Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing a free ARC in exchange for my review.

I've read several books by this author, and overall, they are hit or miss for me. Some I've really loved, but some I just didn't care for. Sadly, this one is the latter. This is a locked room mystery, which I typically enjoy, if they are done well. This one wasn't poorly done, but I couldn't connect to any of the characters, and it helps to like at least one character to really turn a book into a page turner for me. Also with this book, the gore. It was a bit too much.

I will read others from this author, for sure, but I'm not sure who I could recommend this title to. 2 stars for 'it was ok'

I have a weak spot for thrillers with a remote setting and a locked room vibe, and Dead Of Winter seemed to be promising both. I loved the sound of the remote Rocky Mountains setting and the unforgiving winter snowstorm, and the fact that the blurb gave me And Then There Were None vibes only made me want to read this story more. And WHAT a read it turned out to be! This is the first time I read a Darcy Coates book, but I was instantly hooked and I cannot wait to discover more of a her work. Dark, twisted, well crafted and simply glorious!

If you enjoy thrillers with a remote setting, you are definitely in for a treat with Dead Of Winter. The Rocky Mountains setting makes for the perfect backdrop for this story, and especially when you take into account the winter snowstorm and harsh conditions. Add an abandoned hunting cabin and a group of strangers forced together into a small space while they wait out the storm, and you have the perfect recipe for a thrilling read... Especially when you take in account that one of them is a murderer.

This story seems to be an ode to And Then There Were None, and I mean this in the best possible way. I loved the classic, and I loved this take on the story. The fact that you have a group of strangers who are all suspicious makes you want to analyze every little thing that happens in the plot. This need only becomes more pressing once bodies start piling up... The way the author is able to turn characters into prime suspects only to drop another plot twist bomb on you is brilliant; I did have my suspicions, but I can't deny those twists are very well put together.

I want to keep this review short, because this is one of those stories where it's best to go in blind to experience the full impact of the plot twists and everything that is going on. What I can say is that Dead Of Winter without a doubt tips its toe in the horror genre, and the murders are pretty gruesome. Definitely not a story for those with a weak stomach! But if you like your thrillers on the dark and twisted side, you will be in for a real treat. The suspense and tension are through the roof, and combined with a fast pace and the constant presence of danger it will be VERY hard to stop reading. Unputdownable indeed!

While it's true that this type of premise has been done before, there are two ways of doing it and Dead Of Winter is a prime example of doing it well. The plot is expertly crafted and between the ominous vibe, harsh environment and constant danger, you are in for a twisted and exhilarating ride. Things get dark and disturbing long before you reach that final page, so make sure to brace yourself!

A CHILLING 🥶 locked room mystery with a sprinkle of horror, “Dead of Winter” by Darcy Coates is a frenzy of gruesome events that take place in the mountains! The body count drops as fast the freezing temperatures outdoors ❄️ 🌬️

BOOK REVIEW: 🖤🖤🖤🖤/5

Eight strangers join a tour group that will take them to the Rocky Mountains in the dead of winter. When a sinister snow storm drives a wedge into their travel plans, the group retreats to an isolated cabin in the woods for refuge. The group thinks that safety in numbers is the way to survive until they are rescued … Until the tour guide ends up murdered ☠️

Is the killer within the four walls of the cabin? Or are they being HUNTED by someone else? This book is BONE CHILLING, gory, atmospheric and downright CREEPY! What a great ICY read to beat the current heat and humidity here in Ontario!

“We lurch forward, struggling through the snow. More bodies join our race. We fight our way through the empty land, following our steps back through the snow. The scream chokes out into something lower, harsher. My lungs ache. My muscles hurt. Running through the snow is like trying to run in a nightmare, where every movement is slow, sluggish’”

Thank you kindly to @darcybooks @poisonedpenpress @netgalley for my advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review! This book releases on July 11, 2023!

I am a huge Darcy Coates fan, but this one unfortunately fell a little short. I absolutely loved the first half of the book, but I did know, from the beginning, who the murderer was. Towards the back half of the book, the obviousness of who the killer was became almost distracting from the rest of the book because I was just waiting for it to be revealed and kind of hoping there would be another twist to make up for how obvious the main twist was. The ending also got a bit repetitive in the nature of the deaths.

There was one surprise, which came with the explanation of why the killer was doing what they were doing, but I feel like it was almost glossed over too quickly. I wanted more shock and explanation than it just being explained a thing existing. So I think that being brought up earlier and explained more, would have made the plot a little more tense and paranoid-inducing.

