''Rock Paper Scissors'' is a 2021

psychological thriller Psychological thriller is a Film genre, genre combining the thriller (genre), thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting ...

novel by British author Alice Feeney. The plot follows a couple in an unhappy marriage who take a weekend holiday to a repurposed chapel the

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

countryside. In April 2021,

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announced that it would be releasing a six-part series based on the novel, to be produced by Suzanne Mackie.

Background and publication history

''Rock Paper Scissors'' was first published in the United Kingdom by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

on August 19, 2021, and was published in the United States by Flatiron Books, an

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Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd in the United Kingdom and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC in the United States) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be on ...

, on September 7, 2021. Luke Speed of Curtis Brown Group and Josie Freeman of

ICM Partners ICM Partners was a talent and literary agency with offices in Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, D.C., and London. The company represented clients in the fields of motion pictures, television, music, publishing, live performance, branded e ...

represented the rights to the book. It is the fourth novel by Alice Feeney.

Reception

The novel was listed as one of ''Real Simple'''s "59 Best Books of 2021" and received positive reviews in ''The Concord Insider'' and ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

.'' It was also a

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selection by author Megan Miranda.

Adaptation

In April 2021, five months before ''Rock Paper Scissors'' was published,

announced that it would be releasing a six-part series based on the novel, to be produced by Suzanne Mackie under her production company, Orchid Pictures. Feeney expressed her excitement at the adaptation, telling ''

The Sunday Post ''The Sunday Post'' is a weekly newspaper published in Dundee, Scotland, by DC Thomson, and characterised by a mix of news, human interest stories and short features. The paper was founded in 1914 and has a wide circulation across Scotland, U ...

'', "I don't write the books thinking this might be a TV series but with this one, it was the first time I did secretly hope it would make it to the screen. I really wanted that wish to come true." Filming for the series is set to take place in Scotland.

References

{{Reflist 2021 British novels British psychological novels British thriller novels British mystery novels Psychological thriller novels Novels set in Scotland Novels about marriage