Loved this book! So atmospheric and such a great, threatening mountain setting - really keeps you guessing from the beginning to the end. Never a dull moment!

I recently read a novel that had a very similar premise:

'A party/group of friends goes to a remote hotel. Suddenly, a blizzard/snowstorm/extreme weather event takes place and the party/group is stranded together with hotel staff. No one can communicate with the outside world. Then - seemingly out of nowhere - someone dies. Oh no! Wait! It's murder! But who did it? Read more to find out.'

'One by One' didn't feel very original as a result of me having read this other novel. However, when it hit its halfway point, it gained momentum and became better. More original.

A few things bothered me about it throughout though:

1. The characters were not very well-rounded. Miranda, Ani, and Tiger all read like the exact same person with a few tiny stereotypical differences about them. They came off as all having the same vacuous personality.

2. From the very beginning, the 'guilty party' was very obvious/apparent to me. As a result, there wasn't a big reveal at the end of this story. No surprise twist or revelation. It was more like, 'OK, yes, the person I thought was guilty is indeed guilty".

3. The last 10% was a bit of a pointless add-on.

Why am I giving this three stars then? Well, because the second half (barring the last 10%) was fun to read and I enjoyed it

Although I found this book engrossing and wanted to keep reading to the end, it did feel somewhat generic and in need of something more to make it really outstanding. The plot centres on two characters, Erin and Liz, the first a ‘chalet girl’ looking after a ski chalet, and the second a member of a group of guests from a tech startup company staying in the chalet. It is clear from the start that there are explosive tensions within the group, and these set off a series of terrible events. The denouement is reached well before the end, and the ending itself is a little formulaic. There are some really striking descriptions of place, but not all the characters came across as distinct individuals, and some of the action was pretty far fetched. Credit to the author though for keeping this reader engaged right to the very end.

Ruth ware is one of my absolute favourite authors. I was so excited for this one and it absolutely hasn’t disappointed.
I have loved absolutely everything about it and have devoured this book in just one sitting.

Ruth Ware’s sixth thriller maintains a lot of the fun from The Turn of the Key with the added thrill of the French Alps setting.

A Spotify-meets-Twitter app company called Snoop takes a business retreat to the French alps amid a big decision in their company’s future. Snoop, which allows users to listen to music at at the exact same time as friends and celebs, has been offered a buyout worth £12 million. The company is split and as they mix business with skiing, they begin to be murdered one by one.

While once more maintaining a trapped setting in which the characters have no escape and no idea who they can trust, Ware went for a bigger costliest than usual in this one and I’m not sure it paid off. They countless characters were dumped with their brief work bios at the beginning of the book and even by the end I found them tricky to truly distinguish or know any deeper than surface level.

Unlike The Turn of the Key (my favourite Ruth Ware to date), I found that my predictions of who would be murdered were accurate and my knowledge of the murderer unravelled a little too soon, probably due to the choice of split perspective.

That being said, One by One was far from a disappointment. The setting truly made it an atmospheric book, with skiing and avalanche risks posing excellent plot devices for disaster and accidents. The holiday-meets-business vibes meant for a suspenseful and tense read, with conflicting interests and motives all round. One by One should appeal to fans of The Turn of the Key, In A Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman In Cabin 10. Although it doesn’t have the punching twists of The Turn Of The Key, it’s sophisticated and darkly atmospheric.

I’ve also made a guide to Ruth Ware in which I discuss each of her books, rank them and talk about One By One a little more.

Yet again Ruth Ware has written an absolute cracker of a book. This book will hook you right in from the first chapter and you won’t want to put it down. Well that was how I felt reading it.

I love whodunits, especially those by Agatha Christie, and I'm usually sceptical of any other authors who attempt something similar... but Ruth Ware pleasantly surprised me.

The beginning was a little slow, but very atmospheric. I loved the setting of the French ski chalet. The snow and the dark nights made the novel claustrophobic and tense. Initially, I wasn't quite convinced by the company Snoop and it's employees, but once they were shut in the chalet with no escape, the office drama was gradually revealed and I was hooked. I was desperate to finish this in one night but an early start at work stopped me and I devoured it as soon as I got home the next day.

