2.5 stars This had an interesting premise. Unfortunately, the “whodunnit” was blatantly obvious, despite the actual plot being utterly ridiculous. For someone wanting a quick, gory read…this will keep you turning the pages. For anything deeper….look elsewhere.

One of my biggest regrets as a horror reader is that I waited so long to give Darcy Coates a chance. This is only the second book I’ve read by them, but I fully intend on making my way through their entire back catalog at some point.

If you need a break from the summer hear, like I really did, then this chiller is is perfect for you. Coates’ world building is always great, giving room for the characters to live and breathe, and the slow sense of creeping dread she infuses through the whole thing is second to none.

Also, selfishly as a 911 dispatcher, I loved that one of the core characters in the book is also a dispatcher. I wish she’d been a better one 🤣 but I can’t be too upset about it since it’s sort of a plot point. Mostly it was just cool to see, since dispatch isn’t a job that comes up often in books. Or anywhere.

* Thank you Netgalley for giving me a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m always so excited to read a Darcy Coates book! 😀 Her Newest book, Dead of Winter will not disappoint! There are twists! There are turns! There are so many red herrings, your head will spin!

I love the plot. The vibe reminds me of the very first Friday the 13th, you know, pre-Jason….. if you know, you know. 😉 Dead of Winter is a bitter tale of slasher killing spree. The story does an amazing job of keeping you on your toes and keeps you guessing the whole time. Lots of lovely twists, false turns, dead ends, second guessing, misdirects, red herrings all slowly oozing suspense. 😀

The suspense mostly comes down to the characters. A large group of people. One is a killer. Seriously, the suspense has such a creeping pace you feel the dread building like an avalanche in your chest every time the main character has to do something with another character. Is he the killer? Or is she the killer? Or what about him?? I legit thought every single character in Dead of Winter was the killer at one point or another!

Another thing about these characters… I actually felt BAD when they got killed. What the WHAT?? 😮 That never happens to me!! But Darcy has a way of making me care, even for the most unlikable people in the group (Looking at you Blake!!). I don’t know how Darcy does it. Her characters get me every time!

*Important* Don’t go into Dead of Winter thinking it will be a Darcy ghost / haunting / monster book. This is straight up slasher horror. Now, slasher is not my personal fave sub category of horror, but I really enjoyed what Darcy did here. I love her ghost stories the best, but it is so cool watching her KILL IT with other horror themes! ❤

Dead of Winter is an absorbing tale of suspense. It isn’t super creepy or scary, but the thrills and chills will leave you with a shivering chill from your head to your toes. By the end of the book, I was WAY down that rabbit hole trying to gather clues and figure out who the killer was! I was up to my eyeballs in guesses. So many twists, I didn’t know what to expect any more by the time the ending was revealed.

This is a chilling slasher tale. Dead of Winter is a book you don’t want to overlook. The way the tension slowly builds is a chief’s kiss to thriller. Even though slasher is not my fave type of horror, I was hooked on the plot and on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen next. This was another hit out of the ball park for Darcy!

This is a DNF for me, but it is totally my fault. I was expecting more cozy Agatha Christie vibes, and it was more Steven King horror/thriller. Just not my jam.

The story is set in the Rocky Mountains, where we follow Christa a young woman with a dark-ish past. Christa is on a romantic journey with her boyfriend Kiernan, who she thinks might be proposing to her. However, the journey takes a turn when the bus carrying her, Kiernan, and several other passengers get blocked by a fallen tree from the intense went weather. Things go south from there for Christa and the fellow passengers.

This thriller gave me a ton of And Then There Were None vibes, except the stakes were far more gruesome. This story made me feel cold, unsafe, and unsure of what would happen next to our main character. Darcy Coates really nailed making the reader feel the isolated, scared, and cold. Even towards the end of the story I was unsure of how it would end, who did what, etc. I really loved how Darcy Coates blended the mystery/thriller genre with horror. I am excited to pick up more from this author!

This was an good read. The writing was good. I felt that I was right there experiencing the cold weather. I would have like to have rated it higher. Unfortunately, I didn't like any of the characters and didn't really cared what happened to them. I figured out who the killer was half way through the book. However, it didn't have any affect on my judgment. It did drag on in the middle and I had to force myself to finish. It wasn't a bad read. It was exciting, especially the last third of the book.

#DARCY COATES. #DEADOFWINTER. #NETGALLEY

I picked this book up for the sole reason that the main character's name was Christa. After reading this, however, I'll be back for more by Darcy Coates! This was an excellently executed locked room mystery in that the amount of suspense was even throughout the whole book except for the whirlwind of an ending which I didn't predict. While it had an array of characters, the story was told from Crista's perspective, so it wasn't completely confusing to keep track of all of them.

When a private tour bus breaks down on the way to a remote resort, the group of strangers aboard must band together to survive until help arrives. They find a small cabin to stay in until the snow storm is over, but when the tour guide goes missing and is later found dead, the strangers realize that they can't trust one another.

Gruesome, Chilling, and Suspenseful, this was an excellent locked room mystery.

A huge thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC to review.

I usually enjoy Darcy Coates’ books and this was no exception. I actually preferred this to her usual paranormal-leaning stories. Though I had the story pegged from the beginning, it was still a fun, quick read!

This review was also posted on Goodreads.

This book reminded me a lot of One by One and Daisy Darker - a group of people caught in a deadly snow storm start getting picked off one by one. They must try to survive the storm while one of them is a killer.