I just wanted a bit of a better twist than what was written, but I still really really enjoyed the first half and as always I love her writing style.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

**Full review in a video to come**

One of the best books I've read this year!
I was so excited to receive an arc from Darcy Coates!
This fast paced thriller kept me on the edge of my seat and did not disappoint.
I loved the entire story!

I know that Darcy Coates is the queen of horror but she's working on becoming the queen of thrillers too.

Christa is still struggling with a tragedy. But her new boyfriend is helping her every day work towards finding peace and when he suggests they take a trip to a resort in the mountains she agrees. On a bus to the resort with 8 other strangers a severe snow storm hits the Rocky Mountains and they're forced to take shelter in a cabin. In an already uncomfortable situation cramped in a tiny cabin with strangers in an intense snow storm things soon turn into a nightmare. When the group wakes up from their first morning in the cabin they find their tour guides head has been cut off and put on display in a tree. With each day another member of the group is found decapitated and Christa finds herself not trusting anyone. Someone in this group is a brutal killer. Isolated in this remote cabin there's no where to go and everyone in the cabin is a suspect.

Darcy always does an amazing job at setting the scene and making an amazing (and stressful) atmosphere. Though it was 90 degrees (Fahrenheit) in my area I was reading with a warm cup of tea and a blanket because I was so engrossed in the weather conditions I was reading about. Not only was the terrain and weather scary but you throw a claustrophobic cabin with strangers in there and it's even more terrifying (as that sounds like a nightmare in itself to me). And then the cherry on top there's someone murdering people.

Darcy didn't let anything fall through the cracks. From the setting to the characters I could feel the tension and Christa was such a sympathetic and strong FMC. While I called who the killer was pretty early on that didn't stop me from second guessing myself with each page. There was just enough clues that when the killer was revealed I wasn't surprised but it definitely was not obvious. And the motives and behind the scenes are revealed as in any great thriller.

I both loved and hated the end. I won't elaborate on that to not spoil anything but IYKYK. I highly recommend this!

DNF@ 26%
I think this would be better as a low-budget movie. I don't care about the characters and the plot has been done too many times.

4.25 ⭐️
Wow. This was so good! The author did a good job with describing everything to make me feel like I could truly imagine the scenery as if I was there. It was great to keep suspecting everyone and not knowing who the killer was. I had suspicions early in the book and I did end up being right in the end but I was back and forth thinking maybe it could’ve been this person or this one. Overall excellent edge of your seat thriller.

4.5 chilling stars ❄️❄️

While this started a bit slow for me (too much description about the weather and how challenging it was to move in...I get it, it was a bad snow storm!) it quickly became a compulsive read. Compulsive because it got pretty gory but I NEEDED to know how this would end, even as my stomach churned.

Locked door, whodunnit mystery/thriller set in a snowy deserted cabin in the Rocky Mountains where the weather became another variable (and often foe,) as the guests were picked off one by one. I gotta admit, this gave me slight Clue vibes as they made their introductions and tried to figure out the murder weapon and identity of the murderer as the story progressed. I was pretty sure I knew who the ultimate killer was but the author does a good job with misdirection and instilling distrust amongst the characters. I found the motive slightly reaching in the end but you obviously can't reason with crazy, lol. Enjoyed it, even with the level of gore entailed. Would read this author again!

This insanely fast paced thriller was breathtaking in its intensity, ratcheting up the tension page by page and never looking back.

Christa and her boyfriend are on a trip to a Lodge in the Rocky Mountains when they get separated from their group and lost in a snowstorm. Christa wakes up in a one room cabin with the other members of the trip, and very quickly bodies start to pile up. With no cell reception and no way to get out, everyone is a suspect in a deadly game.

The tension was truly so high that I had to force myself to stop reading so I could relax and get some sleep. The isolation if the cabin, the irritation the travelers feel at being stuck together, the running low on rations….it all sounds like an awful nightmare. When the killings begin, they are incredibly brutal and gory. People are picked off one by one, no matter what strategy they attempt. And they try so many things- going in pairs, going in groups of three. The whole situation is a threat to their survival, from the killer to the white outs from the snowstorm to the brutal cold.

This would have been a perfect thriller to read in the winter, but it definitely gave me chills even during a hot and muggy summer night. Atmospheric to the nth degree, and would make for an amazing movie!

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Christa, her boyfriend Kiernan, and 8 other strangers are headed to a mountain retreat. When a major snowstorm sets in and the group is unable to make it to their destination, they find shelter in a nearby cabin. They'll wait out the storm and go search for help, they think... Until the next morning, when they realize their guide is missing. When they find his severed head in a nearby tree, they realize they are in more danger than they thought, as the killer must be along them.

