This is a classic closed-door mystery: a small group of people trapped together as one murderer starts killing the others off. In this case, the small group of people is employees of a startup with a massive buyout offer. The conflict is that some shareholders want to sell and others don't. And the group gets trapped in a French mountaintop chalet after a massive avalanche.

The premise caught my eye and I liked one of the author's previous titles, so I eagerly requested a copy. The pacing was good. The story was interesting...and then the ending was utterly disappointing.

It's not really possible to talk about without spoilers, so if you don't want them, scroll on. My issue with this book is that, as a trauma survivor and mentally ill person, I'm very tired of characters who read as mentally ill/neurodiverse and are implied trauma survivors who are then revealed - ah ha! - to be heartless killers. Instead of subverting expectations (the weird person in the corner is actually a nice person and everyone should have been nicer to them!), it plays into the gut feeling many people have that different behavior is scary and off-putting and violence lurks behind PTSD (which is statistically untrue).

Ultimately, I felt very uncomfortable with that aspect of the book and cannot recommend it.

What do you do when you get an ARC of the new Ruth Ware Book? You drop everything immediately and get reading obviously!

The book follows a group of employees from an app called Snoop who travel to a snow chalet for a weekend away. They’re looked after by hosts Danny and Erin.

I really enjoyed the claustrophobic atmosphere and the setting but I have to admit, I love Ware’s books but this missed the mark for me. The book had WAY too many characters - I found it difficult to keep up.

I managed to suss things pretty early too but I did really enjoy the writing, the suspense and the setting.

Not the best thriller I’ve read it ages but definitely worth a read as I think I’ll be in the minority with this one! Definitely one for fans of Agatha Christie and Lucy Foley

EXCELLENT! Ruth Ware once again chills me to my core and writes a fantastic suspense novel! I'm not even surprised because she always delivers a thrilling read!

If you're a fan of locked room thrillers (or thrillers where the characters are practically deserted) then this is the book for you! Filled with Ware's trademark style, I know this is going to be a hit among the readers everywhere! Highly recommended. One of my favorites by the author!

I was able to read this book thanks to NetGalley. I was thrilled to get an advanced copy of Ruth Ware’s Newest thriller. It did not disappoint. I absolutely loved this book from start to finish. It gave me Agatha Christie vibes which I love. I loved the writing styles and slow building of suspense. To me, her books are just getting better and better. I will absolutely be recommending this one to all of my friends and family!

Ruth Ware's books are captivating with twists and turns in character development and the reader usually develops a connection with them. One by One started slower for me. The introduction of the characters confused me with their Snoop references and techi terms. The need to go back to the introduction to remember who was who annoyed me at first but as I got to know the characters and their positions in the Snoop system I became hooked. This team of affluent techies on a work/ play meeting in the Alps was destined to go wrong. As tragedy strikes I genuinely wanted certain characters to be innocent while feeling certain that I knew who was guilty, I was wrong and that is why I love Ruth Ware she keeps me guessing.

If you've ever played a game of "Mafia" with a group of friends and tried to rationalize who would've chosen who to get "killed" or "get saved", then you'll understand exactly where One by One is coming from! Having played a lot of "Mafia" with friend groups in high school and continually being a fan of Clue, both the board game and the Tim Curry movie, I couldn't stop reading. Thanks to Ruth Ware, my heart rate went up and stayed up -- this novel is full of action and set in a fairly isolated chalet with a number of staff from a popular music app. The dynamics of the Snoop staff as well as those of the chalet staff are both reflected equally, as Ware alternates her perspective from Snoop staff chapters and chalet staff chapters. Little by little, one by one, details get revealed that change the course of their time together. Lots of ever-changing variables will keep you hooked through the very last page!

Once again a Ruth Ware hits a home run. She crafts lovely webs of mystery and suspense. Thankfully, she also does an excellent job with characters and settings. This time we’re taken to a ski chalet in the Alps.. We meet a two person staff dedicated to guests’ care and well being. The guests are an interesting crew from a tech app company. They are on a retreat to hash out whether to sell their company, a pretty tense group. Obviously they will end up isolated as death joins them.

