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.

06/15/2020

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. Agent: Eve White, Eve White Literary (U.K.). (Sept.)

PRAISE FOR ONE BY ONE

“[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

“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 (starred review)

“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

“Ware’s gifts for characterization, plot, and pacing shine here... Ware’s fans will devour this in a sitting.”
—Library Journal (starred review)

“Hilarious, well plotted, and vintage Ware, this one is not to be missed.”
—CrimeReads

“Ruth Ware's Hitchcockian thrillers have yet to disappoint.”
—PopSugar

“Ware does what she does best: Gives us a familiar locked-door mystery setup and lets the tension and suspicion marinate until they reach fever pitch. Another win for Ware... Simply masterful.”
—Kirkus

"The Turn of the Key was not her first book, but its sweep of starred reviews and awards sets up One by One to be a most anticipated thriller of 2020.”
—Library Journal

"Read this back to back with Christie’s And Then There Were None, and you will witness the evolution of a literary form over the space of eight decades as Ware proves she’s more than deserving of all those comparisons to the Queen of Crime.”
—BookPage

“A gripping thriller that shows how toxic workplace culture can get and will keep you guessing through the very last page.”
—Good Housekeeping

"Ware has quickly earned herself a place atop the psychological thriller world in recent years, and One by One, which brings in elements of the traditional mystery, is an exciting new addition to her body of work."
—CrimeReads, "Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2020"

PRAISE FOR RUTH WARE

“The Agatha Christie of our generation.”
—David Baldacci, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“A superb suspense writer . . . Brava, Ruth Ware.”
—Fresh Air's Maureen Corrigan for The Washington Post

“Diabolically clever.”
—Riley Sager, author of Final Girls

"Ruth Ware—one of our favorite thriller writers—is bringing down the house . . .”
—theSkimm

“Ruth Ware proves she’s the true heir to Wilkie Collins. Creepy, engrossing, and oh-so-hard to put down."
—JP Delaney, New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Before

"Pure suspense, from the first gripping page to the last shocking twist."
—Erin Kelly, bestselling author of He Said/She Said

“Ware skillfully lays the bread crumbs to the novel’s satisfying conclusion... [that] leaves readers with one final, haunting question, one that will stay with them long after they turn the last page.”
–Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Ware hits another one out of the park. Fans of hers or anyone with a taste for the disturbing will stay up late devouring this."
—Library Journal, starred review

"Ware at her eerie best."
—Newsweek

“A superb suspense writer... Ware is a master at signaling the presence of evil at the most mundane moments...”
—Washington Post Book World

“The definition of ‘unputdownable’...”
—Refinery29

"A great modern whodunit!"
—New York Post

"Haunting and absurdly suspenseful."
—PureWow

"Ware's propulsive prose keeps readers on the hook and refuses to let anyone off until all has been revealed."
—Shelf Awareness

"Imogen Church's extraordinary narration of Ruth Ware's newest suspense novel will keep listeners glued to their earbuds, unable to do anything else but listen wide-eyed and rapt. In an homage to Agatha Christie (AND THEN THERE WERE NONE), Ware has taken the premise of people trapped in an isolated house with an unidentified killer; cleverly adapted the who, where, and what to the 21st century; and pumped up the dread with parallel first-person narratives. Ten employees of a tech start-up meet for a retreat in an alpine chalet with two staff. Tensions abound; then an avalanche isolates the group. Church delivers a myriad of individual voices, offers telling characterizations, and transports listeners into every scene with perfect pacing of the humor, conflicts, and terror. It's witty, cunning, and addictive."

