One by One

I bought this for reading on long, round-trip flights. Just like other books by this author, this mystery builds suspense and keeps the reader engaged, turning page after page, to guess who might be committing these murders. Enjoy!

Ruth Ware once again reminds me why she is the queen of suspense and one of my favorite authors! I easily gave <b>4.5 Stars</b> to her latest, and in my opinion, best thriller.<b>SUMMARY</b>Erin and Danny work at a remote luxury chalet high in the Swiss Alps. Each week they serve as host, cook, concierge and housekeeper to a new set of pampered guests. This week, the guests are from a hot music app called Snoop. Snoop has brought their voting shareholders plus some of their key management for a retreat but, they are also there to discuss a recently received buyout offer. The problem is that the two main shareholders have opposite opinions on selling. Ava wants to sell immediately and make hundreds of millions of dollars. Topher wants to wait and take the company public at some point in the future. Ava and Topher each hold 30% and each has the support of one other shareholder, giving both sides 49% of the vote. Then there is quiet, meek Liz who holds the remaining 2%. That 2% makes her the deciding vote and the most powerful person in the chalet. You can only imagine the level of tension, competition and arguments at the chalet!On their first day of skiing, the skiers get separated and Ava does not return. To make matters worse, a huge avalanche hits the mountain, taking out the power, cell service, internet and cutting off the chalet from everyone and everything.Panic ensures, with no phone, internet or way down the mountain, they cannot contact ski patrol to find Ava. No one is holding out much hope of finding Ava alive. But then things get even worse; a Snoop employee is found dead in his room. And then another... It looks like Danny, Erin and the remaining Snoop team are locked in an isolated chalet with a killer. It could be any one of them.<b>WHAT I LOVED</b>There were so many things to love about this book, but if I had to pick, I say the combination of the suspense and setting. Tucked away in what should be an idyllic mountain get away, the characters are stuck with a dead body and a potential murderer, with no help arriving, limited food and nothing to do but wait to see who will be next. I don't feel like I'm selling it well, but trust me. It really works.I loved Erin and Danny's friendship. They have an easy rapport, they are unquestioningly loyal to each other and they take care of each other. It's what a friendship should be.Most of the characters are hiding at least one secret and the reveals are sooo fun!!!The story is told alternatively from the points of view of Erin and Liz. They make great narrators because they are both natural observers, each for their own reasons. As part of the chalet staff, someone who has no connection to Snoop, Erin makes a fantastic observer. Also, some of the Snoop employees speak freely when she is in a room, almost forgetting that she is actually a real person versus part of the chalets furnishings. Although she is a shareholder, Liz no longer works for Snoop. During her tenure there, she was mainly ignored and treated as the least relevant employee. Now that she holds the deciding vote, she is being "wooed" and everyone is showering her with attention. All these factors make Liz a fascinating narrator. The story would not have been as interesting or nuanced coming from anyone else.<b>WHAT I DIDN'T LOVE</b>One small complaint; the ending was a little too drawn out. This statement makes me sound impossible to please because I love a nicely sewn up ending, one where I am not left hanging. But this ending was a bit too long. I thought the book was already over (and I would have been satisfied with the ending) about three times before it was actually over.<b>OVERALL</b>My one complaint was very minor so the book still gets it's 4.5 Stars. I hope to see it on the "best of" list for 2020. I highly recommend for fans of Her Highness, Queen of Suspense, Ruth Ware and for anyone who loves a good, slow burn thriller.

Ended up being really good, couldn’t put it down after halfway through. Had a hard time getting started and almost didn’t read it. Glad I picked it up again.

One by One is sharply written, and completely addictive; Ruth Ware took a risky gamble by re-framing the classic locked-room mystery of Agatha Christie, to tell a modern day thriller taking place during a company retreat among snowy mountain. It's risky because her intervention to the classic murder mystery formula might ultimately also be the book's downfall (see what I did there—for a novel involving an avalanche...), ending up not pleasing fans of either murder mystery or thriller genre.The saving grace is the overall setup, and the cast. While not necessarily to everyone's taste, I personally find the corporate dispute and app development angle fascinating, as well as refreshing to read within this context. Ruth Ware does an excellent job weaving them throughout, without feeling like she is simply regurgitating her research on tech startups. The characters are well fleshed-out, believable as someone from that particular social circle (I've encountered a few in my life to confirm!). You end up feeling sympathetic towards (some of) them, which makes the lingering epilogue still enjoyable to read through.My recommendation: go into this book without assuming where the story should go (based on an assumed genre standard), then you might extract more enjoyment out of it.**Minor spoiler ahead**Ultimately One by One is still a thriller at its core, just decked out in murder mystery ornaments. Even with the clues and setups, there's ultimately no real mystery to solve; the novel reveals the culprit quite informally at about 60% (I was dumbfounded, and thought this was simply a misdirect—so I guess in a way it did succeed as a 'plot twist'), which might dispirit readers who are eager to deduce and guess the murderer alongside. In hindsight, the fact One by One's narrative is written from such limited perspectives, should be a telltale sign that deception is never the game it's attempting to play.On the other hand, the first half of the book might bore thriller seekers to death; like most locked-room mysteries, it primarily consists of: the group being dispersed → someone is killed with strange circumstance → the group assembles and goes over plausible motive and alibi → the cycle repeats, and Ruth Ware remains quite faithful to this rhythm. For readers who are expecting something more event-driven, similar to her previous works, might find the large cast and keeping track of everyone's whereabouts an exhausting chore.One by One does have some narrative inconsistencies, which dampen the its overall plausibility. One being the blatant dismissal of character Kate, the chalet's booking manager. Being offsite from the avalanche, she has the knowledge and capability to send help immediately. But the novel simply ignores this in order to create an extended period of isolation at the chalet. The characterization of the culprit is another weak spot, who is extremely sharp and resourceful one moment, and completely dumb in others. his/her demise is led by a series of stupid choices, which is in stark contrast to the first half of the book, where he/she is able to murder multiple people without suspicion.**Minor spoiler ends**Ultimately, I had a good enough time with One by One, even though the trope-bending experiment is less than successful, and the overall pacing feels lopsided (I've rarely encountered an epilogue this excessive), the setting and the character still makes it an engrossing read.

