So grateful to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with the digital ARC of Ruth Ware's newest book 'One by One'. I have mentioned this before but Ruth is one of my favourite authors and it was her debut 'In a dark dark wood' that got me into reading, so when I received the approval notification, I was over the moon.

The premise of the book is super intriguing, a group of coworkers of a start-up company Snoop arrive at a beautiful chalet in France for their corporate retreat, but soon it becomes clear that there is a whole lot of tension among them and few of them have a hidden agenda for being here.

Soon an avalanche hits, and one of them disappears while skiing. The remaining co workers trapped inside the chalet with no electricity and communication to the outside world seem to be safe only until another one of them turns up dead and it becomes clear that a killer is hiding among them.

This is a classic locked-room mystery (which is my favorite kind of book to read) but with modern technology in the form of a Snoop app added to it which manages to intrigue the reader. Similar to her previous novel 'The Turn of the Key' where a creepy smart home system app named Happy was introduced, the Snoop app mentioned in this book is also quite eerie as it allows the user to spy/ listen to exactly what other people are currently listening to.
I honestly really like these fictional modern technologies Ruth has been using in her books to add a thrilling and sinister touch to the storyline.

Anyways, this superb mystery with its alternating narrators and suspicious characters is not only thrilling and but highly entertaining, keeping the reader at the edge of their seat from the very first page to the very last.
Talking about the ending, I definitely didn't see it coming and I must say Ruth Ware did a brilliant job at casting suspicion on each of the characters (they all have secrets of their own that they want to protect at all cost), confusing the reader to find the identity of the killer and then finally wraps up the book very cleverly.
I highly recommend this book. 5 stars from me.

Creative, deviously plotted and meticulously planned - 'One by One' is a return to form for me for Ruth Ware, as I wasn't a great fan of 'The Turn of the Key' sadly. This book however, is a crafted page turner and back to the tight plotting worthy (as many say) to the ingenuity of Agatha Christies' crime novels and their cat and mouse drama!

Highly recommended,

This tense locked room thriller by bestselling writer Ruth Ware locates techy corporates from a Spotify like company, Snoop, in a ski chalet and then strands them there with an avalanche. (Snoop is a great idea by the way...) Who kills the co-founder when she disappears whilst ski-ing? The hired hands, Erin and Danny, seek to find out which one of the (mostly unpleasant and self-pitying) millennial employees is the killer, as more bodies pile up, in a nice homage to And Then There Were None. This is a page turning and exciting mystery, highly recommended.

I loved this book! A very clever plot, this really kept me guessing, and was a hard book to put down. Yet another fabulous novel from this excellent author.

I really enjoyed this read. It was very different to Ruth Ware's other books, and I really felt the chilly atmosphere of the Alps during nasty weather. I did think the killer reveal was a bit obvious from earlyish on, but that didn't detract too much from the story as it was still a tense read.

I've read one book by Ruth Ware and even though I liked it I wasn't a fan. I read The Turn of the Key this year, and I found the story to be a bit boring. Some of the storylines were introduced and then abandoned straightaway and I didn't love the reveal. I actually wanted to give the ending of the book 1 star. Imagine, gothic horrors are my favourite genre….

Anyways, you're reading a review for One By One so let me tell you that I actually (surprisingly) liked it much more. I see some reviewers who prefer her gothic books, I think I'm not one of them. Instead I thought this book was deliciously thrilling. It kept me on the edge of my seat, and most importantly it kept me reading and fully enthralled with the story.

It's about an off-site company retreat in the snowy mountains of the Alps. Snoop is company owned by millenials and the owners and co-workers try to make big decisions during this retreat. There are two hosts present as well, Erin and Danny. And then the chalet is buried by an avalanche. What is worse, the co-workers disappear one by one.

The story is told through the eyes of Erin, the aforementioned host, and Liz, one of the shareholders. I thought this was clever because it didn't muddle or slow down the narrative too much. I think two characters' perspective out of the ten people present was plenty.

I expected a whodunit, but really this a story about survival. It reminded me a bit of some of the scenes of No Exit by Taylor Adams. I liked the atmosphere, and I think it's a great read if you're wondering what to read now that most of the world is going into a second lockdown due to Covid-19.

I'm now considering reading Ruth Ware's earlier works, if they're anything like this one I think I will enjoy them.

This book is obviously inspired by my favourite Agatha Christie novel 'And then There Were None'.  This new story is set in a beautiful alpine ski resort where a group of business types have gathered to discuss the future of a popular music app called Snoop.  Then the already dived group find themselves in some serious trouble when disaster strikes.   

I enjoyed this claustrophobic whodunit, and the wonderful atmospheric setting, but it isn't one of my favourite books by Ruth Ware (I've read them all).  I think maybe this is because the story is based on a book I love.  I appreciate the attempts to modernise the story with tech and twists but it didn't quite hit the mark for me. In addition, I have recently read a couple of other books with a similar setting.  Had I read it at a different time I would have probably enjoyed this story more. A case of wrong book wrong time for me I guess but it is an entertaining read that I would still recommend.

