adam goes to explore the chapel further, he reflects that both he and Amelia cheated. Adam dreams about driving in a storm and hitting a woman in a red kimono.
Fourth anniversary letter: Adam’s wife describes their struggles with infertility.
Amelia wakes up and hears a noise. She finds Adam, who says he couldn’t sleep. He’s the one who turned the power out.
Fifth anniversary letter (wood): Adam is hanging out with October, an actress who wants to star in a theater version of Adam’s screenplay. October comes over and makes Adam and his wife an anniversary dinner.
Robin is hiding in the chapel. She knows Adam.
The next morning Amelia and Adam can’t find Bob, their dog. Inside the cottage, they find a drawer full of clippings about October, the actress. Also a history of the chapel, which is haunted. As they are searching for Bob, they find Robin’s cottage and write her a note asking for help. Bob is with Robin.
Sixth anniversary letter (iron): October has opened doors for Adam, who is adapting another Henry Winter book for the screen. Adam and his wife spend their anniversary at October’s French villa.
As they search for Bob, Adam thinks the woman in the cottage seems familiar. As they head back to the chapel, Adam runs ahead and Amelia can’t find him. He tells her that he knows who the chapel belongs to.
Seventh anniversary letter (copper): October has been found dead by suicide. Adam and his wife take a trip to New York.
Adam tells Amelia that the chapel belongs to Henry Winter, the writer. He thinks their “winning” the visit to the chapel was a ruse and that Henry is angry with him.
They hear a familiar bark and rush outside, where they find Bob’s collar on top of a gravestone belonging to …Henry Winter, who died two years before.
Adam says Henry was upset with him as he’d stopped adapting Henry’s novels to focus on his own work. They prepare to dig their car out of the snow and discover they have two flat tires.
Bob in is Robin’s cottage. Robin remembers being summoned by Henry when he was dying.
Eighth anniversary (bronze): Adam’s wife recalls arriving home and finding Henry Winter there with Adam. After she returns, they play rock-paper-scissors to determine the future of their marriage.
Adam finds the anniversary gifts his wife made for him inside the chapel.
Ninth anniversary (pottery): Adam’s wife’s friend from work at the dog shelter arrives at the house. The co-worker has changed her hair to look exactly like the wife’s hair. SINGLE WHITE FEMALE!
Adam shows Amelia the gifts he found and accuses her of being behind the trip. And if Henry died two years ago, who wrote his new book?
Tenth anniversary (tin): Adam and his wife are watching a TV interview with Henry, who disparages Adam. The wife recalls coming home and finding Adam in bed with her friend from work. He claims he thought he was sleeping with his wife.
Amelia shows Adam a picture of his first wedding, to Robin, Henry’s daughter. Robin grew up in the chapel. Robin is the one who got Adam the job adapting her father’s books. Amelia is the co-worker of Robin, the one who seduced Adam. Bob was Robin’s dog.
Robin recalls finding Amelia in bed with Adam and running off. Robin believes Henry had something to do with her mother’s death. She wrote a story about a man who drowned his wife in the bathtub and Henry punished her. Robin also finished one of Henry’s unfinished novels after his death and sent it to his agent.
Eleventh anniversary (steel): Robin writes to Adam about her new life in the chapel. She’s also writing a book with him in it.
Amelia doesn’t feel guilty about cheating with Robin’s husband. She wonders if Robin is behind bringing them to the chapel. But she thinks she’s smarter and stronger than Robin. She and Adam find a red kimono on the bed and a note on the mirror that says Rock Paper Scissors.
Twelfth anniversary (silk): This is the first anniversary letter that Robin intends to let Adam read. She didn’t tell him that Henry Winter was her father because he was a dark and dangerous man, an abusive bully.
Henry’s latest novel, Rock Paper Scissors will be about a married couple who takes a weekend away. It’s a combination of his screenplay and her letters. She will let him write the screenplay … if he ditches Amelia.
She tells him that Henry hired a PI who told him that Adam was cheating. That Amelia is a former teenage criminal who was driving the car that killed Adam’s mother. She tells him he has three choices: ROCK (he tries to escape with Amelia), PAPER (he goes back to Robin) and SCISSORS (he doesn’t want to know what that option is.)
