Getting snowed in at a luxurious, rustic ski chalet high in the French Alps doesn't sound like the worst problem in the world. Especially when there's a breathtaking vista, a full-service chef and housekeeper, a cozy fire to keep you warm, and others to keep you company. Unless that company happens to be eight coworkers...each with something to gain, something to lose, and something to hide.
When the cofounder of Snoop, a trendy London-based tech startup, organizes a weeklong trip for the team in the French Alps, it starts out as a corporate retreat like any other: PowerPoint presentations and strategy sessions broken up by mandatory bonding on the slopes. But as soon as one shareholder upends the agenda by pushing a lucrative but contentious buyout offer, tensions simmer and loyalties are tested. The storm brewing inside the chalet is no match for the one outside, however, and a devastating avalanche leaves the group cut off from all access to the outside world. Even worse, one Snooper hadn't made it back from the slopes when the avalanche hit.
As each hour passes without any sign of rescue, panic mounts, the chalet grows colder, and the group dwindles further...one by one.
Ruth Ware worked as a waitress, a bookseller, a teacher of English as a foreign language, and a press officer before settling down as a full-time writer. She now lives with her family in Sussex, on the south coast of England. She is the #1 New York Times and Globe and Mail (Toronto) bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark Wood; The Woman in Cabin 10; The Lying Game; The Death of Mrs. Westaway; The Turn of the Key; and One by One. Visit her at RuthWare.com or follow her on Twitter @RuthWareWriter.
"[Ware] sets the bar higher in One By One by burying her principal players in an Alpine chalet beneath an avalanche. . . . Readers will recognize the obvious homage to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, but with enough ingenious twists to make this whodunit another triumph for Ware." - The New York Times Book Review
"Not only do Ware's novels wink at Christie in a saucy way, but Ware herself is turning out to be as ingenious and indefatigable as the Queen of Crime." - Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post
"A claustrophobic spine-tingler." - People, "Best Books of Fall 2020"
"Ware manages to make a retreat in a chalet in the wide-open French Alps feel claustrophobic, nerve-wracking and deadly... The author's choice of telling the story in dueling narratives - Liz, a former Snoop employee who was invited to join in the retreat; and Erin, one of the chalet's two staff members - enhances the steadily escalating pace of the book." - USA Today
"Wickedly good... Ware plays fair, bamboozling us with red herrings while expertly pacing her plot." - The Seattle Times
"Especially timely, given that the terror of isolation is at its heart... This is And Then There Were None rendered for the twenty-first century." - Booklist
"In Ruth We Trust.... Come for the Agatha Christie vibes, stay for the insane ending." - theSkimm
"A classic whodunit that solidifies Ware's reputation as the contemporary Agatha Christie... Suspense builds until it culminates in a terrifying game of cat-and-mouse that will keep you racing through the remaining pages." - BuzzFeed
"Engrossing... One of Ware's strengths is propelling the story in a way that keeps readers trapped inside its pages, and armchair travelers can enjoy being whisked away to a location that's both breathtaking and deadly." - Shelf Awareness
"Ruth Ware is often described as the new Agatha Christie . . . [S]he is a revitalizer, bringing the genre to a new audience with her modern preoccupations and addictive style." - Air Mail
"Tempestuous . . . [a] claustrophobic, adrenaline-fueled cat-and-mouse game." - Publishers Weekly
