I shut my eyes, blocking them all out, losing myself in the music.Īnd I am alone, with only one voice left in my head, and I can’t shut it out. As the bus swings around the narrow curve, the ground falls away, and I have a momentary feeling that we’re going to fall-a lurch of vertigo that makes my stomach heave and my head spin. The driver changes gear we are approaching yet another hairpin bend.

The snow gets thicker as we gain height, no longer melting into rain when it hits the window but sticking, sliding along the glass, the windscreen wipers swooshing it aside into rivulets of slush that run horizontally across the passenger window.

Snow is so white on the ground, but when it’s falling, it looks gray against the sky. Outside the window the sky is iron gray, and the snowflakes swirl hypnotically past. The irony of the statement makes me want to laugh, but I don’t. Instead, I let James Blunt drown them out, telling me I’m beautiful, over and over again. It helps to shut out the voices in my head, their voices, pulling me this way and that, pummeling me with their loyalties and their arguments to and fro. I ignore Topher’s hopeful looks and Eva, glancing over her shoulder at me. I keep my earbuds shoved into my ears on the minibus from Geneva Airport. Listening to: James Blunt / You’re Beautiful Even worse, one Snooper hadn’t made it back from the slopes when the avalanche hit.Īs each hour passes without any sign of rescue, panic mounts, the chalet grows colder, and the group dwindles further…one by one. The storm brewing inside the chalet is no match for the one outside, however, and a devastating avalanche leaves the group cut off from all access to the outside world. But as soon as one shareholder upends the agenda by pushing a lucrative but contentious buyout offer, tensions simmer and loyalties are tested. When the cofounder of Snoop, a trendy London-based tech start-up, organizes a weeklong trip for the team in the French Alps, it starts out as a corporate retreat like any other: presentations and strategy sessions broken up by mandatory bonding on the slopes. Unless that company happens to be eight coworkers…each with something to gain, something to lose, and something to hide. Especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a full-service chef and housekeeper, a cozy fire to keep you warm, and others to keep you company. Getting snowed in at a luxurious, rustic ski chalet high in the French Alps doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world. This instant New York Times bestseller and “claustrophobic spine-tingler” ( People) from Ruth Ware follows a group of employees trapped on a snow-covered mountain.

Ruth ware one by one summary