Robin locks Adam and Amelia inside the chapel and slides a note under the door. Adam reads the letter and confronts Amelia about his mother’s death. He tells her he was never really happy with her. Amelia comes at him with a knife, and Robin comes at her with scissors.
Explanation of the Ending of Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
Robin, Adam and Bob have returned to London. Robin’s book will be published. Adam is happy, though he feels guilty about the fact that HE was driving the car that killed his mother. Amelia was in the car with him and she got blamed, as he got out of the car after the accident and she drove away.
Sam (the PI) had been following Robin for ten years (??? Yeah, I have a lot of questions for him…)
When Sam sees that Robin and Adam are back together, he decides to drive to Scotland and tell Henry. (If he was following Robin for ten years, did he not know that Henry was dead?)
He arrives at the chapel and discovers Henry’s grave with a glass box on top of it. Henry’s tombstone has been changed from “Father of One” to “Killer of One.” Inside the box is a paper frame, a pair of scissors and a ring that’s on a severed human finger. He flees.
Spoiler Discussion for Rock Paper Scissors
What did you think of Rock Paper Scissors?
Since there were so few characters, I figured out the “your wife” scenario pretty quickly. Signing the letters “your wife” was weird and a big red flag. If the wife who wrote the anniversary letters wasn’t Amelia, it had to be Robin.
Sometimes my hunches are wrong but this one was right!
I am still puzzled about the part Adam’s face blindness played into the plot. Did he really not realize he was cheating on Robin? He tries to tell Robin that he thought it was her, but she knows him well enough to know that he’s lying. I was expecting some kind of test where Adam has to pick out which wife is which.
I guess Adam also didn’t recognize grown-up Amelia when she showed up (but people do change over that span of time.) Did he realize that he and Amelia had hit his mother and their dog with the car (maybe he recognized that red kimono?)
Was Henry responsible for his wife’s death? I found that more interesting than a lot of other things. Was that ever resolved or did I miss it? Clearly, Robin thought he did it.
Why did Robin cut off Amelia’s finger and just leave it (and the ring) there? What?? Some kind of offering to her father? I guess. I don’t know?!?
What the deal with Sam the PI? Who was paying him for the last ten years? If it was Henry, he’s dead.
Questions we are discussing in comments – join us and add your own!
Please join our discussion and if you want to see my replies (or anyone’s replies) to your comments, be sure to subscribe to replies by toggling on the bell symbol.
Amelia’s ring: too tight? Too loose? Why did Robin leave it on the grave? Allison has a great theory in the comments!
Adam: had he been to the Scottish chapel before with Robin? If so, why didn’t he say anything? Does his face blindness come and go? Is it real?
Henry: did he kill his wife? Was Robin lying about him?
Robin: Did she kill October? Did she kill Henry? Did her father really kill her mother? What were her rock-paper-scissors threats to Adam at the end?
Sam: who was paying him over the last ten years? Robin? Henry?
Are all the characters unreliable? Rose thinks so, and describes how Robin uses the chapel to set up a weird little game for Adam and Amelia, something that Adam realizes.
Rock Paper Scissor Movie News
I was on Instagram the other day and saw something very exciting:
Alice Feeney AT THE NETFLIX OFFICES!
This is as intriguing as the severed finger left on the grave.
This is what I found out:
In this interview, Alice Feeney says YES there will be a Netflix series of Rock Paper Scissors.
This article says the series will be filmed in the Scottish highlands. Nothing against Canada, but I love an authentic setting. I’m so excited and will update this post as I know more!
Please leave your opinions in comments – we are a friendly group and there is no such thing as a dumb question!
If you’re an Alice Feeney fan, come check out my spoiler discussion for His & Hers!
My Spoiler Discussion Post for Sometimes I Lie
A Spoiler Discussion Post for Daisy Darker
Please join in some of our other spoiler discussions – I have a complete list here!
And if you love thrillers and talking about them, please consider subscribing to my monthly thriller and mystery newsletter. Every month, I run down the books coming out that month and highlight other exciting news in the mystery and thriller world.
She cut off her finger because she didn’t think Amelia deserved it. As to why she didn’t want to keep it, isn’t explained.
