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One By One
By Ruth Ware
Gallery/Scout Press, 9781501188817, September 2020, 384pp.

The Short of It:

I’ve read many of Ware’s books but this was a total miss for me.

The Rest of It:

Ten obnoxious people from a tech company named Snoop rent a French Chalet for a week. They are on the verge of a large buyout with the potential to make them all very rich. Not everyone is on board with the idea and when people begin to drop dead after an avalanche that keeps them from alerting the authorities, things go south very quickly.

Danny and Erin, the people charged with caring for this group, find themselves fending for their own safety when they realize one of these guests is a murderer. There is some suspense and it’s not immediately clear who the murderer is but this story felt rushed and there is virtually ZERO character development.

With all these people dropping like flies, I could care not one iota for them and that is not a good sign. This story felt very formulaic and the plot resembled three other books I’ve read this year. Not unique. Not riveting. People you don’t care about, except for maybe one person.

Anyway, if you are a Ware fan, just know going in, that this is a different type of book for her. If I had read this book without knowing who wrote it, I would not guess it was Ware, if that tells you anything.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Don’t Look For Me
By Wendy Walker
St. Martin’s Press, 9781250198709, September 15, 2020, 352pp.

The Short of It:

Walker hit it out of the park with this one. It met all my reading wants.

The Rest of It:

Molly Clarke suffered a terrible loss. One that involved her young daughter, killed in an accident right in front of her own home. What’s inconceivable to Molly’s family and even Molly herself, is that she was the one behind the wheel. The one who turned as fast as she could, but not fast enough to avoid her daughter running in front of her car.

The family is left utterly distraught. Molly’s older daughter Nic, remembers the moment like it was yesterday and Molly’s husband can’t even bring himself to look at his wife. An accident, yet one so tragic that the family just cannot move past it.

That’s why when Molly Clarke goes missing one stormy night, only to leave her abandoned car and phone behind, people are quick to call it a “walk away”. She just couldn’t live anymore with all those accusing eyes, reminding her every day of what she did.

Did she really walk away? Or has something happened to her?

Don’t Look for Me is a GREAT read and as I mentioned above, it checked all the boxes for me. A good story. Nice plot twists. Characters you care about. Maybe a tad predictable at one point but a good ride to get there. It kept me guessing in a lot of places and had me stopping to piece things together.

I put household chores aside to read it. I read it during the baseball playoffs. I sat on the couch with it when I wasn’t feeling well and it was just what the doc ordered. These days, you gotta keep your mind busy and off of politics and this wretched pandemic. This book helped me do that.

Highly recommend. I’ve read one other book by Walker, Emma in the Night, which I also enjoyed. If you need to immerse yourself into something other than the news, find yourself a copy.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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