This book was the definition of a page turner for me and I really recommend it to anyone looking for a modern whodunit.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Omg, that was sooooo good!!! If I could have read this book in one go, I totally would have! As it is it took me 2 days, which isn't bad to be fair!

It had me hooked from the first page and I enjoyed trying to figure out who dunnit! It was really well written and I personally felt myself sharing the characters fear, anxiety and I could really the picture the isolated scenery (talking of which I hope I never find myself isolated in a place like that! That is scary especially with a murderer on the loose!)

Thank you to Ruth for creating such a thrilling book!

If you like a good thriller, then I highly recommend this to you!

Oooh yes I love a lockbox mystery and I blooming love a SKI CHALET MURDER. Ruth Ware is on top form in this.

Very similar vibes to The Possessors by John Christopher but less heebie jeebie alien monsters.

Actual rating 4.5/5 stars.

High on Saint Antoine's snowy mountainsides are nestled a series of chalets, which become temporary homes for the wealthy who holiday there. Erin and Danny reside and work in one of these chalets and are preparing for an influx of new arrivals. The ten figures who step through their doors all work for the trending app, Snoop. They carry their unmistakable privilege with them, along with their luggage, but neither money nor power can save them from the unpredictable power of nature. Or from the evil that then capitalises on their plight.

I sometimes have mixed feelings towards the endings of Ware's books, but she is undoubtedly the master of penning forbidding, isolated settings and shady yet intriguing characters, and this was no different. In fact, I think I found a new favourite Ware, here as I was held as captivated by the mysteries throughout as the characters were held captive by their new, snowy confines.

With serious Agatha Christie vibes, this book kept me on the edge of my seat and I almost didn’t resist the temptation of actually reading the ending just so I knew what was about to happen.

The plot is really great and I absolutely loved how atmospheric the set was, the isolation, the shady aspects of some of the characters - that I truly disliked! This book had it all.
It was tense and suspenseful and it was very hard to put this book down until I actually finished it!

It is a bit difficult to remember all the characters though, and that was one of the aspects that made it a bit confusing at first but after a few chapters, I ended up managing well. Another aspect is that, although I got a good sense of Liz and Erin’s personalities and felt I really got to know them, I didn’t feel the same about the others.

I normally always have some problem with the ending but actually I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed how the story finished.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommended it to fans of locked-room mysteries.


I would like to thank Netgalley, Random House UK and Harvill Secker for an advanced copy of this great novel in exchange for an honest review

Brilliant, just brilliant. An Agatha Christie who-dunnit, mixed with psychological thriller set in a remote ski chalet in an area prone to avalanches. I thoroughly enjoyed & highly recommend this original story.

Yes! This is great! Proper thriller with a strong premise. I honestly love all Ruth Ware's books. Such well-written thrillers.

This is my first book by the author although I'm aware of her previous titles. I thought basing the plot around an app and the people who created it was a really interesting concept. I did feel that there were too many characters to remember and while I do understand while it was maybe necessary to have so many, a few of them were pretty indistinguishable from one another and I had to keep checking back who was who. While there are many parallels to Agatha Cristie, I also think the plot was quite similar to Lucy Foley's 'The Hunting Party as well', although I enjoyed the setting of One by One more, the snowy chalet location lending itself well to the story. This has all the making of a whodunnit but I did find myself getting slightly bored of it around the halfway point although thankfully the book built up a great pace towards the end of the story and you could feel the tension the two characters were experiencing which was exciting. That said, like a few others have mentioned, I do think it was fairly obvious where the story was heading, even if you weren't entirely sure what the reasoning was. Not a thrilling read by any means and I would have liked more twists but still intriguing enough to plough through.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC of this book.

