Ruth Ware is the international number one bestselling author of eight psychological crime novels. Her books have appeared on bestseller lists around the world, are published in more than 40 languages, and more than six million copies have been sold.

Her 2015 debut thriller, In a Dark, Dark Wood, about a bachelorette party gone disastrously wrong, was a Book Expo America Buzz Panel Pick, a Richard and Judy Choice, and a Sunday Times and New York Times top ten bestseller. On publication it was described by the Guardian as “mesmerising”, by the Independent as “the hottest crime novel of the year”, shortlisted for the British Book Awards Debut of the Year, and longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. It was optioned for film by New Line Cinema, with Reese Witherspoon attached to produce – Witherspoon said of the novel, “Prepare to be scared… really scared!”

Ware followed this up with the cruise ship murder-mystery The Woman in Cabin 10, which was a New York Times number one bestseller, a Sunday Times bestseller, and a Globe and Mail number one bestseller. The novel went on to spend over a year in the New York Times top ten. It was a Goodreads Choice finalist, won the 2017 Readerlink Rising Star Award, and was described as “brilliantly claustrophobic” by the Sunday Times and “pulse-quickening” by O, the Oprah Magazine. It has been optioned for screen by Netflix.

Her third novel, The Lying Game, about a group of friends coming to grips with a secret from their boarding school past, was an instant New York Times bestseller, and a Reese Witherspoon Bookclub Pick for August 2017. It received a starred Kirkus review, which said “Cancel your plans for the weekend when you sit down with this book, because you won’t want to move until it’s over.” Author Marian Keyes described it as “Atmospheric, mysterious, gripping”. 

The Death of Mrs Westaway was published in 2018 and was an instant bestseller in both the US and UK. The first of Ware’s novels to feature her home town of Brighton, it tells the story of tarot reader Harriet Westaway, who sets out to claim an inheritance to which she is not entitled. Writer Lisa Jewell described it as “an incredible story filled with utterly believable characters and brilliantly told. I absolutely adored it.” The Washington Post wrote, “A classic never goes out of style. Consider the confident simplicity of the dry martini, the Edison lightbulb, and Meghan Markle’s wedding dress. Now add to that list Ruth Ware’s new novel The Death of Mrs Westaway.”

Ware’s fifth novel, The Turn of the Key was published the following year. It went straight in at number one on the Globe and Mail bestseller list and was an instant New York Times bestseller. In the UK it was chosen as Waterstones’ Thriller of the Month. An epistolary novel set in a smart house in the Scottish Highlands, it is told in the form of letters from a young woman to her solicitor, protesting her innocence of the crime for which she is about to be tried. Author Sarah Pinborough described it as “a masterclass in tension” and the Washington Post wrote “Ware pulls out a stunner on the penultimate page that radically alters how we interpret everything that’s come before. Brava Ruth Ware. I daresay even Henry James would be impressed.” In 2023 it was selected by TIME Magazine as one of the hundred best mystery and thriller novels ever written.

Her sixth novel, One by One, came out in 2020. A snowy locked room mystery about a corporate retreat in the French alps that ends in murder, it was described as “simply masterful” by Kirkus and “another triumph” by the New York Times Book Review. Author Erin Kelly said that it “confirms Ruth Ware as the true heir to Agatha Christie’s crown.” It was a top ten bestseller in the US, Canada and across Europe, and was shortlisted for the UK’s CWA Steel Dagger prize in 2021. It has been optioned for a TV series.

Her seventh novel, published in 2022, was the “dark academia” thriller The It Girl. It was described by writer Lisa Jewell as “A heady, tense, slowburn dream of a book, multi-layered and steeped in atmosphere and peril” and by the Sunday Times as “a terrific novel about the corrupting effects of class and privilege”. It was an instant bestseller on lists including the New York Times and Toronto Star, and has been optioned for TV. The novel was shortlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, a finalist for the Silver Falchion Award, and was selected as a Richard and Judy Bookclub pick.

In 2023 she published her most recent novel, Zero Days, about a security expert who goes on the run after being accused of the murder of her husband. Another instant top ten bestseller, it was described by David Baldacci as “a cat and mouse game of deadly intrigue… that will satisfy the biggest thriller addicts out there” and by Red Magazine as “a high octane thriller.” It was the subject of a ten-party bidding war for film and TV rights, eventually being optioned by Universal International Studios.

You can find Ruth Ware on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram as @ruthwarewriter or on ruthware.com