One by One
A taut locked-room thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Woman in Cabin 10
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- USD 12.99
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- USD 12.99
Publisher Description
A LUXURY CHALET. THE OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME. BUT THEN GUESTS START TO DISAPPEAR...ONE BY ONE
Snow is falling in the exclusive alpine ski resort of Saint Antoine, as the directors of Snoop, the hottest new music app, gather for a corporate retreat to decide the future of the company.
At stake is a buyout that could make them all millionaires, or leave some of them out in the cold.
But when an avalanche cuts the chalet off from help, and guest goes missing in the snow, the group is forced to ask – is there a murderer among them?
‘Will hold you captive until the brilliant ending’ Shari Lapena
‘A dark tale by one of the best thriller writers around’ Independent
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Get cosy with a sophisticated whodunnit in the grand tradition of Agatha Christie. At a resort in the remote French Alps, a new tech start-up’s leadership team have met to discuss business and tensions run high from the first crunch of snow under boot. There’s conflict brewing over whether to sell off the company or go public, which all comes to a head when an avalanche cuts off the group from the world. And that’s when the first person goes missing. We loved the way mystery master Ruth Ware (In a Dark, Dark Wood) uses this natural disaster to remove modern technology from the situation, leaving the characters trapped in a tense scenario that we could picture in almost any decade. The revelations that unfold as everyone’s motives come to light had us gasping out loud, but Ware’s plot twists never strain logic—only the characters’ nerves.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in a remote chalet at an exclusive French Alps resort, this tempestuous locked-room mystery from Ware (The Turn of the Key) centers on the 10-person corporate retreat of social media company Snoop. Snoop's shareholders cofounders and ex-lovers Topher St. Clair-Bridges and Eva van den Berg, coder Elliot Cross, comptroller Rik Adeyemi, and former secretary Liz Owens (all millennials) bitterly disagree on whether to sell the business to investors or to seek additional funding and work toward an IPO. The group goes skiing to dispel tension, but then Eva fails to report for lunch. Before chalet employees Erin and Danny can arrange for a search, an avalanche eradicates the exit routes and knocks out power, internet, and phones. After another guest dies, the panicked survivors wonder whether there's a murderer in their midst. Liz and Erin share the narrative, which Ware rapidly cycles to accelerate pace and amplify suspense. A somewhat contrived denouement does little to diminish the thrill of this claustrophobic, adrenaline-fueled cat-and-mouse game. Agatha Christie fans take note.