Yes, it was so weird that she cut off the finger and then just left the ring sitting on it!
I’m wondering if she put it on her Father’s grave because she thinks he killed her Mother. I have so many questions lol
Same!!
So Robin ordered a new tombstone (which does take time) and then, what, kept the finger in the fridge until it arrived. Leaving the ring for her father might make sense if Amelia’s ring had originally belonged to Robin’s mother, but I don’t think it did. I must admit I do not understand that ending and hope someone will give us a theory that makes sense!
Robin said she had made the first tombstone earlier in the book
Thanks, Ken!
I think there was only one tombstone at the end…the one at Henry’s grave. Sam trips over the mound that is probably where they buried Amelia, but there’s no tombstone there-just an inhaler sticking out of the ground. Henry’s tombstone has Father scratched out and Killer engraved and the box with the ring (rock), crane (paper) and scissors was left on his grave. I think that’s just confirming that 1.Robin killed Amelia and buried her there 2. she’s saying Henry is a killer and 3. a shout out to the new book title 😉
Thanks – that makes sense.
As I explained it to my husband to try and verbalize the puzzling gift left on the grave… I realized Rock (sapphire ring), Paper (crane), Scissors (stork scissors). Not only a nod to the story she finally helped create using his penned name… but all pieces from others she carried to create the narrative.
I took it as a form of “rock paper scissors” stone on the ring = rock, origami = paper, and scissors
I like this one the best!
My theory is that Robin is a hidden psychopath and is involved in the murders of her mother, October the actress, Henry, and finally Amelia…
YES I would not be surprised!
Unless Robin was lying, she said Henry died as she was fetching the champagne glasses for the both of them…
But I, too, want to know the deal with October. Did her real name, Rainbow, have any significance? (Rainbow and Robin??) I thought maybe they were sisters somehow, at first, but then the idea didn’t seem to make much sense anymore as the story went on).
Robin definitely killed Amelia, but leaving the ring behind for him symbolizes how he really killed his own wife? Idk… I have questions as well!
I never clued into the big twist – that Amelia was not the one writing the anniversary letters – so when we learned that October’s name was really R. Something (the piece of mail that the anniversary letter writer noticed at her place they stayed in) I thought maybe October was Robin (Robin the strange lady who lived in the cottage). Later it was revealed that R = Rainbow. Maybe it was thrown into fool readers like me who was trying to figure out who this Robin character was.
You weren’t the only one. I never get all the twists, but I did think signing the letters “your wife” was strange so had my suspicions that the writer was not Amelia. I agree that the uncertainty surrounding the identity of October/Rainbow was strange. Did Robin murder her?
My question was why Adam knew his way around the chapel! There was this whole big thing about him knowing which creaky stairs not to step on that was never explained. At the beginning of the book it seemed like he had been there before, but then why wouldn’t he remember whose house it was? (Disclaimer: I read an early ARC so maybe this was fixed)
Ooh, that is a good question. If he knew whose house it was, why didn’t he say anything?
I returned my copy to the library but maybe someone else will have thoughts. And I was just having a discussion with another blogger about whether mistakes in ARCs actually get fixed!
My only experience was with The Stranger in the Mirror by Liv Constantine. There was a HUGE timeline error in my ARC, so I messaged the authors about it. They said it had already been fixed, and I checked a finished copy and it was changed. Funny enough they also changed the main character’s name so my whole review was calling him Gideon instead of Graham or something like that! So they definitely do make changes between the ARCs and the finished copies, especially if you get a really early ARC.
Interesting! I have never followed up and checked on any mistakes I found. Back in the day ARCs often had text that warned you to check any quotes against the finished copy, but you have to remember to do that.
Hoping that now that the book is out someone will have an answer to your question. If I get my hands on a finished copy again I’ll look for you!
This bit was awfully weird- it looked like Adam also had something sinister planned which is a great red herring. But no explanations provided after that.
There is one random line where he says he has a bad memory- maybe some sort of half excuse to explain the plot holes?
I’m about a month behind the review but just finished the book. Didn’t Henry’s gravestone read “Father to one” when Adam found the grave and then “killer of one” at the end of the book when the PI found the grave?? Did Henry kill his wife?
