One by One - Ruth Ware

3/5 ⭐

Possible Spoilers - Read with care

Snowed in on the French Alps, a cozy chalet filled with execs from a social media company, and murder. What started as a intriguing murder mystery said to be inspired by one of the greatest mystery writers, quickly fell down the slopes the author wrote about.

I had heard mixed reviews about Ruth Ware's novels, some said they were great, some said they were left disappointed. I thought it only fair to read one and see for myself. Unfortunately, I felt disappointed.

This one was talked up a lot in it's homage to Agatha Christie's arguably best work 'And Then There Were None' which is why I decided to start with this one. Maybe that was my fault. Maybe I should have started with another one. But this one also sounded the most interesting to me anyways.

It started off strong, introducing the characters and setting. Building the suspense before the first crime took place. But between the flipping back and forth POV and the dragged out story really bogged it down for me.

It felt like whiplash going back and forth between Liz and Erin as the narrators, especially with such short chapters. Plus there were too many named characters. It felt overwhelming and I just gave up trying to keep track of who was who. Plus, there were too many people left alive at the end for this to be anything similar to 'And Then There Were None'.

When it hit the climax I was admittedly swept up in it and even with the final reveal and follow up explanation I was ready to be done with it.

The writing itself wasn't bad, a little bogged down with details every once in a while but otherwise I did enjoy it enough to warrant a review.

9/19/21

*This review was previously posted on my Google Site.

Comments

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