What a great read from Ruth Ware! I thought Dark Dark Wood was brilliant but this has slightly more edge. so much tension in the air of the chalet when the team and 2 chalet staff realise that people are being bumped off "One by One". Who is the murderer? Told from the aspects of Liz, an ex employee of the app company and also from Erin, an employee of the chalet business.

The setting is just perfect, although a common occurrence at the time of reading, with a trapped audience to the murderer. Great description of tension in the chalet when they realise they could be next! You're right beside them thinking the same thing!

Possibly my favourite Ruth Ware book just after Dark Dark Wood.

One to sit and read by the fire with candles burning and a cup of hot chocolate (but will you drink it?)

So this is quite a hard review to right because I love Ruth Ware but I have found with the few I’ve read that some of them I can’t get into. I absolutely love her writing and the books are always fast paced! But for me this one was just missing something! I guessed the plot pretty early on and I guessed who was the killer, sometimes that doesn’t ruin it for me as I like to see how it pans out. But this just didn’t seem to work. I didn’t like majority of the characters & maybe that was the purpose? I liked Erin but that was probably it.

I have been in a slight reading slump which probably did affect how I read so I will definitely read this again. I just felt like there was something missing and I wanted more from the book. But I do love Ruth’s writing and I’m such a fan of hers!

Ruth Ware is one of my favourite authors! Couldn’t wait to read this one!

Snow is falling in the exclusive alpine ski resort of Saint Antoine, as the shareholders and directors of Snoop, the hottest new music app, gather for a make or break corporate retreat to decide the future of the company. At stake is a billion-dollar dot com buyout that could make them all millionaires, or leave some of them out in the cold.

The clock is ticking on the offer, and with the group irrevocably split, tensions are running high. When an avalanche cuts the chalet off from help, and one board member goes missing in the snow, the group is forced to ask - would someone resort to murder, to get what they want?

Ruth Ware never disappoints, this book was an absolute treat and I can’t recommend it enough!

I absolutely love Ruth Wares style of writing and haven’t missed one of her books. Thank you for the advanced copy of One by one.

I have to say when I started reading the first few chapters I really wasn’t sure and felt a little disappointed. There was something missing...... I’m not sure what. I just can’t put my finger on it.

But oh my goodness it takes a turn and for the better, as all of Ruth’s books are outstanding so is this one.

Setting the scene, a snowy start a group are stuck in a chalet... and the follows the murders one by one.

Without being able to leave the chalet, suspicions rise amongst the group. It’s edgy, and page turning as the narrators unravel their stories.

It’s a cracking read. And true Ruth aware meets Agatha Christie. A cross between murder on the orient express and then there were none. Amazing.

This was my first Ruth Ware book and I was left feeling quite underwhelmed by it. For a thriller it was very predictable and slow paced but still engaging and kept me reading. The setting however was very well done and the feeling of isolation really translated well. I feel that this book was just overall let down by the characters and predictability.

What One by One does right, it does so well, but the parts that didn’t work for me, really didn’t work at all. And this is completely down to personal taste but I knew, almost instantly that I wouldn’t enjoy this book. I skipped large portions of it admittedly, so I won’t be marking it as read on goodreads and will class as a DNF. As soon as the company and the characters were introduced, or rather sort of dumped upon us, I should have put the book down but I kept trying because I trust Ruth Ware to tell a great story and she has likely done that here but I am not invested enough to continue. Thank you so much for the advanced ecopy in exchange for an honest review. Sorry I didn’t finish it 🙈

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

a modern version of agatha christies and then there were none..only this one is set in a chalet in a skiiing resort for the very rich or for the up and coming business that treats their employees to a week of character building and getting to know each other rendezvous

only this retreat starts with an avalanche and then murder....there are a few characters to get to know but once you have them sorted in your head you start to get your favourites and some you loath...

slow paced but at least you get a sense of the build up and tension that starts to build and its a well thought out book and it hints of a way of life that is available to a certain type of person but still leaves you wanting a taste of that life

ruth ware has written a well thought out modern murder mystery with the added elements as a nice helpful way of adding to the tension...cant wait for her next book

This is your locked in mystery with a twist. Less locked in, more snowed in. Although, in fairness, there is an element of the locked in murder mystery about it too. Two murders in fact. When the directors of Snoop take their entire team to a ski resort, little do they know the fate that is going to befall them. One of the team disappears whilst skiing off-piste, and the rest of the team become trapped as an avalanche isolates them from the rest of the resort. All is not well in amongst the team, but are things so bad that one of them might possibly resort to murder? Well that is the question posed to readers as we get drawn into Snoop's world and into this new world imagined so skilfully by Ruth Ware.