Clearly I’m going to have to get a copy of this book back as there are SO many questions (or things unexplained). Maybe Robin changed the gravestone? Robin definitely thought Henry was responsible for her mother’s death.
I also have questions about October as I felt that whole situation was under-explained. There’s a part where it’s revealed that her real name starts with an R and I thought she might be Robin.
YES! I felt like that too with October…way under explained! I feel like they told us her real name though when it was remembering her funeral?? I actually listened to this one but I’m tempted to get the book and look back! On another note, you should try some of Riley Sager’s books…SOOOO good! His latest “Survive the Night” was not my favorite but the others I couldn’t put down!
I tried Survive the Night and wasn’t a huge fan, but so many of my thriller reader friends have urged me to try a different book I will definitely try some of his others and get a discussion post going. Thanks for the suggestion 🙂
They said Octobers name was Rainbow
It was stated that her name was Rainbow And October was her middle name.
Thanks, Sharon! Now that you have an approved comment you won’t be put into moderation for approval! Hope to see you again 🙂
My first thought was that Robin was trying to frame her dad for Amelia’s death… if anyone found her body they would also see his headstone with “killer” written on it along with the murder weapon and her finger (and she left the origami bird to bring good luck to her plan). The dates on Henry’s tombstone would show that he died before Amelia… but when Adam reads it at the end it doesn’t show the dates so maybe they covered them up?!
Robin was definitely up to something (well, a lot of things). I read the book more literally and believed Robin when she said her dad had something to do with her mom’s death (the bathtub drowning that Robin wrote about.) I really liked all the strange clues and possibilities in the book, but I wish so many things hadn’t been left open-ended.
Through out the book Amelia would twist her ring around everything she would get nervous, so I found it hard to believe when Robin said that the ring would not come off.
Also, the grave first read father of one, and it was later changed to killer of one …
Ooh, good catch. I guess I understand Robin changing the tombstone but the finger doesn’t make sense to me. Yes it’s creepy but I don’t get it.
Were Adam and robin trying to pin Amelia’s murder on Henry?
That’s what I think. In the event someone found Amelia’s body.
At one point, Amelia did say the ring hardly fit her anymore…
I enjoyed this book, but to be honest, there are quite a few moments that never get explained, unfolded or don’t make sense with what has been built…
So here are my many questions… SO MANY questions!!::
Does anyone think it’s an obvious mistake by the author as to why Robin can’t get the ring off Amelia’s finger at the end even though Amelia was always twisting the ring as a nervous tic and Adam even said it never fit her?
I don’t understand the end, how Robin and Adam so easily went back to life as it was before Amelia, without any speculation as to what happened to Amelia by outsiders?
Not really important, but what was with the loving canned food? When that seemed like a thing Robin and Amelia liked and it seemed like a weird thing to include in both their character developments for no reason.
The most unreliable was the authors information about Henry, was he nice? Adam and Sam thought he was nice. Or was he awful and a murderer, as Robin makes us believe he killed her mother, but no truth or unfolding ever came of what happened to Robin’s Mother?
Was the point of October’s character to confuse us about who R. O’Brien was? What was the point of her death in the book, if nothing more ever came of it?
Also, how did Adam all of a sudden see Amelia’s face at the end before she was murdered by Robin?
What was the point of Sam’s chapter at the very end??? It didn’t reveal anything the reader didn’t really already know, except that Robin cut off Amelia’s finger.
And WHAT is the point of the name whispering if it never gets explained, was it to hint that Robin’s mother is a ghost haunting the chapel?
These are some of the things that don’t make sense to me. Help me understand for my sanity’s sake.
I agree – we discussed the ring issue above. I’m not sure how no one noticed Amelia was missing. Robin definitely thought Henry killed her mother, but did he? It’s hard to say since Robin isn’t the most reliable character either. For a while I thought October was Robin, but then changed my mind. I didn’t notice the canned food thing – that’s funny!
I did like this but I agree that there are too many loose ends lying around…
Plus could someone explain to me why Amelia was looking for Adam and seemed to feel so guilty even though she must have known that Adam killed his own mother?
