One by One

It's not great writing, Ruth Ware's mysteries keep you immersed and entertained.

This book has a spellbinding setting and twisting plot that I adored. It’s set inside a luxury lodge in the Alps, cut off by snow. I love snow books and movies—being Australian, it’s so foreign to me, and it’s ideal for the locked room trope.

This novel is told via two POVs: one young woman who works at the ski lodge and one who’s on a tech company work retreat. I admired the way Ware crafts two sympathetic yet suspicious characters. There’s so many puzzles to work out and scrumptious red herrings.

It’s fun to be scared, when you’re home and safe. 

The owners and staff of a troubled British tech start-up rent a chalet for a ski weekend in the French Alps, complete with an in-house host and a gourmet chef, to hash out their response to a buy-out offer. When an avalanche strands them and guests start dying, it becomes clear that the odd person out holds the decisive vote – and will keep on killing to get revenge.

As we shift between a character who unravels as more of the truth is revealed and one who gathers strength and… show more.

Ruth Ware has plunged her hapless victims into a remote snowy lodge and adds a catastrophic avalanche where it’s no safer inside than outside.

As a storm rages, conflicts between this group of co-workers escalate with cabin fever, mistrust, and murder. Everyone has a secret, everyone has reasons to want their colleagues dead, and everyone who is left alive is a suspect. 

I saw early reviewers comparing One by One to And Then There Were None, and that’s one of my comp weaknesses.

One by One is a dual-point-of-view thriller that follows a group of people stuck together on a company ski trip in the Alps. The company’s trying to make a big decision as it moves forward, but everything hinges on one member who’ll end up with the deciding vote… except that balance of power changes when people start disappearing and being found dead.

The two narrating characters slowly reveal more information about themselves and their pasts while – of course… show more.

The setting makes this one a thrill as Ruth Ware proves that the office thriller doesn’t have to take place in a physical office. Equally deadly is an Alpine ski resort where a group of tech colleagues gather for a meeting/retreat to take a critical vote on a takeover bid. One by One is a closed-circle mystery and a deliberate homage to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None when an avalanche traps them into their lodge. It’s delicious fun to watch the author kill off one executive or employee after another until the killer is revealed in a sleight-of-hand… show more.

Set in the frigid French Alps, One by One blends Christie-esque mystery with modern technology and a cast of deliciously unlikeable characters who die—you guessed it—one by one. A team of app developers rents a luxurious ski chalet and becomes trapped inside after a terrible avalanche. One of them is a murderer, but who is it? I picked up this book after indulging in some breathtaking hikes in the Alps and falling in love with the landscape. I am drawn to (and write) mystery thrillers that strip away the luxuries of modern technology by thrusting the characters into high altitudes.… show more.