It is a very claustrophobic read- high tension, untrustworthy characters, brutal violence. The twists towards the end were insane. The slow burn leading up to the finale made the pacing a little slower for a thriller but was standard for Darcy books.

I truly felt the paranoia of the characters and didn’t know who to trust. If you enjoy the typical “people stuck in a snowstorm start dying” trope you will love this one.

The last 15% was absolutely wild.

Well it was interesting reading a book set in a blizzard on a sweltering hot beach.

This book is a similar to a locked room scenario. Most of this story takes place in a remote cabin with no phone service. The story started to wear on me a bit as it became a bit redundant but as what ties all the characters together comes to light it picks up again. The ending was a bit predictable but it was still a good mystery read. The deaths were a bit gruesome and graphic but it also kept you on your toes.

I’m not typically a fan of the horror genre, but this synopsis intrigued me, and I knew I would enjoy the ride. The author sucks you in from the very first chapter! If you’re looking for an edge of your seat, suspenseful ride full of twists, than this is the perfect book. Setting, plot, and characters were all on point.

I don’t think I’ve been this anxious reading a thriller in a while. The pacing in Dead of Winter was unreal — the action and tension never let up. 

Our heroine Christa and her boyfriend are on a bus up to a remote lodge for a vacation.  The group takes shelter in a small cabin and start dying horribly, one by one…

I’m a sucker for an isolated location, survival-based thriller and this one didn’t disappoint.  I really felt the cold and the murders were appropriately horrifying.  Dead of Winter plays with the line between thriller and horror.

The characters are a bit shallow, but for this kind of thriller that’s fine.  Coates gives the reader enough on each character to speculate about their motives and who might be the killer, and I cared about them enough to feel it when my favourites were in trouble.

Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for my review copy of this book.

I loved this book! I have no idea how Darcy managed to create such a nail-biter out of literal thin air but she did it! Dead of Winter was a wild ride but sadly I can't say too much for fear of spoiling things. I was sucked right into the story and at every little twist, I felt even more off-balance. Let's just say I'll be adding a few items to my travel pack the next time I travel anywhere in the winter!

Gripping and tense read. Didn't want to put down. Moved at a great pace and held my attention. Large group of characters with great backstories. Great read

“𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒑 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒏. 𝑻𝒐 𝒉𝒖𝒏𝒕 𝒖𝒔. 𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒍 𝒘𝒆’𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒅.”

When I first heard of this book, I KNEW it would be up my alley: a locked room mystery in the middle of a storm with someone picking off a group of strangers one by one.

Darcy Coates grips you right away with an intense opening chapter, as Kiernan and Christa fight for their lives in a giant snowstorm. There is so much tension that only builds throughout the story. When I realized most of the story wasn’t going to be about Kiernan and Christa’s fight for survival in the storm, but rather the fight for survival in a remote cabin, I was most definitely hooked. The never ending storm and remote location increase the feeling of claustrophobia and as the murders start happening, that only intensifies. The cabin and surrounding landscape make for the perfect unforgiving tomb. The murderer is referred to as “the butcher” and there are some grisly descriptions in places - it reads like a horror novel. Everyone is suspicious and no one is immune to having a motive for being the butcher. I loved the reveal of how these seemingly unrelated characters are connected, and Christa throughout the novel feels like a classic final girl that you want to root for. Although I guessed “whodunnit” partway through, there were so many red herrings that I began to doubt myself many times. The final reveal was satisfying and my only complaint is the ending felt rushed and a bit unfinished - I needed one final chapter to wrap a few more things up.

Dead of Winter is a story of survival, grief, vulnerability, and fear. Whether it be in the middle of summer or winter, fans of horror vibes and locked room mysteries should pick it up. It would make an incredible movie too. Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

I love Darcy Coates. I've read most of her books, and to be honest, she's amazing for putting her work on Kindle Unlimited and Netgalley. The last book I read by her, Where he can't find you, was technically a YA but WOW was it brutal. But this book just wasn't it. I was let down by the ending. I think that I'm in the minority there because it's getting great reviews, but I saw the ending coming from a mile away, and I don't usually. I don't even try to guess because I WANT to be surprised. Also, it was so difficult to keep 8 people separate and remember who was who, and it felt very repetitive at times, with red herrings that didn't make a lot of sense. Everything did end up wrapped up, though, which is always nice, but I was let down by this one.

Dead of Night by Darcey Coates was awesome. I loved the switch from horror to thriller in this newest book. She handles thrillers just as well and this was heart stopping at times. Great flow.

DEAD OF WINTER is my first read by Darcy Coates and I will certainly be checking out more of her books!

𝐌𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:
-atmospheric winter setting
-not for the feint of heart. if you don’t like gory this book isn’t for you
-a lot of characters to keep track of
-too long. end became very suspenseful but middle dragged
-left me with some unanswered questions

While DEAD OF WINTER was suspenseful (more so towards the end) I didn’t find myself dying to pick it up, but I was intrigued enough to want to finish it. Although I was stumped on who the killer could be the ending left me unsatisfied 🤷🏼‍♀️

Thank you Poised Pen Press and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review!

Members of a retreat gone wrong are targeted one by one. By who? Unlikely to be one of my 2023 faves, but points for being fast paced, and for the blizzard setting which I loved. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Christa joins a tour group in the Rocky Mountain wilderness. A freak snow storm cuts them off from civilization and leaves them stranded. Things are bad enough until members of the tour group are being murdered one by one.

This one was definitely a disappointment for me. There was very little character development and the story went in circles before an unsatisfying conclusion.