Hi – I agree it isn’t explained in a very satisfactory way. Toward the end, Amelia says that he’s “like an itch she can’t stop from scratching” which makes him like a bad rash she can’t get rid of? I don’t know. She feels they have something in common due to the tragic death of her parents and the tragic death of his mother. He doesn’t seem to feel the same about her.
for me the name and details of october is also strange..
and what I remember too is, that Adam had already been in the place, like he was planning to do something with amelia! He knew the creeky steps on the stairs….
Yes – other readers pointed out that Adam had been there (and forgot???) I missed that!
I’m also wondering about a lot of this, but I think the purpose of Sam’s little chapter was to indicate how unreliable Robin is. She kept talking about how horrible her father was, but Sam claimed he was great. He also said that at boarding school, Robin wrote a short story about witches, whereas she said she wrote about a man drowning his wife. Essentially, she likes to make up stories. I think it reinforces the idea that maybe she’s killed people (like October?) in the past, or at least has lied about a lot.
I wish we had more info on October but maybe mentioning that Adam was captivated by her and then she died under mysterious circumstances was just to show what Robin is capable of
I’m late to this comment thread, but I just finished this book and was dying to find what people were saying about the ending.
I agree, I think the main point of Sam’s chapter was to show Robin’s unreliability. Robin says Henry wrote the stories about the witches to keep people away, but from what Sam says, it sounds like Robin created the story about the witches. Robin had also said that Henry had punished her by cutting off her hair, but Sam says Henry recounted a story of Robin cutting her own hair off in protest of punishment. It seems that it’s likely that most of what Robin said about her father is unreliable, and perhaps a way of hiding how twisted she actually is. For awhile, I thought maybe Sam was going to say something that hinted at Robin somehow being responsible for her mother’s murder.
As for the ring, I think this also shows the unreliability of Robin. She says she couldn’t get the ring off no matter what she tried, but as we know from the rest of the book, the ring seemed to fit Amelia rather loosely. Sounds like Robin was trying to make an excuse for cutting her finger off, rather than admit that she did it purely because she wanted to. As for leaving it there? No clue what that’s about. I saw someone say maybe they were trying to frame Henry for Amelia’s death, but I don’t really know how the finger ties in.
As for Sam’s chapter, what I am most frustrated with is actually the whispering, because it happens multiple times in the book and never seems to really be explained. Is paranormal activity really at play here, or not? If not, WHAT is that???
Aside from the whispers, I am disappointed with the loose ends on Adam and October. (Although, Amelia does hint at Robin being responsible for October’s death, which I think is enough reason to infer.) My largest frustration is with Adam’s apparent knowledge of the chapel and what he had planned to do with Amelia there. My only theory is, near the end, when there’s a banging on the chapel door, Amelia says for a moment she sees a slight smile on Adam’s face in the reflection, almost as if he knew what was coming. Perhaps he was in on Robin’s plan the entire time?
Anna! I am so happy you stopped by and left this comment, because you have SO many great insights. You have made me want to re-read this! I feel like this book had more subtlety than I initially realized and a bunch of small details I missed. I’m a fast reader which helps me cover so many books but means that sometimes things get past me.
Such an interesting idea that Adam was in on it. Amelia was way out of her league with these two.
Do you have thoughts on Adam’s face blindness? Do you think he is faking that and knows who Amelia is the entire time?
Does anyone think the ring thing might be something like: it was always loose on Amelia, but Robin said it was tight on her. Maybe it was tight on Robin and Amelia killed Robin and is now living as Robin using Adam’s face blindness to do so.
Hello fellow Jenn! So are Jens and Jenns prone to coming up with really cool theories as they read because that happens to me and I LOVE this theory. Maybe someone else will find the flaws in it but I am impressed.
that fits with the end of the chapter where Amelia throws the “lucky” origami into the fire and Adam quickly rescued it …he then says “if I wasn’t sure before I am now, and I’m counting down the hours until this is over once and for all.”
Adam had “something” planned …
I agree. I think the purpose of Sams chapter is to reveal the true Robin. A psychopath who killed her mom, October, her dad and Amelia. This would have been another twist from the fact that everyone thought she was so sweet and vulnerable. Another plot hole is that Adam said more than once that she – I am guessing Amelia- had cheated on him. That never came out either
He never said Amelia cheated on him, not vice versa. If you recall, he repeated often that while he had slept with someone he shouldn’t have, anemia did as well and that she doesn’t bring up that part when it comes up in arguments.