3.5 Stars

Now we are ten…now we are nine…now we are eight…a kind of gruesome countdown edging closer to zero, one by one…

Ruth Ware’s newest murder mystery is set in the French Alps where stockholders of tech company SNOOP are on a work/ski retreat to hash out selling or not selling their shares. Finding themselves trapped due to an avalanche, these once friends and colleagues begin turning on each other one by one…

While predictable (I guessed the killer from the beginning), Ruth Ware’s One by One was an enjoyable read, and would recommend to fans of this author as well as this genre.

**I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book that I received via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. **

Another knockout! Ruth Ware simply delivers. By her sixth book in five years, one might reasonably expect a bit of foot-coming-off-the-gas trending, but there is none of that to be found here. One by One is perhaps Ware's most Agathean plot setup to date (small group of people--including insiders and outsiders from differing states of economic comfort--becomes stranded together in an isolated location when members begin dying in mysterious circumstances one by...um, one), and her execution of the story shows that she didn't come by those frequent Christie comparisons undeservedly. This book solidifies Ruth Ware's spot on my "Read Everything She Writes No Matter What" list.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing this eArc in exchange for an honest review.

Another great Ruth Ware book! While I did guess the ending (or at least the major parts of it) pretty early on, it was so well written that I still enjoyed it. I like how the chapters alternated between two of the main characters: Erin, who works at the ski chalet in France, and Liz, one of the employees (well, former employee in Liz's case) of Snoop, a music app, who are staying at the chalet for a business retreat. The pacing of the book was really great and I ended up reading it in just about 2 days. There was a large cast of characters, and while some were forgettable, the majority were well developed and nuanced.

QUICK TAKE: friends. I'm just not a Ruth Ware fan. I found a lot to enjoy in last year's THE TURN OF THE KEY (hello, poison garden!!), but this one just left me...cold (pun intended). An avalanche traps the employees of a tech company in a remote cabin and of course one of them just happens to be a murderer. I found the characters and plot to be lazy, people randomly disappear never to be seen or heard from again, and the ending left me wanting more. Not for me.

Another great story from Ruth Ware! Set at a French ski resort, 10 guests arrive for a business/pleasure retreat. As the title reveals, one by one they disappear, or show up dead. Similar types of this atmospheric story have been written about many times, yet Ms. Ware gives it a refreshing take. I could feel the chill Inside the chalet, the tensions between the guests and the group dynamics in play. Well-developed characters and an interesting plot held my attention and kept me reading until the end. If you like Ruth Ware you will enjoy this read.
Thank you to Ruth Ware, the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS! When posted elsewhere, they are hidden within spoiler tags

Possibly my favorite Ruth Ware so far. When reviewing The Turn of the Key, I felt that she was an author that either you like or don't like, and there's not a lot of room for convincing.
This is one that feels different, closer to The Woman in Cabin 10 than her other works. I'd probably recommend this to someone who didn't enjoy her more atmospheric, gothic books.

In the essentials, this is a snowed in, "locked room" murder mystery. It reminded me a lot of An Unwanted Guest, but not in a derivative way, it's just pulling from a lot of the same inspirations such as The Mousetrap and Other Plays for the basic set up and And Then There Were None (especially given the title and when Liz chants a rhyme softly). I think this is more what I wanted An Unwanted Guest to be, although that book had its charms as well. I just liked this better.

There is some boardroom/business politics stuff, as well as some focus on the details of skiing, neither of which I'm very interested in, but it isn't too much, Erin being a complete outsider to the company keeps the focus more on the chalet and what is going on around them. The novel goes back and forth between Liz and Erin's viewpoints, but they have very similar voices and I quite often had to flip back to the chapter heading to figure out which one was the narrator I was reading, or I would think I was a Liz section and then she would be mentioned in third person and I'd be slightly confused, but it wasn't confusing enough to be frustrating or anything. I am still thinking about if I enjoy the narrative device that tells us the body count and vague outline of what happens in the whole book all at the beginning. Yes, it gives us an idea of what to expect, and it is vague enough that there is still tension and suspense, but Ms Ware does this format pretty often and I don't know that it's the right choice for book after book after book.