Lots of drama and twists and turns. A few too many characters thrown out all at once so struggled in the beginning with keeping track of all of them. Great for skiers who can relate to many terms I was not familiar with but overall a good read.

Easy to read and very suspenseful - even had my 13 year old son read it and he also loved it!

...certains perso sont fades, mais j'ai bien aimé l'ambiance coincé dans les montagnes.

Konusu tanıdık ve bir nevi klişe gelebilir fakat hikayenin işlenişinde bir özgünlük bulunuyor. Whodunnit ağırlıklı başlayıp, gerilime evrilen bir kurgusu var. Tatmin edici bir şekilde karakter gelişimleri yansıtılmış. Kendini okutacak bir hikayesi ve anlatımı var. İstisna seviyede bir kitap seçicisi değilseniz bu kitabı beğeneceksiniz.

Quando os acionistas de um aplicativo famoso se reúnem para decidir o futuro da empresa mas quando um empate entre os 4 maiores acionistas acontece cabe a Liz, acionista minoritária que, tirando sua porcentagem da empresa, não tem mais nenhum vínculo com a mesma a mais de três anos, tomar a decisão.Caída de paraquedas naquela viagem pomposa com pessoas do seu passado e outras desconhecidas ela vai precisar escolher entre a sua lealdade e doze milhões de libras.Ou melhor, precisaria! Antes desse momento chegar uma das acionistas majoritárias some em um passeio de Ski e com o perigo de tempestades de neve e avalanches se torna impossível localiza-la. Não tarda até que descubram que Eva, na verdade, morreu em um acidente na pista!Só que mais duas mortes acontecem, trazendo luz ao que eles preferiam que não fosse verdade: não foi um acidente e existe um assassino entre eles.E o assassino parece estar indo de um por um!Se não existe um momento bom para estar preso em uma casa com um assassino em série, é ainda pior quando a tempestade de neve piora e eles se veem presos em um chalé sem energia, sem contato com o resto do mundo e sem saber em quem confiar.Quem será o assassino? E maisimportante, quem será o próximo?Não é à toa que Ruth aware é considerada a “Rainha do só mais um capítulo”, é simplesmente impossível largar esse livro!! Escrito em duas vozes, Liz e Erin, a gestora do Chalé, a mistura de suspense e mistério é uma combinação incrível!Claramente inspirada em “E não sobrou nenhum”, a fã declarada de Agatha Christie leva esse livro para além do mistério e quando a resposta nos é dada o livro continua mais eletrizante ainda como um suspense! A análise psicológica de personagens também está presente dando uma profundidade ainda maior a obra.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

4.8 stars, rounded up.I really enjoyed the contrast between narrators: one is a bit of a reclusive and very perceptive, and the other is socially awkward and has a hard time picking up social cues. One does not feel like she is in control at all, and the other is calm, cool and collected. One is self aware and in charge of her life, having a very factual understanding of how her choices are related to their consequences and the other is the ultimate victim.I really liked the characters; they were very distinct from each other and I liked how Ruth highlighted the face of privilege and entitlement. Some characters are truly unlikeable and quite amoral. So, at one point it is interesting to see the power struggle when these characters find themselves on opposite side of plans.I don’t know the first thing about skiing, and I could follow the book, with the exception of a few terms I had to google. The ambience was awesome - I both felt like I was in that chalet and I could also understand the app as if it was real. She did a great job creating the app concept and the corporate side of it, behind the scenes. It felt 100% real, like it could be a real app being launched tomorrow.As usual, I just cannot put her books down. Ruth is superb in drawing the reader in and keeping them engaged with her narrative. I attribute that largely to how well and how human she makes her characters. She works for me.I also will always mention how fair she plays. I literally feel that care in her writing. I know some people mentioned this book was predictable, I get it. I could tell whodunnit. But what I love about her books is that it is equally a whodunnit as it is a “howdunnit”. And she does not always wait until the end to reveal the culprit, and she also doesn’t drag it longer than it has to. The who reveal is organic to the narrative, and the why as well.Next time I read this; I will listen to the music as I go. However, I think this would have been such an awesome book with a mixed media format. Maybe Ruth and Spotify colab? Podcast entries, diary/journal/more newspaper entries?

Got this for my cousin. She was happy receiving the book in good condition and was delivered one day before the actual delivery date.