Also on the finger thing that keeps coming up: I have fat fingers and then my fingers indent as they meet my hand, to where I can fit a ring down but it’s not coming up without a fight. It also will twist around constantly where the indent is.
I came here to say the same about the ring comment. My finger narrows below the knuckle which means my rings freely spin all the time. However my knuckles are big and make it hard to remove rings. Also, it’s morbid but from someone who works in healthcare… people bloat and swell when they pass away. Could just be the finger became too swollen.
My fingers swell in the hot weather 🙁
I also think of Robin as the psychopathic character. As I was reading these comments, I was reminded how October died. Supposedly by Suicide. However, it was mentioned that there were empty bottles of pills. It reminded me that when Henry died…there was also a bottle of pills involved. I am wondering if she killed them both, or if the pills mentioned were just a coincidence?
Ooh, I didn’t catch that. This book has SO many little details.
The loose end that bothers me is the key that she gives him for one anniversary. Is it ever explained what it is for? I’m assuming the chapel, and does he automatically know to use it later to open the door?
JULIE AHHHHH!!!! The whole book I was curious how Adam ended up with a key but that makes sense the key would be to the chapel as she said it was the key to her secrets!
This!!!! I’m late to the party and had just read this book a couple of days ago and I never understood the name whispering. No one is talking about it!! I need theories at least!! Why on EARTH was that included. It makes no sense to me at all
Which character did you sympathize with the most? We learned that no one is perfect and there’s more than 2 sides to every story. To me, Amelia deserves the most sympathy. She’s painted as a lifelong liar and criminal but it wasn’t her fault that she grew as a foster child. I believe the her feelings for Adam was true and it started when she was 13. It was just awful that her upbringing as a foster child without a proper upbringing led to tragic events that happened on that rainy night…
Hi! Curious to hear what others think but I didn’t really find any of them sympathetic. I did feel bad that Amelia hd a tough start in life and got blamed for Adam’s mom’s death, but not sure why, as an adult, she decided to go and try to go back to Adam, who was already married.
I mean, I guess if I had to choose the least awful of the three of them it would be Amelia, but I thought they were all pretty unsympathetic.
For me Adam but I listened to the audiobook and loved the voice of richard armitage…
There’s a lot of people who grow up as a foster child but don’t do joyriding and other illegal activities like Amelia. It’s not an excuse.
Im wondering about the mother of Robin/ wife of Henry Winter as well… Robin had a great imagination, henry said to Sam, so maybe she did made up the story! And she is the murderer of her mother after all …(now I come to think of it she mudered October and Henry too….) The finger for me is logical, the ring didnt come off… and its the ring is with a rock, and they left a paper crane and scissors as well on the grave. She is obsessed with having a good live with Adam… and bringing out Rock paper scissors was so important.
I listened as an audiobook and in the end Sam reads “killer of one writer of many”… but I thought on the grave stood “father of one and writer of many”… that puzzles me too! Did they change the headstone? Or did she made up the word “father” to Adam but wrote in reality “killer”
(sorry for writing maybe with mistakes Im from the Netherlands… not so good in writing in English maybe)
Hi Sacha,
Your English is excellent!
Yes, we think the headstone must have been changed by Robin.
I don’t understand the ring – the book says it was loose on Amelia’s finger and then suddenly it won’t come off? And why leave the ring on Henry’s grave?
I didn’t even make the Rock Paper Scissors connection to the items left on the grave! Good observation!
Hi! Just finished listening to the Audiobook, and got hooked with the story and the plot. It mesmerized me that the letters were written by Robin, who I though once that she might be Adam’s mom, or Henry’s wife. Then when i progressed in the story i thought also that she could be October. It was a chilling surprise that it was the woman who wrote the letters. Although there are many questions that popped into our heads when we finished the book, the story had successfully intrigued my imagination and curiosity even after MOST of the events have been explained.
What bugs me though is the fact that Alice made us anticipate that one of the couple in the car was plotting something eerie. The story kept us focusing on Adam as a suspect, which is smart and twisty. Yet the end did not provide an explanation for the hints were given that Adam was trying to sabotage the trip with a minimum explanation from his side ” I wanted us to leave the Chappell” .
