Review: One by One by Ruth Ware
I received a free ARC of the book in return for an honest review. Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK for the opportunity.
I’ve only read a couple of Ruth Ware books but I can already tell she is shaping up to be mistress of the ‘closed room mystery’: whodunnits with a limited suspect pool trapped with a murderer. A good writer can give you the all the answers you need but distract you so doubt your own suspicions.
This particular murder mystery starts with a vignette of the main personnel involved in an app company called Snoop. We then segue into a newspaper article about an incident at a French chalet in the mountains where four people died, so we know it’s going to be a bloodbath. This sets up the tension nicely.
The ten shareholders and employees of Snoop arrive at an isolated chalet, and after rotating through a number of points of view, we eventually settle to two main viewpoints. Liz is the odd-girl out, a minor shareholder from a poor background, uncomfortable amongst the company founders who are clearly from old-monied families. Erin is the housekeeper with a tragic past and an observant eye for interpersonal drama. An an avalanche cuts the group off from the rest of the world, and very soon the first body is found.
What marks this book out most clearly for me is the building level of claustrophobia. The initial near-death feeling of the avalanche, being trapped in the building, and as the power goes down, the drawing together of the characters into a central area had a powerful impact on me, even without the murders. Let’s be honest, just being cut off from the Internet would be enough to frighten most of us. Sometimes a plot turn was telegraphed, sometimes not, so the interest holds, even as the pool of suspects dwindles.
I had a bit of a problem with so many characters being thrown at me all at once, and I have to admit some characters didn’t make any impression on me. There were some interesting little details though, like the guy who eats all of his food, even the venison, with a spoon. I wondered to myself whether this was a real world portrait slipped into a fictional setting by Ruth Ware. I have always found it best not to get attached to characters in a closed room mystery. It’s a generally a guaranteed way to get your reader’s heart broken but I will admit, I did like Erin and was intrigued by the little snippets of her background.
Did I guess the murderer? I had an inkling and then I second-guessed myself. I would consider that a sign of a successful whodunnit. I can tell you how much this book got to me, though. I unintentionally read it in a single day. Every time I put it down, I found myself unconsciously picking it up and reading a bit more. If you are looking to lose yourself in a good murder mystery yarn, this is one should definitely be on your list.
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