The opening pages begin the story with snapshots of the Board members of the Snoop company, followed by a BBC press release about the tragedy in an exclusive ski resort that has killed 4 Britons.

There is one person not listed on the Board, Liz, who was also at the Alpine ski resort when the avalanche that began it all struck. Liz had not wanted to attend this "retreat" but she is an essential person as she holds the casting vote about the future of the company.

The book combines the best qualities of thriller and page-turner, and the author at her best.

Highly recommended. ( )

Quick, fun read with lots of twists and perfect reading for the holiday season. ( )

Another winner by Ruth Ware! ( )

Danny and Erin run the chateau in Saint Antoine, France. A corporate group has rented the chateau for meetings and a skiing vacation. The group of ten after skiing is missing one person. An avalanche soon follows and the snow keeps coming down. Those left are trapped in the chateau. Soon the electricity fails and suddenly other members of the group either disappear or are murdered. Everyone is a suspect. Reminiscent of the book And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, this is a face paced thriller set in the French Alps. ( )

Well written thriller with superb, pacy plot that elaborates a theme originally introduced by Agatha Christie – an isolated group of which each member is taken off, one by one. The group concerns the young members of an extremely successful start-up company, who have booked an expensive isolated ski resort in the French Alps to take a collective decision about the sale of their app that will make the original four founders and their first PA secretary instant multi-millionaires.

We hear the story in the first person from two POVs, one concerns Erin one of the two staff members running the resort, who carries a severe avalanche trauma inside herself. The other POV is provided by Liz, the wall flower former PA, who resigned years ago, after an awkward incident that nobody except Eva, one of the original four founders, knows about. Liz holds 2% of the original shares, a reward for helping out the start-up with a loan at a key moment (when she received a heritage from her late granny when the company almost went bust). The app is a music app that allows you to snoop, real-time, on the music listened to by friends, and famous celebrities (this is standard spotify fare..). The votes over sale or re-financed pull-thru of the music app break even, with Topher and his childhood nerd friend Elliot owning 49% of the vote against sale on the promise of a successful new expansion through a new facility added to the app (location data). On the other hand there are Eva, the ex gf of Topher, and Rik, the playboy, who own the other 49% of the vote in favour of selling out. Liz is caught in between and will determine the outcome, but she is torn between the two outcomes. If voting for the sale, she will end up a millionaire with 12 million pounds to her name. Seems a no brainer, but there is something that with holds Liz from this obvious choice for instant wealth.

When the group arrives it has been snowing non-stop. On the morning of the first day, the whole group goes skying after a brief presentation on the dire financial straits faced by the company. Then Eva goes missing and next an avalanche hits, cutting off electricity, wifi and contact with the outside world. And then the ‘games’ begin. One after another gets killed or goes missing. First Elliot, after seemingly having discovered a disconcerting fact thru the new location functionality of the snoop app. Elliot is found slumped on his desk, computer destroyed, poisoned by a cup of coffee. Next up is Ani, suffocated in her own bed, while the management key to all rooms has gone missing. Ani also indicated she knew something… Inigo, Eva’s PA, feels guilty about having mentioned the name of the wrong resort when he had last contact with French emergency services. He is eaten by this guilt and leaves the snowed-in chalet. After two days, it is decided that the group should split up and go out looking for help. That leaves Liz and Erin alone in the chalet. Next some small revelations come to both Erin and Liz and the two grow distrustful of each other. In the final scenes, Erin comes to the conclusion that Liz is the killer and she escapes on skis. Liz tries to hunt her down. It ends badly for her. ( )