Editorial Content for One by One

In what seems like a very short period of time, Frieda McFadden has become a bestselling author and a household name. I have enjoyed every book of hers that I have read, but I firmly believe that ONE BY ONE is the most diabolical and confounding thriller she has penned to date.

It begins simply enough as three couples head out for a much-needed vacation at a cabin in the woods that promises relaxation, spa services and a return to nature. Each member of the party has his or her own reasons for going on this excursion. However, readers will soon learn that at least one of them has ulterior motives.

"ONE BY ONE is far from predictable, and even if it follows the rules that Freida McFadden outlines in her own title, it still does not make it any easier to discover who Anonymous is and why certain people have to die."

The majority of the novel is told from the perspective of Claire, who needs this dream vacation so badly that she is willing to leave her two small children behind with her sister just to get away for a week. Her husband, Noah, accompanies her, along with her best friend, Lindsay, and new beau Warner, as well as Noah’s best friend, Jack, and his wife, Michelle. Claire has some secrets, but the only one she is eager to share with Noah is that she booked them separate rooms as a way to take a break from each other and their troubled, exceedingly loveless marriage. She is so thrilled to be spending time apart from Noah that even the warnings from her daughter --- who has shown some psychic abilities in the past --- that she could be eaten by a monster on this trip are not enough to keep her from going.

The other narrator in ONE BY ONE is “Anonymous,” although it is apparent that it must be one of the six vacationers. The trick for readers is to plow through the brisk narrative while trying to figure out this person’s identity before the finale. Anonymous seems to have his or her own reasons for going on this trip and states at the end of the first chapter that only one of them will make it home alive.

Not long after Claire hits up Noah with the idea about the separate bedrooms --- which he does not take easily --- do we learn that Claire has been having an affair with Jack, who is married to a high-strung divorce attorney. Lindsay picks up on this and warns Claire that if she knows about it, Noah may be privy to it as well. This is not good news, especially as Noah is driving Claire’s SUV with all six passengers on the way to their destination.

This poses an additional problem as Jack’s compass/GPS and Warner’s physical map that outlines the secret way through the woods to this vacation spot prove to be untrustworthy. It's an unsettling development, considering that Claire’s vehicle conks out for no particular reason in the middle of the clandestine trail that is supposed to be a short distance from their cabin. To make matters even worse, none of their cell phones appear to have a signal.

So they decide to abandon the car and take what should be the final two miles on foot. Of course, they walk far more than two miles in an undetermined direction and appear to be completely lost. It is at this point that they begin to get picked off, one by one. They already should have been warned by the howls heard in the dark of the woods and the many tree barks that seem to have been clawed by some huge beast. When the first member of the party poisons themselves to death after devouring a batch of deadly nightshade that resembles a bunch of blueberries, the terror ratio ramps up considerably as the survivors get desperate to find some form of civilization before nightfall arrives.

ONE BY ONE is far from predictable, and even if it follows the rules that Freida McFadden outlines in her own title, it still does not make it any easier to discover who Anonymous is and why certain people have to die.