One by One by Ruth Ware

                                               
Hello everyone.  I hope you and your family are doing well.

Do you ski?  It was a big deal where I grew up, the high school even sponsored skiing trips. Of course, many of my classmates went skiing whenever given the opportunity.  Not me though, my mother absolutely refused to let any of her children hurdle down the side of a mountain on two sticks.  I admit, it does look a kind of frightening.  For the record, we were forbidden to ever even so much as touch a snowmobile as well.

I recently read One by One, by Ruth Ware. I've read all of Ruth Ware's books and count several as my all time favorites, especially The Death of Mrs. Westaway which is so atmospheric I swear it physically transports you to the story setting. Of course, I was very anxious to read the latest offering, One by One. This new book is about a software company that goes on a retreat together to a ski chalet in the French Alps. The London based company, of nine employees, is the creator of a very popular application which is currently the recipient of a lucrative buyout offer. As they start to discuss whether to accept the offer, people start dying. Sounds like a lot of books from the past (Shari Lapena, Agatha Christie, etc), with some interesting twists.  Unfortunately, there really aren't enough twists and it isn't that interesting. For example, the group goes skiing and description of each trail goes on for pages. I guess maybe the snowy feeling came through, because the endless babble about the skiing froze my brain. Then when it gets down to the killer, I guessed it at the very beginning. Granted, I read tons of thrillers so I might be able to pick out writers tricks more easily than others, but this was blatant. The parts in between were slow. Don't get me wrong , I read this in two days and found it difficult to put it down. I kept hoping there was going to be some diabolical genius twist in the very last chapter, there wasn't.  Was this book hideous? No, it's Ruth Ware. Will I be first in line to buy her next book. Yes. It just felt like to plot wasn't as strong as her other novels and she struggled to fill up the pages.

Now, as I said when I disliked something of Stephen King's, remember Ruth Ware is a major writer and I'm tasked with figuring out which vegetable to serve with dinner.  Take my opinion with a grain of salt, just don't spill in on the floor!

By the way, after reading this book, I'm think my mom had the right idea about winter sports. Perhaps snowman building is more my speed.