paperback, 384 pages
English language
Published May 3, 2021 by Gallery/Scout Press.
Getting snowed in at a beautiful, rustic mountain chalet doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world, especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a cozy fire, and company to keep you warm. But what happens when that company is eight of your coworkers…and you can’t trust any of them?
When an off-site company retreat meant to promote mindfulness and collaboration goes utterly wrong when an avalanche hits, the corporate food chain becomes irrelevant and survival trumps togetherness. Come Monday morning, how many members short will the team be?
An intriguing locked room mystery but in this case, it's more of a locked chalet mystery. My favourite part about the book is that if you are looking for clues, you can figure out who the murderer is before the big reveal. I appreciate it when the author doesn't pull a rabbit out of their hat at the last minute to confuse everyone.
This was the first book by Ruth Ware I read, and I'll certainly be back for more. The reveal of the killer's identity is delayed as long as possible (there are clues along the way, but none are absolutely conclusive to keep you guessing for a while), and the setting in the isolated chalet in the ice-cold Alps adds a chilling effect in every sense of the word. One thing that bugged me a bit is the lack of unique character voices. The story is told in first person and alternates between the POVs of two characters (the name of the POV character is given at the beginning of each chapter). Both of them are young women, and they sound exactly the same. For example, the author's little linguistic tic of using a double "very" (as in "this is very, very bad" or "the person is very, very dead") pops …
This was the first book by Ruth Ware I read, and I'll certainly be back for more. The reveal of the killer's identity is delayed as long as possible (there are clues along the way, but none are absolutely conclusive to keep you guessing for a while), and the setting in the isolated chalet in the ice-cold Alps adds a chilling effect in every sense of the word. One thing that bugged me a bit is the lack of unique character voices. The story is told in first person and alternates between the POVs of two characters (the name of the POV character is given at the beginning of each chapter). Both of them are young women, and they sound exactly the same. For example, the author's little linguistic tic of using a double "very" (as in "this is very, very bad" or "the person is very, very dead") pops up in the dialog of both characters. If only one spoke like that, it would be a nice way to distinguish that voice from all the others. But since it's used for both POV characters, at some point I had to flip back to the beginning of the chapter to double-check whose POV it currently was. In addition, some distinctive expressions like "mate" and "oi" as well as the usual swear words are used by multiple supporting characters in similar ways, thus making it more difficult to keep track of who's saying what and when and where – which isn't ideal in a murder mystery. This flaw aside, it was a fun read.
4/5
When a work retreat into the mountains goes horribly wrong and people start dying Erin and Liz try to untangle the mysteries in the chalet cut off from the rest of the world.
I really enjoyed the setup of the novel, the small group of young people working for a hip new tech company, each bringing their own secrets. The company leaders who slowly start to show their true colors as things start to go wrong, and the company that is not as pristine and great as it seemed to be. Slowly things start to unravel and I love how the plot progresses with each subsequent tragedy.
There were quite a few characters that I had a bit of a hard time distinguishing between at first but eventually most had a pretty unique personality established. I think the conversations and the way they interacted with each other was also …
4/5
When a work retreat into the mountains goes horribly wrong and people start dying Erin and Liz try to untangle the mysteries in the chalet cut off from the rest of the world.
I really enjoyed the setup of the novel, the small group of young people working for a hip new tech company, each bringing their own secrets. The company leaders who slowly start to show their true colors as things start to go wrong, and the company that is not as pristine and great as it seemed to be. Slowly things start to unravel and I love how the plot progresses with each subsequent tragedy.
There were quite a few characters that I had a bit of a hard time distinguishing between at first but eventually most had a pretty unique personality established. I think the conversations and the way they interacted with each other was also well done to show just how they got along (or not!).
The mystery itself of who was behind everything was solved rationed than expected, but the true motivation didn’t come out until much later on which I thought was cool.
My only real criticism was that there were far too many chapters at the end, after everything was already resolved, that just didn’t add anything. The story could have easily stopped like 5 chapters earlier and it would have been the same result.
Overall it was a good mystery and a fun thriller as you unravel the secrets of the company, the people and the murders.
I borrowed this book from my local library. I saw many posts about it through groups via facebook. I haven't read any of her books, but this one sure was good. I will read more books of hers in the future.
More psychothriller than mystery: the question isn't so much who as why; and, I suppose how, in the sense of, how did they expect to get away with it. It kept me entertained enough on a cold drizzly morning, but I'm unlikely to remember much about it in a month.
The real burning mystery is: why did I read this? Someone recommended it to me, months ago, and I placed it on hold at the library -- but without logging my usual side notes. Whodunnit? And why?
