In the Dark by Loreth Anne White

 4.5 stars

Honestly, skip the over-hyped One by One by Ruth Ware; if you want to read a taut murder mystery / thriller set in an isolated lodge on a wintry mountain range, In the Dark is hands down the better version of that premise.

I picked up In the Dark pretty soon after finishing One by One, because while it was enjoyable enough, Ruth Ware's latest output barely scratched my itch for intrigue with its simplistic structure and an obvious culprit. Cutting from the same And Then There Were None cloth, In the Dark succeeds by its commitment to actually have a complex puzzle at its core.

**Minor spoiler ahead**

Unlike One by One's levity between tension, In the Dark obsessively soaks itself in melancholy and bleakness — which can be slightly overbearing at times (where is the comic relief when you need one?!); but it ultimately serves the narrative's core message: darkness dwells within all of us, we can all be pushed to violence, but can revenge really alleviate one's pain and trauma?

It is an interesting experience reading In the Dark back to back with One by One, as one can clearly identify what each author has referenced from the source material: Ruth Ware painted a pretty picture, drawing from the mood of Agatha Christie's classic, but laid it on a pretty mediocre thriller, while Loreth Anne White captured the theatrical soul of knocking down characters one by one, with some truly interesting spins on the formula (all Hell breaks loose when the death stops following the nursery rhyme!).

**Minor spoiler ends**

I highly recommend checking out In the Dark, though I can already foresee it won't be for everyone; if you're looking for a breezy thriller, In the Dark's dual timelines and 14+ characters will test your patience. But if you can get pass the first 5 chapters, you'll be greeted with an accelerating ride of survival. trauma, and reckoning.