★ 12/01/2020

Ware pays homage to Agatha Christie with her latest, a tense, twisty, elaborate puzzle of a locked-room (or locked-chalet, rather) mystery set at an Alpine resort where a corporate retreat goes terribly wrong. The stakeholders in Snoop, a music-streaming app, have converged on a chalet to ski, eat and drink, and decide whether to accept a purchase offer. One founder wants to hold out and go public, the other wants to sell, and the rest of the votes shake out evenly. The deciding vote will likely come down to Liz, the CEO's dowdy former assistant who was given two shares of the company in exchange for investing a small amount of money early on. After an avalanche strands the group and people start disappearing or dying, the chalet's housekeeper, Erin, tries to suss out what's going on, but she has relevant secrets of her own. Imogen Church has the narrative range of a full cast, ably voicing not just Liz's and Erin'salternating points of view but also the large cast of varied characters. VERDICT Essential listening for fans of Ware, classic mysteries, and modern suspense.—Stephanie Klose, Library Journal

★ 07/01/2020

Ware follows her homage to Henry James (The Turn of the Key) with one to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. A group of stakeholders in a digital startup, Snoop, have converged on a chalet in the Alps to discuss whether to accept a large buyout or wait, with the hopes of going public and making even more money. The deciding vote will be cast by Liz, a former assistant who received two shares in the business in exchange for a small loan early on and who left the company under mysterious circumstances. Chapters shift between the viewpoints of Liz and Erin, the chalet's housekeeper who is concealing her own connection to Snoop's magnetic cofounder. After the other cofounder disappears while skiing a dangerous run that was supposed to be closed, an avalanche strands the group at the chalet with no electricity, phone service, or internet connection. Then more people start dying. Ware's gifts for characterization, plot, and pacing shine here. The tension slowly ratchets up, culminating in a dangerous ski chase in the dark. VERDICT Ware's fans will devour this in a sitting, as will readers who love Lucy Foley's The Hunting Party or locked-room mysteries in general. [See Prepub Alert, 2/24/20.]—Stephanie Klose, Library Journal

Imogen Church’s extraordinary narration of Ruth Ware’s newest suspense novel will keep listeners glued to their earbuds, unable to do anything else but listen wide-eyed and rapt. In an homage to Agatha Christie (AND THEN THERE WERE NONE), Ware has taken the premise of people trapped in an isolated house with an unidentified killer; cleverly adapted the who, where, and what to the 21st century; and pumped up the dread with parallel first-person narratives. Ten employees of a tech start-up meet for a retreat in an alpine chalet with two staff. Tensions abound; then an avalanche isolates the group. Church delivers a myriad of individual voices, offers telling characterizations, and transports listeners into every scene with perfect pacing of the humor, conflicts, and terror. It’s witty, cunning, and addictive. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2020 Best Audiobook, 2021 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

2020-06-17
Our contemporary Agatha Christie offers up her version of And Then There Were None when 11 people are stranded in a ritzy ski chalet and begin dying one by one.

By the numbers, the streaming app Snoop is devastatingly successful, and the company is on the cusp of a major buyout—if the shareholders vote to take this route. The founders, Topher and Eva, are torn, and the other three shareholders are being courted to choose sides. Most of the pressure falls on Liz, an awkward outlier when compared with the glamorous, beautiful people who head up the company. Though she doesn't work directly for Snoop anymore, Liz is included in the leadership retreat: It's her and eight other board members at a lush, remote French ski chalet for a little powder, a little pampering, and a little back-channel business. Erin and Danny, the caretakers of the chalet, notice tension among the members of the Snoop group from the beginning, but overall it seems like just another wealthy, entitled corporate gathering. The weather on top of the mountain grows increasingly dangerous, and when nine people go out to ski and only eight return, fear and suspicion begin to grow. Then there's an avalanche, and the chalet is cut off from contact with the outside world. Soon, another group member dies, apparently poisoned, and then another is murdered because of something she saw. The survivors must split up to search for help before there's no one left. Alternating chapters between Liz's and Erin’s points of view, Ware does what she does best: Gives us a familiar locked-door mystery setup and lets the tension and suspicion marinate until they reach fever pitch. Another win for Ware and her adaptations of classic mystery traditions.

The solution is maddeningly simple but the construction, simply masterful.