Among the other questions and unexplained events, isn’t that what Alice Feeney wants at the end? To leave us unhinged?
Yes, a lot of commenters agree with you that the book made us think that Adam was up to something! I missed the detail that he was familiar with the chapel, that he remembered the squeaky step.
I agree that keeping us unhinged is a good goal for a thriller, but I don’t like being left with questions 🙁
He stated that since he couldn’t see faces he often picked up on other details, especially as a writer. He went down the first time and Amelia heard him and had the freakout, and took now then. It also states that he recognized the studio from the magazine photo feature, a photo that Henry submitted because he didn’t want photographers there.
Also I found your post because I was searching for theories about October. The book said that Adam was the last to see her and that it was suicide by pills. We know that Adam lies due to his interactions with Amelia and his last chapter about how he was the one driving. I was hoping for a confession there, and then again during Sam’s chapter since it mentioned that he had to follow October since she was in Robin’s circle. My theory is that Adam did it, or that they got messed up together and she od’d. He lied about killing his mom, it’s not a far stretch that something happened with October. He explicitly states that he only cheated with one person and “paid the price” so I don’t think they slept together, but I think something went down.
Also a couple of points to make- al Amelia said that the ring wouldn’t come off “anymore”. Sure to the indentation between dinner muscle and hand muscle when I finally find a ring I can squeeze on, it’ll be loose at the base of the finger but impossible to pull off without intervention and that string trick. I could see how it works. Also Robin said that the scissors she kept had to go through the dishwasher, so it’s assumed she used those to cut off the finger. By the way, as someone who embroiders, that part seemed unrealistic. Those stork scissors are small (to be able to fit in a midwife’s bag-they’re stork shaped because midwives would embroider and cross stitch while waiting out a labor) and not very sharp most of the time.
Also on the subject of Sam: he worked for Henry for 10 years (the duration of Robin and Adams marriage, starting after Robin asked for Henry’s help on their first anniversary). Henry died after their 11th anniversary, Robin got the call the day she found Amelia and Adam together. Henry gave her a list of information about his finances and people to email and how to handle his death, which she mostly ignored. For 2 years Robin emailed him (Sam said Henry stopped responding to calls the last couple of years but would still email). During those 2 years Robin finished Henry’s half written novel and wrote “rock paper scissors” (her version, although it’s implied that her version and the book we’re reading are one in the same until the last couple of chapters involving Sam and Adam. I’m not sure if Adam’s chapters are part of Robin’s book or just for us though). She paid for what was needed out of Henry’s accounts, including Sam’s salary, but said that she never touched the money for her own needs because she wanted to live simply. I’m not sure if the meals in the freezer were 2 years old (when Robin fired the old housekeeper) or if she used that money for new ones since she said she did use Henry’s money for what she had planned for that weekend. I can only imagine how gross the freezer burn would be, and they said the meals weren’t bad.
Also I’ve convinced myself writing all this that Robin is the narrator of everything until the last 2 chapters and that those are the only times we see the truth, that Robin and Adam are both insane killers that deserve each other. Amelia had plans of her own that also weren’t same, but she was the only one without blood on her hands. Adam killed his mom and lied, Robin killed Amelia. Amelia was just a passenger for the hit and run, although she was the one responsible for the running part, as well as getting 13 year old Adam drunk. Adam tends to think everything happens TO him, not because of him, and that’s why he keeps getting this bad luck. No wonder he clings to superstition.
Also, I love that with all the red herrings that we were told the big twist towards the beginning when Adam has his dream. He sees Amelia driving the car but can’t see her face. The only difference is that Adam sees himself as a passenger, which is what he sees himself as in real life as well. He never realizes that he’s the driving force.
J, thanks for this AMAZING comment. The theory that Robin and Adam are both insane killers who deserve each other is one I am behind. I have questions for you!!!
I read the book when it came out and you are VERY detail oriented so can’t remember if the book addressed whether Robin knew that Amelia had been present during the hit and run.
Do you think Adam slept with Amelia just to mess with Robin? And what are your theories about Robin and Henry and Robin’s mother?