#BookReview ‘One By One’ by Ruth Ware

Psychological Thriller

About the book…

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Turn of the Key and In a Dark Dark Wood returns with another suspenseful thriller set on a snow-covered mountain.

Getting snowed in at a beautiful, rustic mountain chalet doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world, especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a cozy fire, and company to keep you warm. But what happens when that company is eight of your coworkers…and you can’t trust any of them?

When an off-site company retreat meant to promote mindfulness and collaboration goes utterly wrong when an avalanche hits, the corporate food chain becomes irrelevant and survival trumps togetherness. Come Monday morning, how many members short will the team be?

How amazing does this sound?

Already a big fan of Ruth Ware, I was super excited to have the opportunity to read and review her latest novel,‘One By One’ which is out now, thanks so much to Graeme Williams for this.

At the start, a newspaper article makes it clear that the treacherous weather conditions have resulted in holiday makers being snowed in at a remote chalet, some have died and two survivors have made the dangerous trek to get help. Following this, there are social media-esque profiles of the owners/managers of an app named ‘Snoop’, a music palying app that lets you listen to the same music concurrently, borne out of the owners(once partners) attempts to make a long distance relationship less difficult.

All the characters sound bloody awful, by the time you ‘meet’ the two housekeepers/chefs of the chalet they are heading to, you are hopeful that they are the ones who die. The funicular ascending with the members of Snoop for a make or break holiday away, creaks with unspoken menace, the isolated setting perfect for those trying to get away. Except, when you are trapped with little to no chance of escape, there is every chance that lashing out might reveal potentially deadly secrets…

And herein lies the fascination,for me, with the characters and situations that Ruth creates. I read the Snoop profiles and thought ‘UGH. How dreaful’. And that is the point, those social media profiles are designed to deflect, whilst simultaneously bringing the public ‘closer’ to the objects of their affection. Artifice, self-deception and intrigue abound when trying to create a persona that is so far different from your own, and the longer that you try to keep this up, the more chances of secrets being revealed present themselves.

Here is an exclusive character profile of one of the Snoop developers-

It is a pressure cooker situation where levels of innocence and guilt are peeled away , as the numbers dwindle and the snow piles up outside the door. This is a perfect weekend read, preferably in a blanket fort with plenty of hot chocolate and a do-not-disturb note on the door. There is a blurb on the cover of the hardback which describes Ruth Ware as the ‘queen of one more chapter.’

I would have to say that I agree.

About the author…

Ruth Ware grew up in Sussex, on the south coast of England. After graduating from Manchester University she moved to Paris, before settling in North London. She has worked as a waitress, a bookseller, a teacher of English as a foreign language and a press officer. She is married with two small children, and In a ‘In a Dark,Dark Wood’ is her début thriller.