Skip to main content

One by One

Bookreporter.com Bets On...

One by One

September 2020

ONE BY ONE is Ruth Ware’s sixth novel, and I have been a fan since book one. To me, this latest work is Ruth at her very best. It’s set at a ski resort...and on a very, very hot weekend, I found myself actually chilled as her storytelling was so atmospheric. Staffers from an app company called Snoop are off on a team-building retreat weekend at a luxury home where they will be attended to by two caretakers who are there to see to their every need. This will be challenging on many levels.

First, the group may be team building, but there already are fractures among them. One reason for this getaway is to discuss the idea of selling the company, which half the group has no interest in doing. To cool off from their very heated discussion, they head to the slopes. As they arrive at the top of the mountain, a storm rolls in, there’s an avalanche, and by the time they get back to the chalet, one member of the group is missing and presumed dead. And we thought the biggest drama was going to be that the pool and hot tub were destroyed. Then another member of the team is found dead, and another…and well, this is suddenly much more than the caretakers bargained for. Seriously, who anticipated the guests being picked off, one by one?

Ruth is the master of changing up the game for the reader, and even when the killer is revealed, there is still a lot more action. I love to ski and found myself caught up in the descriptions of the mountain as much as the mystery of the killer. There are strains of Agatha Christie’s AND THEN THERE WERE NONE here. If you are in a book group, think about reading both books to compare the mysteries.

One by One
by Ruth Ware