If you have read any other the author's other books then you will know she has a talent for creating mystery and tension in her reads and this one is no different. Yes we are faced with a very limited pool of suspects but it is very clear from the outset that a good few of the characters are hiding something and scruples are not necessarily high on the list when it comes to personality traits. Alongside the nine Snoopers is a former employee, and trying to keep them safe in the resort, two chalet staff, but are any of them really who they appear to be. From the company founders, Eva and Topher to Erin, one of the chalet staff, it was tough to get a real handle on them and what they might be keeping from everyone else. Clearly whatever was going on, it was worth killing for, and for such an isolated place, the death toll is remarkably high.

What I liked about the story was the way in which the author has used the app, Snoop, to head each chapter, introducing each new point of view with an insight into their snoop status - how many subscribers etc - which gives a clear insight into the nature of the group we are with. The characters are all very millenial in styling, and, if I'm honest, more than a little irritating but worryingly authentic in their portrayal. I hope I never meet anyone like them. From the tech obsessed to the money driven, there is something instantly dislikeable about nearly all of them and yet I was fascinated by their predicament, by what might happen to them, and why. I found I was glued to the story, powering through in one evening, something which really hasn't happened much this year at all.

I guessed the whodunnit fairly early on if I'm honest although there is plenty of doubt planted in the reader's mind along the way. And the why when it is finally revealed is shocking and almost, almost, makes what happens forgivable. But not quite. The tension builds slowly, the agst at the beginning driven by the clear anxiety of one of the characters and the fractious relationship between them all. Whilst it took a while for anything of note to happen, and there was a certain inevitability about it when it finally did, I found that the story still flowed really well. The setting is perfect, feeling claustrophobic and heightening experience due to the overwhelming isolation and knowing that the killer was as trapped as the potential pool of victims. And then the ending, full of action and leading us to a very dramatic, and somewhat emotional, showdown.

If you love a Christie-eque mystery, full of suspense, chills (meteorological and literary) and where the setting is as key to the story as the motive and characters, then this is the story for you. for me it captured some or the real spirit and slow building tension I felt when i read my first Ruth Ware novel, The Death of Mrs Westaway, and I happily recommend it.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House for a copy of “ One By One “ for an honest review.

Ruth Ware has become one of my favourite authors and although I was a little dubious when I began reading this , due to so many different names being in the mix , and my terrible memory I quickly got past this.
Very reminiscent of an Agatha Christie mystery , even though I had guessed whodunnit pretty early on , the book still was an enjoyable read for me . I I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending this to others and to also check out her previous books.

Ruth delivers yet another cracking thriller as a group of twenty-somethings are stranded in a chalet following an avalanche and murders begin..
There is nothing like a snowed-in situation with a group of people to heighten the desperation, suspicion and instinct for self-preservation.
The story is told from the view point of two characters - Liz, an ex-colleague and awkward outsider from the music app employees gathered for some work and play, and Erin, one of the two chalet administrators who has a haunted past.
In amongst the satisfying thriller plot and strong characterisation, the author manages to introduce some nuances about entitlement and victimisation that adds some additional layers to the novel.
A great read for the winter season.

A claustrophobic crime thriller with nods to one of Christie's finest mysteries 'And then there were none'.
The alpine setting, the descriptions of both places and the food Danny cooks are great and add to the atmosphere, the technical skiing sections I could have done without. Maybe I've been reading too many crime novels recently but it was fairly easy to work out who did it and how.
Good choice for your winter fireside read.

Well another page turner from the genius that is Ruth Ware.

One by One is the story of a group of staff from social media platform Snoop, an app which allow listeners to snoop on their friends or on celebrities and hear in real time what is on their playlist.

The Snoop colleagues are in a ski resort, isolated in the alps with just a housekeeper and chef. Their trip may be corporate bonding but there are many agendas at work here and not all of them will return home.

The story is told from the points of view of both Erin, the English chalet housekeeper and Liz, perhaps the most awkward and out of place character in the Snoop group.

The characters are well portrayed and the narrative is full of well plotted scenes, although I had guessed fairly early on who the murderer was but not why and how it had begun. Many fabulous descriptive sections about skiing and the location. I found myself wanting to stay there despite the murderous intent.

There is intrigue and suspense from the off. An avalanche, electricity failure, guests being murdered and seemingly no way out.

This was a great story and very enjoyable, a good who dunnit that I would recommend. I held back a star as I had guessed the culprit fairly early on and I am not sure that the references to the Snoop followers or their online/offline status added much to the book; or maybe more should have been made of it?

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have been a Ruth Ware fan since her first book and the last couple really moved her onto my “must read” author list. In One by One she has gone backwards in a way towards that first book via And Then There Were None with a “locked room” style mystery set in a ski lodge. And I have to admit that for me it didn’t really work on a number of levels. Firstly the cast of very unlikeable characters were all introduced in quick succession and I struggled to relate to who was who until much further into the book. I thought that the identity of the killer was very easily guessed quite early on and although there were a few twists and turns there weren’t many surprises. And I also felt that the last 10% was dragged out too long, so much so that I was expecting there to be a further sting in the “tale”...but unfortunately I was left disappointed.
Probably going to be many who do love this but it wasn’t her best in my opinion.