Ruth Ware succeeds in Agatha Christie style

Classic mysteries inspire contemporary writers because those older plots are so solid, so intricate, that they provide a foundation for an updating. Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” has inspired countless mysteries by astute writers who start with the premise of gathering a group of people in an isolated area, but make it their own story.

British author Ruth Ware is the latest to take this trope and run with it in her sixth highly entertaining novel “One by One,” fueled by corporate politics, personality quirks and betrayal. This time the isolated setting is a remote chalet at the exclusive French ski resort of St. Antoine, where the social media company Snoop has arranged one of those corporate retreats that are never a good idea in real life and are especially perilous in mysteries.

The tension among the eight Snoop representatives starts immediately when the executives begin to acrimoniously argue. Snoop co-founders and ex-lovers Topher St. ClairBridges and Eva van den Berg, coder Elliot Cross, comptroller Rik Adeyemi and former secretary Liz Owens are all divided on whether to sell the business or find additional investments to work toward an IPO. The characters — all of whom are millennials — hold nothing back as their anger verges toward hatred.

To break the tension — and to try to get some enjoyment out of being in the French Alps — the group goes skiing. But Eva doesn’t return. Before a search party can be organized by the resort’s staff, an avalanche closes all the roads and the power goes out, along with the internet and phones.

Dame Christie would be so proud. Ware elevates the claustrophobic atmosphere of “One by One” with a brisk pace and welltimed suspense — the kind that can make a reader jump when a door slams shut at home.

It’s not giving anything away that four Britons die in a ski resort “tragedy,” as Ware reveals on the first page. The tension is trying to figure out who will die, and if those deaths are tragic accidents or more sinister.

Liz and Erin, one of the resort’s two staffers, alternate the narrative but

Ware makes sure no character gets lost. Brief “about us” profiles from the “Snoop company website” gives a peek at each character.

Each of Ware’s previous mysteries have landed on the New York Times Best Sellers List, and there is every reason to believe “One by One” will continue Ware’s streak.

Oline H. Cogdill can be reached at olinecog@aol.com.

GEMMA DAY PHOTOGRAPHY Ruth Ware’s new mystery is “One By One.”

By Ruth Ware. Scout, 384 pages, $27.99