I wasn't sure about this book to start with and wondered if it was set in the future or was full of techno trends and vocabulary, but I was very much mistaken. The detailed portrait of each of the characters at the start was very much tongue in cheek and rather blase, geared, I suspect, for today's social media addicts. This is where I have to add a criticism. Unless you studied each person's personality, position in the company, relationship with the others, education etc and commited it to memory, by the time you became engrossed in the story any reader viewing this on a kindle, ipad or phone would have forgotten who everybody was apart from Topher (is it pronounced like tofu or like topper?), Eva and Liz. In an actual paper book you can easily turn back to remind yourself but in an electronic device this is not easily possible, so a few reminders during the first few chapters would have been very useful. The setting was superb, the description of the villa, the heavy snow and the tense atmosphere and added to this mix we had Erin and Danny, two excellent personalities. The storyline was excellent, right to the end, although I did work things out for myself long before this but I liked that even after we knew who the murderer was we still had numerous pages left before reaching a final conclusion. I did wonder if erin would end up with Inigo. I've given it four rather than five stars because of my initial comments. But still brilliant, Ruth always writes stunners.

Wow! And she does it again. I’ve devoured every single Ruth Ware novel I’ve come across, and she continues to be one of my favourite authors. This book is the antithesis of a beach read for me; perfect for when you need something heady and dark, a book so lush with wintery ambience that it’s almost, dare I say it, gothic. Ruth Ware is masterful with her character building, and her stories are some of the only psych thrillers on the market that keep me on my toes. Bravo!

One by One is a really atmospheric, creepy psychological suspense which takes a dark turn as an avalanche leaves the employees of Snoop stranded at a chalet in the French alps. Full of secrets, lies, and hidden depth, I really enjoyed this story.

Fresh, modern, funky, upsetting but most of all thrilling!

These are the five words that come to mind as I closed the last page of Ruth Ware's brand spanking new novel "One by One".

The novel follows a group of employees who work for a company called "Snoop" which is basically Spotify but it allows users to listen to the same music at the exact same time as other users such as celebrities. The employees are on a corporate getaway at a luxury skiing resort in France.

Things take a dark turn as an avalanche hits and traps the residents inside their boutique chalet. Tensions rise, tempers flare and many personalities clash as the group enters into their own unique survival modes.

The narrative is structured between two central protagonists who are Liz and Erin. Each chapter is split into their first person accounts of what is happening within the story. I loved the way Ware has done this as it is fantastic to see the same event from two different perspectives. This also gives the novel a nice pace and keeps the chapters quick and small.

The setting is described absolutely beautiful and you can really imagine being in this luxury ski resort with all its mod-cons and modern furnishings. Ware's descriptions in this book along with all her others are second to none.

The character developments are fantastic and even though it can be difficult at first to keep up with the different characters, Ware makes up for this with their histories and developments throughout the novel as each character has their own unique personality which is critical for the narrative within the novel.

The book is so original in its concept with the idea of having a group of employees from a brand new app. It fits in with today's society and you can really engage with the characters tensions surrounding their business ideas.

It is very fast paced and I could not put it down. The twist and turns within the book are just like the many ski slopes described within and it took me a while to get my breath back when I put it down due to the intensity and the upsetting moments within the book, I could really feel the characters emotions especially at the end.

Overall I think this is my favourite Ruth Ware novel. You can tell that she has really researched for this novel which is clear in her descriptions and plot structure.

Highly recommended, you will not be disappointed.

This book was addictive from the very first chapter!.
Set in the French Alpines, a group of coworkers all embark on a skiing holiday. When they arrive at their chalet everything begins to unravel, and secrets start to come to the surface.

This book is full of so many twists and turns, and the pace in which the story unfolds is brilliantly planned out. I powered through this book so fast as it was an impossibility to put it down at the best of times!.

Snoop is a music app where you can listen to what other people, including your favourite celebrities, are listening to in real time. It’s founders Topher and Eva set the company up years ago and after a few ups and downs it’s really taken off so much so it’s now worth millions.

The Snoop team (Eva, Topher, Elliot, Miranda, Rik, Tiger, Ani, Carl and Inigo) together with minority shareholder Liz have arrived for a week at a luxury chalet high up in the French mountains. to decide the future of the company. At stake is a billion-dollar dot com buyout that could make them all millionaires but is it what they all want.

Their hosts Danny and Erin are there to tend to their every need. They are only there a day or so when the weather turns and closes the ski-runs. Shortly afterwards there is major avalanche that cuts them off from the other hamlets and the small resort. When one of the party goes missing in the snow they suspect it’s an unfortunate accident but when this is followed by another death they start to wonder if there is a murderer in their midst.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book which reminded me of Agatha Christie’s novels. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced read copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.