Ruth Ware: One by one, Harvill Secker, (Penguin Random House UK) trade paperback, 9781787300422

 

Ruth Ware’s latest crime novel “One by One” is my first book by the author who already has a few books published, in Germany her publisher is DTV.  The setting of the novel in a posh French Alpine ski resort during a fierce snow storm suited my mood perfectly as the snow kept falling outside in real life and everyone currently knows what it feels like to be restricted in their movements.

As I started reading I was surprised how quickly the book drew me in and kept me hooked,  reading at a quick pace.  Having read so many thrillers in my professional life, I have to confess that after 70 % of the book I figured out which way the plot could go which was correct but that still left several possibilities for the book to end open which kept me guessing.  “One by One” is a cleverly constructed thriller set around some smartass young employees and their shareholding owners of a hot music app who come together for skiing fun and brain storming retreating to a high class ski chalet in France with cook and full service.  As the company’s group dynamics begin to unfold, an avalanche cuts off the chalet when the group returns from skiing and they realize that Eva, one of the shareholders, has gone missing.  Liz, a young shareholder and the odd one in the group and Erin, the chalet manager, narrate the chilling events as another employee is found dead in his room.  The idea of a group of people caught in a house by some unforeseen event with a murderer on the lose is not a new one, but Ruth Ware has crafted a solid thriller with a special dot com edge which I had great fun reading during monotonous winter days.