Erin and Danny are used to being "the help" at the private ski chalet they operate in the French Alps.  One pampered group of vacationers is pretty much like every other one with their flashy wealth, entitled attitudes, and ludicrous requests.  The duo notices tension among their newest guests—ten shareholders in a wildly successful social media start-up—almost immediately, but they brush it off as more petty squabbles between the rich and the privileged.  They've seen it all before.  Then a guest goes missing after an outing on the slopes.  The suspicious disappearance casts a disturbing pall over the group, making their inherent, unnerving distrust of each other seem suddenly more sinister than snippy. 

While guests launch a search party for their missing associate, the weather worsens by alarming degrees.  An avalanche is building outside the chalet while, inside, guest after guest is turning up dead.  With dawning horror, Erin and Danny realize that they're trapped in an isolated dwelling, cut off from any hope of rescue, with a cunning killer who wants everyone dead ...

As the title suggests, Ruth Ware's newest locked-room mystery, One By One, pays homage to Agatha Christie's most famous novel.  It's not nearly as clever, though, and the guilty party(ies) in Ware's story is/are fairly obvious from the get-go.  Still, Ware is famous for her edge-of-your-seat thrillers and her latest is no exception.  The plot of One By One drags more than it should and it isn't nearly as twisty as those in the author's other stories, but all in all, it's still pretty darn riveting.  Even though I could see where the tale was going, I still found it impossible to look away.  As with every other Ware book (I've read them all), I ended up devouring this one fast and furious and far into the night, desperate to know what was going to happen next.  Because it's a bit clumsy, a lot depressing, and features characters who aren't exactly likable charmers, One By One is probably my least favorite of Ware's novels.  It did keep me engrossed and entertained, though, so I give it kudos for that.  My enthusiasm for Ware isn't diminished either.  I'm still looking forward to reading whatever she writes next.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of other Ruth Ware novels as well as those by Gilly Macmillan, Paula Hawkins, Lucy Foley, and Mindy Mejia)