I think a lot of my enjoyment of this one is because it is the most Agatha Christie-esque modern work I've read, and of course I love her books. Part of that is because there are a lot of Christie elements used here, from the standard (snowed in, guest house, class differences, people being picked off one by one, [a character realizing they know something slightly too late and being killed before she can tell anyone. (hide spoiler)] ) to more interesting ([ Someone running off into the storm with the possibility that it's a red herring, recognizing a distinctive piece of clothing instead of the person, the important phrase similar to A Murder Is Announced , Erin in general felt very much like a Christie heroine (hide spoiler)]). Stuff like The Monogram Murders feel much less Christie to me. So while there's nothing wildly new or innovative here, it hits common stuff in the genre in a comforting way and still gives some twists.

Highly recommended, and a probably rereader for me.

One by One by Ruth Ware was not very thrilling. I was disappointed that the plot was so obvious right from the start. It was very similar to other story lines that had characters stranded in the snow, of course no cell service, and no help around for miles. There was also a lot of "F" words that took away from the story. Not being a skier left me wondering some of the terminology as well. I keep hoping Ware's books will get better, but nothing compares to her earlier novels. I think she's missing the boat trying to stay trendy and hurry up to get another book out there. Not really impressed, sorry.

Reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Ware’s story takes us to a ski chalet on a snowy mountaintop in Europe. The guests are a team of coworkers from a tech company where the stakeholders are in the midst of a decision regarding a multi-million dollar buyout. When guests start turning up dead and an avalanche cuts power and phone access to the chalet, trusting the wrong person may mean life or death.

Each chapter enlists a rotating mix of narrators and the reader questions the reliability of each. Ware has written another page-turner that drew me in and kept me wondering who was behind the murders and what might happen next. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to patrons who are looking for a good murder mystery.

A fast past thriller! This may be my favorite Ruth Ware book yet! Quick read! The cast of characters kept me riveted until the end.. Made me think of the Shining!

I think her best yet. Creepy circumstance. No idea who comes out alive even though there is a teaser in the beginning of how many will survive. Isolated, claustrophobic, great mystery read.

Ruth Ware is the Queen of suspense and atmosphere. No one currently writing thrillers does it better, in my opinion. Her books keep getting better and better!! I NEVER saw the ending coming, ever. Had no clue what was going on and had to keep reading because I couldn't put it down. Well done!

Thank you to # Netgalley for the opportunity to read and comment on One by One by Ruth Ware. What could go wrong? A ski chalet in the French Alps that was only accessible from a funicular that ran from a small town down the mountain. Snoop, a music streaming start-up on the verge of an IPO or a lucrative buyout for the founding shareholders. Shareholders with divided loyalties and the other employees of the company on a ski retreat. An avalanche and a dead body count that was getting higher. This book kept me engaged and guessing- I figured out who did it but I kept reading to figure out why. The two different narrators - Liz and Erin were effective and a bit unrelaiable and both were harboring secrets that unravel as the story progresses. The cast of characters is long but they were easy enough to differentiate and sift through for motivation. The atmosphere of suspense was just right. A thoroughly enjoyable read that I recommend to Ruth Ware fans.

“One by One”—Ruth Ware [3.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫] Tech company “Snoop” plans a retreat with it’s co-workers to a beautiful ski chalet in France to make some big decisions about the company. Disaster strikes as an avalanche hits and everything starts to go terribly wrong; one by one people are getting killed off and everyone is questioning each other on who can be trusted and who can this possible killer be amongst them. I really liked the setting and the premise of the book, but sometimes trying to keep up with the characters was a little confusing , and after the suspenseful buildup, it was a little underwhelming and easy to figure out who the killer was. Overall I thought it was a really enjoyable read and fans of a suspenseful thriller and Ruth Ware would definitely enjoy this! 👍🏼*Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for providing me a digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review* 📚