One By One - Ruth Ware

I read Ruth Ware's In a Dark, Dark Wood back in 2015. It was a 'closed room' mystery. A group of friends gathers at a remote cabin. And you guessed it - there are deaths....I loved it and have eagerly awaited each of Ware's new releases.

That 'closed room' format is one of my favorite premises. Ware takes us there again in her latest release, One By One. Ten employees are sent on a corporate retreat to an isolated chalet high in the French Alps. With the two chalet employes on site, that makes twelve. (Yes, there are comparisons) Tensions are running high within the corporate group. When an avalanche snows them in, things turn deadly - and the body count begins.

Oh, One by One was such an excellent read for me! Each and every one of the characters has a secret, an agenda, a scheme. They're all very disparate personalities with the corporate crew decidedly unlikable. The reader won't have a problem remembering who is who, even with such a large cast. The about us page at the beginning of the book lays the groundwork on who's who.

The group of ten are all employees of Snoop - a music app that lets the user see in real time what others they follow are listening to. Very current and very real. (Watch the Snoop stats at the beginning of every chapter.)

Ware drops lots of clues along the way to the final whodunit. The book is told from the viewpoint of two of the characters in a back and forth narrative. I did have my suspicions (and was right), but this in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the book. Honestly, I couldn't put the book down. We find out who the killer is, but there's a good eighty pages after that. The tension. does. not. stop. Those last pages detail a delicious cat and mouse game.

Ware's writing is so easy to get caught up in. Either way - if you've read Ware before or this is a new to you author - you're going to enjoy One By One.