One Perfect Couple - Ruth Ware

Ruth Ware does not disappoint in her newest offering One Perfect Couple and Imogen Church narrates it with perfection. Lyla is frustrated. Her data just isn’t doing what her boss needed it to do in her post doc program - she figures her days in the program are numbered. Her live-in boyfriend Nico desperately wants her to participate with him in a reality program - One Perfect Couple - that he hopes will jumpstart his lagging acting career. What seems madness to her at first quickly becomes an escape for Lyla and she grudgingly agrees to go - with the plan to be sent home within two weeks to finish what she can of her work. After they arrive things go terribly wrong. Nico is sent home instead of Lyla and the rest of the cast is left stranded on the island after a vicious storm. In the spirit of Christie’s And Then There Were None (which I am listening to now…), one by one…people begin to die. What could be going on?

Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, Conor and Zana, and Lyla and Nico - show up to the island for romance and money, but one of them is a murderer. After Nico exits the island surprisingly quickly, a storm changes the game from reality TV to survival. Ruth Ware, as always, offers up red herrings and hints alike, as the plot gains in suspense. Through it all we get a variety of insights into the cast and their motivations (No real innocents here turns out that no one is perfect!). Ware juggles the reveal of the nature of each of these personalities carefully, adding layers beyond the traditional procedural mystery. Ruth Ware is a master of this kind of nuanced writing.

Like in Mary Kay Andrews’ The Homewreckers, it was fun to see the reality of reality TV. Beyond that and the mystery of it all, I enjoyed watching Lyla come into herself. At the beginning of the novel, Lyla is uncertain of her career, her relationship, and her life’s direction generally. On the island, she is faced with one horrific surprise after another and responds with a strength we (and she!) didn’t know she had. She becomes a leader. And while her future is no less certain at the end of the novel, she is more ready to face it head on. I guess staring death in the face will do that for you. I always like to see a woman gain strength. I also appreciated the easter egg - where a Ruth Ware book is mentioned and used in the plot. Ruth Ware is clearly having a little fun which is fun for her readers. Ruth Ware lovers, mystery/thriller lovers, if you haven’t already, get a hold of Ruth Ware’s One perfect couple.