One by One by Ruth Ware

 

Title:  One by One

Author: Ruth Ware

Read by:  Imogen Church

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 13 hours and 8 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.  Thank-you!

One by One was an excellent thriller that worked quite well as an audiobook.  Tech start-up Snoop is having a company retreat in a remote chalet in the French Alps.  The group has a hard decision to make about potentially taking a large offer to sell the company, which will greatly profit each of the shareholders in the company.  After an avalanche, the group is stuck in the chalet and suddenly people are dying one by one.  Who is the killer and why are they killing? 

Imogen Church is an excellent narrator, and this story really played out well as an audiobook. Especially as the climax of the novel came to a head, I just couldn’t stop listening to this book!  The book alternates the story between two narrators.  One works at the Chalet and the other is a shareholder at Snoop.  This allows perspective from both inside and outside of the Snoop group. I liked the two workers at the chalet, Erin, and Danny.  The other characters were pretty unlikeable, but I really liked those two.  The killer became very apparent well before the end of the book, but the book allowed time to understand why the killer did what they did and the aftermath. 

Favorite Quotes:

“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 are arrogant, that's what I realize--maybe not Liz and Carl quite so much, but all of them to some degree. They are protected by the magic of their shares and their status and their IP. They think that 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.”

Overall, One by One was a good thriller and audiobook.  It’s the perfect type of book for this time of year.