Title: One by One
Author: Ruth Ware
Publisher: Scout Press
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Year of Publication: 2020
Date of Publication: September 8, 2020
Pages: 384
ISBN-10: 1501188817
ISBN-13: 978-1501188817
Summary of One by One by Ruth Ware
One by One is a novel set in a luxurious ski chalet in the French Alps. Employees of a tech startup, Snoop, gather for a corporate retreat, but an avalanche traps them at the chalet. While they are trapped at this ski chalet, members of the team start to disappear while others are killed off.
The story also follows the co-founders Topher and Eva, as they deal with tensions over a potential buyout.
Main Plot & Characters
- Erin: The chalet host at Chalet Perce-Neige. She is one of the narrators.
- Danny: The chalet chef who works with Erin.
- Liz: A former employee and now a minor shareholder in Snoop, the tech company. She is quiet and often underestimated.
- Topher St. Clair-Bridges: The charismatic co-founder and CEO of Snoop.
- Eva van den Berg: The COO of Snoop and Topher’s counterpart, in favor of selling the company.
- Elliot Cross: The head of tech for Snoop, socially awkward but brilliant.
- Miranda: The head of publicity, stylish and confident.
- Ani: The PA and assistant to Topher, very organized and observant.
- Carl: One of the shareholders and a board member, older and more reserved.
- Tiger-Blue Esposito: A young influencer and shareholder, dating Rik.
- Rik: Tiger-Blue’s boyfriend, a bit of an outsider to the group.
- Gordon: The minibus driver who drops them off at the chalet.
Writing Style
Ruth Ware’s writes in a way that readers are able to view multiple perspectives. Throughout the book you are concerned about the people in the ski chalet as you attempt to figure out who the culprit is. At the same time you are also concerned about the Avalanche coming and wiping all of them out.
Ware tells the story in such a way that you feel like you are in the isolated setting that the characters are experiencing.
Memorable Quotes
- “In Topher’s world, people are hard, polished shells, their shiny exteriors hiding the inadequacies and anxieties inside. But Topher made a mistake. He didn’t understand that some people are the other way around. But Eva… I think Eva did understand that. And perhaps it’s what killed her in the end.”
- “It’s not just the snow; it’s a hundredweight of unwelcome memories bearing down on me.”
- “I stop, thinking of Topher and his cushioned, monied existence––the way he has had everything handed to him on a plate, the way he’s never had to scrap for anything, never had to swallow a snub from a boss, or pick up a stranger’s dirty underwear, or do any of the myriad demeaning, boring jobs the rest of us take for granted… They think life can’t touch them—just like I used to do. Only now it has. Now life has them by the throat. And it won’t let go.”
- “And after it did, I found that I couldn’t stand to be there with the people still walking in that perpetual golden sun while I lived in a place that was black with guilt and grief.”
- “Why did I come? Why? But I know the answer. I came because I couldn’t afford not to.”
- “I gaze up at the gray sky through the glass roof above, watching as the snowflakes come spiraling down. The sky is the exact color of Will’s eyes.”
Impact of One by One
The novel will appeal to fans of psychological suspense.
