Review by Booklist Review
Ware follows her acclaimed The Turn of the Key (2019) with another fine crime novel in the classic tradition. This one is especially timely, given that the terror of isolation is at its heart. The eight shareholding employees of a breakout tech start-up are attending a corporate retreat in a luxurious chalet high up in the French Alps. They are not truly alone, but they are trapped with their coworkers and not sure they can trust one another. Investors are anxious to buy into the start-up, but only half of the employees want to sell. Most significantly, they are cut off from the rest of the world because an avalanche has trapped them inside the chalet, and they have no ability to contact the outside world. The irony is rich. These are people more skilled at online expression than interpersonal communication. How many of them will still be alive by the time the rescue team arrives? Will their two "hosts" manage to feed them and keep them warm--and keep them from killing each other? And then one of them turns out to be not who she says she is. This is And Then There Were None rendered for the twenty-first century, and David Baldacci is spot-on in calling Ware "The Agatha Christie of our generation."HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Ware is one of the hottest traditional-mystery writers at the moment, and her sure-to-be-heavily-marketed latest will only turn up the heat.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Set in a remote chalet at an exclusive French Alps resort, this tempestuous locked-room mystery from Ware (The Turn of the Key) centers on the 10-person corporate retreat of social media company Snoop. Snoop's shareholders--cofounders and ex-lovers Topher St. Clair-Bridges and Eva van den Berg, coder Elliot Cross, comptroller Rik Adeyemi, and former secretary Liz Owens (all millennials)--bitterly disagree on whether to sell the business to investors or to seek additional funding and work toward an IPO. The group goes skiing to dispel tension, but then Eva fails to report for lunch. Before chalet employees Erin and Danny can arrange for a search, an avalanche eradicates the exit routes and knocks out power, internet, and phones. After another guest dies, the panicked survivors wonder whether there's a murderer in their midst. Liz and Erin share the narrative, which Ware rapidly cycles to accelerate pace and amplify suspense. A somewhat contrived denouement does little to diminish the thrill of this claustrophobic, adrenaline-fueled cat-and-mouse game. Agatha Christie fans take note. Agent: Eve White, Eve White Literary (U.K.). (Sept.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Ware pays homage to Agatha Christie with her latest, a tense, twisty, elaborate puzzle of a locked-room (or locked-chalet, rather) mystery set at an Alpine resort where a corporate retreat goes terribly wrong. The stakeholders in Snoop, a music-streaming app, have converged on a chalet to ski, eat and drink, and decide whether to accept a purchase offer. One founder wants to hold out and go public, the other wants to sell, and the rest of the votes shake out evenly. The deciding vote will likely come down to Liz, the CEO's dowdy former assistant who was given two shares of the company in exchange for investing a small amount of money early on. After an avalanche strands the group and people start disappearing or dying, the chalet's housekeeper, Erin, tries to suss out what's going on, but she has relevant secrets of her own. Imogen Church has the narrative range of a full cast, ably voicing not just Liz's and Erin'salternating points of view but also the large cast of varied characters. VERDICT Essential listening for fans of Ware, classic mysteries, and modern suspense.--Stephanie Klose, Library Journal
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Our contemporary Agatha Christie offers up her version of And Then There Were None when 11 people are stranded in a ritzy ski chalet and begin dying one by one. By the numbers, the streaming app Snoop is devastatingly successful, and the company is on the cusp of a major buyout--if the shareholders vote to take this route. The founders, Topher and Eva, are torn, and the other three shareholders are being courted to choose sides. Most of the pressure falls on Liz, an awkward outlier when compared with the glamorous, beautiful people who head up the company. Though she doesn't work directly for Snoop anymore, Liz is included in the leadership retreat: It's her and eight other board members at a lush, remote French ski chalet for a little powder, a little pampering, and a little back-channel business. Erin and Danny, the caretakers of the chalet, notice tension among the members of the Snoop group from the beginning, but overall it seems like just another wealthy, entitled corporate gathering. The weather on top of the mountain grows increasingly dangerous, and when nine people go out to ski and only eight return, fear and suspicion begin to grow. Then there's an avalanche, and the chalet is cut off from contact with the outside world. Soon, another group member dies, apparently poisoned, and then another is murdered because of something she saw. The survivors must split up to search for help before there's no one left. Alternating chapters between Liz's and Erin's points of view, Ware does what she does best: Gives us a familiar locked-door mystery setup and lets the tension and suspicion marinate until they reach fever pitch. Another win for Ware and her adaptations of classic mystery traditions. The solution is maddeningly simple but the construction, simply masterful. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
