One by One

 

Author: Ruth Ware

Genre: Mystery

Original publication date: September 8, 2020

Book description: 

Getting snowed in at a beautiful, rustic mountain chalet doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world, especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a cozy fire, and company to keep you warm. But what happens when that company is eight of your coworkers…and you can’t trust any of them?

When an off-site company retreat meant to promote mindfulness and collaboration goes utterly wrong when an avalanche hits, the corporate food chain becomes irrelevant and survival trumps togetherness. Come Monday morning, how many members short will the team be?

Thoughts:

This is a very Aghata Christie book. It is not only that I have been reading a lot of her books lately no, but this book also has the same vibe and style as her stories. There is a group of people, they're coworkers but they have more division and dislike towards each other than most companies.

We follow each person but we only get snippets of who they are. It is mostly focused on one of the people there, the most insignificant woman there can be, Liz. She was invited because she has to be there as she has a small share of the company, yet everyone forgot about her to the point that she had no lodging assigned and the manager of the cabin was not aware that an extra person was expected. Talk about being the most overlooked person ever. 

It starts by introducing everyone in the cabin the first day they arrive, it was a bit hard to keep track of their names for some reason. There were five shareholders, five company employees, and two chalet employees. Erin is the one in charge of dealing with the guests while Danny with his attitude problem is the chalet's cook.

The division is clear of the partners (shareholders whatever you want to call them) the are two teams of 2 and a person, this nobody that everyone ignored is the tiebreaker. 

This company is in charge of Snoop a social media app that allows you to follow people and it informs you of what they are listening to. It really is a very underwhelming app to be honest. I wouldn't use it but oh well, that's not the point. The app itself had a shaky start but now it is in the last breath. One of the main shareholders wants to sell the app while it is still profitable to sell. The other one wants to keep it at all costs. He believes they can make an upgrade that will bring it back to the top and they could make much more by the continuation of running it. 

It is told mainly from the perspective of Erin and Liz. Very early on, you know there are things they're both hiding. It gives the story something to look forward to. 

One of the members of the party gets killed. Of course, they think it's an accident, but it just so happens to start a blizzard and they get trapped there. The rest of the people there start talking and trying to piece together what they know and what could have happened to their unfortunate coworker. She was a great skier and due to the storm the steep more dangerous slope was closed off, so how was it possible for her to have gone that way when it was clearly marked as not accessible. 

What comes next is the typical story. As soon as they start to piece together it was not an accident and try to find suspects, people start to die. They are still trapped in the mountain chalet and as the blizzard is going on, the rescue teams will be busy. They have no wifi or phone service and trying to make it down the mountain on foot is unwise, to say the least. 

You know what comes next, everyone blaming each other coming up with reasons for everyone could have. It seems like everyone could have a motive. We get a few revelations of Erin's and Liz's pasts that do not add to the suspicion of them being the murders but it explains their fears of being discovered. It adds drama to the story as people get offended because someone they barely know does not feel the need to lay their whole life's story for them to judge. It is kind of understandable everyone is very stressed and they don't react the most logically.

This is an ok story, you read it enjoy it while it lasts, and move on. This is one that I will probably not reread again. It was entertaining but nothing to rave about.

Recommend this to people who enjoy Agatha Christie or for those who don't read many mystery/thrillers. The first few times you see something is always much more impactful. If you are already an avid mystery/thriller reader, you might not enjoy this very typical who-done-it story as much.