By PW Staff | In a year like no other, PW's reviews editors kept up their usual industriousness and published thousands of book reviews. These are the most popular of those, for books published in 2020. Ruth Ware. Scout, $27.99 (384p) ISBN 978-1-5011-8881-7 Set in a remote chalet at an exclusive French Alps resort, this tempestuous locked-room mystery from Ware ( The Turn of the Key) centers on the 10-person corporate retreat of social media company Snoop. Snoopâs shareholdersâcofounders and ex-lovers Topher St. Clair-Bridges and Eva van den Berg, coder Elliot Cross, comptroller Rik Adeyemi, and former secretary Liz Owens (all millennials)âbitterly disagree on whether to sell the business to investors or to seek additional funding and work toward an IPO. The group goes skiing to dispel tension, but then Eva fails to report for lunch. Before chalet employees Erin and Danny can arrange for a search, an avalanche eradicates the exit routes and knocks out power, internet, and phones. After another guest dies, the panicked survivors wonder whether thereâs a murderer in their midst. Liz and Erin share the narrative, which Ware rapidly cycles to accelerate pace and amplify suspense. A somewhat contrived denouement does little to diminish the thrill of this claustrophobic, adrenaline-fueled cat-and-mouse game. Agatha Christie fans take note.