ROCK PAPER SCISSORS

FORMAT: Novel
GENRE: Psychological drama

After her partner unexpectedly dies, a newly married novelist vows to take care of his ailing mother despite their tenuous relationship, but as his mother’s mental health begins to deteriorate and a harrowing family secret comes to the fore, she discovers a truth about his demise that forces her into a life or death decision.

East coast novelist Telli loves a good mystery, but when it involves her own life it’s a different story. Struggling with the unexpected loss of her partner Tom, all she can remember from the night he died is being questioned by the police at the hospital and fuzzy impressions of their year-long relationship. When Anna, Tom’s neurotic mother, misses his funeral altogether, Telli feels drawn to check on her and finds the dementia she and Tom had suspected has advanced almost overnight. 

As the walls of denial Anna has been holding up for decades begin to crack and crumble, she loses herself in memories of the past and the skeletons of a traumatic family event are revealed. The more Telli learns, the more she can’t shake the feeling that something is amiss about Tom’s death. With a writer’s instinct for piecing stories together, she retraces Tom’s final hours and finds a truth she isn’t prepared for.

Told through intimate family dynamics using a past and present format, Rock Paper Scissors explores what drives a person to become an antagonist.