4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars. One by One is set in a beautiful and picturesque ski resort located in the Alps. The guests are corporate individuals working for the company ‘Snoop’, the latest music app that lets you listen to the current song other members are listening to in real time. In the luxurious chalet, tension builds when one ‘Snoop’ member doesn’t return from the ski slopes. Then, the avalanche strikes, snowing the guests and two chalet workers in at the top of the mountain. Think things could get any worse? You have no idea. Ruth Ware smashed it out of the park once again with this bone chilling, fast-paced and intense thriller! A classic ‘whodunnit’ murder mystery, paired with breath taking scenery (quite literally) and a gripping chain of events that had my heart racing. Admittedly, I guessed the perpetrator quite early on and I was concerned this would spoil my reading experience. However, knowing who the killer was before they were revealed somehow created further tension and suspense. With my ‘critical reader’ hat on, I rated this story a 4.5 because there are A LOT of characters to follow and keep track of throughout. Trying to remember everyone, especially in the beginning, felt like a working memory task. To be honest, even after finishing this book, I’m still not sure whether I have a vivid and distinctive picture of all the characters. That being said, the story is written from two POVs, Liz, a member of the Snoop corporate party, and Erin, one of the chalet workers. This definitely kept the reading experience enjoyable and manageable. If rating this book purely based on thrill factor and visceral experience, it is no doubt a 5-star read. Ruth Ware is truly the queen of thrillers. I highly recommend One by One if you enjoy Ware’s other work and/or you are on the hunt for a suspenseful thriller that will have you hooked from the beginning. Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House UK, Vintage Publishing for gifting me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ruth Ware proves once again that she is the queen of the modern day murder mystery and I was delighted to receive an advanced copy of her new book from the publishers. One By One is a brilliant story from start to finish with echo's of Agatha Christie and twist and turns that will keep you guessing right to the very end. The story begins as the shareholders and directors of new music app Snoop arrive at the alpine sky resort of Saint Antoine for a bit of fun and to discuss a potential billion dollar buy out, but the decision to accept is split down the middle and when the resort is caught in the middle of an avalanche a murderer strikes. What I love about Ruth Ware is the richness of her characters and the way she uses this to drive the story forward. Everyone has a back story and when the group become trapped and isolated its these secrets that threaten to drive them over the edge. A brilliant read which I devoured quickly, this is the perfect book for a quiet night in. Enjoy!

Yet again Ruth Ware has written an absolute cracker of a book. This book will hook you right in from the first chapter and you won’t want to put it down. Well that was how I felt reading it.

⭐️4.5⭐️ I love a locked-room mystery/thriller and One by One certainly didn’t disappoint. It started off quite slowly but swiftly picked up pace, that’s when I became well and truly hooked. The chapters are short and punchy, and left me desperately wanting to know more. I thought the (quite large) cast of characters might confuse my poor old addled brain, but that was never the case as each character has their own defining voice/personality. The remote setting and extreme weather conditions provide a wonderful, eerie backdrop to the story, adding to the feeling of being trapped and the heavy, claustrophobic atmosphere. It’s a suspenseful, tense, edge-of-your-seat read and I loved it!

I loved the terrifyingly beautiful setting and despite the skiing accidents and avalanches that plague these characters I now desperately want to go skiing again. I loved the cast of hip young Snoop employees, with job titles such as Chief Bean Counter (finance to me and you). They were all so quirky and different from driven CEO, Toph, to geeky Elliot or airhead Ani. At first the group seem little more than obnoxious, privileged, beautiful, play boys and girls but the author does well to add depth and a certain likability to almost all of these characters by the end. Unsurprisingly my favourite though was smart, cool, calm and collected Erin. I loved the One By One concept - a conflicted group isolated together getting picked off one by one and knowing the murderer had to be one of them. Terrifying and captivating - waiting to see who'd be next.... My favourite bit however is difficult to talk about without spoiling it. So, I'll just say that it was so cleverly written that even when I started to suspect the eventual murderer I didn't believe it because the format suggested it was highly unlikely to be them. So, without doubt it's a full house 5-stars from me and I can't wait for Ruth's next book.....