This book was intense, gruesome, and highly entertaining. Though the killer/ending was predictable for me pretty early on, I still loved every page up to the conclusion. This was my first read by this author and I'll definitely look at adding more to my TBR. Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys a locked room thriller.

Wow, I have no words to describe how amazing this book was. I truly wish I could read it again to go through the tense, dark, and brutal moments again

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is not my first book by this author. While I have liked everything I have read from this author so far, this one was not for me.

For me, the build up in the beginning was a little too slow for me. Things didn't start to pick up and grab my attention until at least chapter 9.

I love descripted books, and this was definitely one of them! There where a lot of characters to introduce and it was done all at once. It was too much all at once and was a major character overload. It would have flowed better if character backgrounds where introduced spread out. Not all in one chapter.

I found the format of this too repetitive whether it was what everyone was going, their facial expressions, etc. Someone left the cabin, someone was killed, they go back in the cabin and repeate.

As much as I like this author, this book was not for me.

This was a wonderfully horrific and gory take on the classic Agatha Christie style mystery of a group of people in a secluded area being killed off one by one. I really appreciated how smart the main character tried to be given the situation she was in and it felt like she had very realistic reactions and thoughts. I think there were enough clues for the ending not to be obvious but to still make plenty of sense. That being said I’m not good at putting clues together so I was reading the reveals with my mouth open in shock.

Holy crap, this book was awesome. It was intense and thrilling and I had no idea who the killer was. This was my first Coates and will definitely not be my last. 4 stars!

I absolutely love "cabin in the woods" style thrillers and this one is perfection! Our main character, Christa, joins a tour group headed to the Rocky Mountains. After a storm hits and their tour guide goes missing, horrible things start happening.

There was so much tension and "whodunit" accusations flying around. Coates is a master at creating suspense and tension, and I couldn't guess who the killer was at all. I also really liked Christa and her back story. She came on the tour to lay her past to rest, and she got a lot more than she bargained for. Our other characters were interesting in their own way, but the story was so fast-paced that we didn't get to know them as well as Christa.

The setting was incredible and I felt like I was right there in the cabin with them. I also loved the horror aspect. I thought this would be more of a thriller where there isn't a ton of horror and gore, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes thrillers and locked door mysteries with a horrific twist.

☆ ☆ ☆ .5

This was my first Darcy Coates book and I was definitely not disappointed! This book is about a group headed to a remote lodge during the middle of winter in the Rocky mountains. When their trip is thrown off by a huge, unexpected storm and their bus can't get through to the lodge, they find shelter in a small shack in the middle of nowhere. Things quickly take a turn for the worst when members of the group of strangers start to be killed off one by one. Our main character is tasked with figuring out who she can trust, trying to find her partner who has been missing and out in the cold since night one, and also trying to stay alive and figure out who this murderer among them is. Will she make it out of this trip alive?

This is one of those books that is very fast paced. The chapters are really short and leave you with that "One more chapter, then I'll go to bed!!" feeling. It also has a very interesting group dynamic. This group is made up of strangers, but there are smaller pairings within the group. A husband and wife, father and son, etc. So while there is the element of being unfamiliar with the group members and not being able to trust virtually anyone, there are also members who have a support system where other's don't.

I was able to get through this really fast, which is great. My only hang up and why I rated it lower than a 4 is just because the plot twist, to me personally, was predictable and I knew what was happening pretty much immediately. There was a point toward the end where I thought "Wait, was I wrong?" But that did not last long before realizing it was what I had initially thought. Which is fine!! My friend always tells me that I'm creepily good at being able to predict plot twists way in advance, so not necessarily any issue with the story, it's just a me thing but there are books that do truly shock me so if a book doesn't do that I tend to rate it a tiiiiiny bit lower than if it completely threw me off.

This was an excellent read and I'm so thankful to have gotten early access to it, and was also lucky enough to attend an in-person event with Darcy Coates where she spoke about Dead of Winter and a bit about her process and what she was aiming for with this novel, which was so incredible to be a part of!

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an eARC of this book!

Wow what a book, To be honest the opening couple of pages frustrated me and I didn't think I would enjoy it, however 2 chapters in and that thought was dispelled.
This books truly has twists and turns throughout, I did guess who the killer was, BUT my guess was put into doubt right until the end several times.
I do not do spoilers, so my suggestion is read the book. Definitely looking forward to reading more from this author.

I’m not usually one to read thrillers like this, but I am glad I picked up this one!! I could not put this book down, and honestly the twists were all well done and I was completely shocked at the ending! I plan to pick up more of her books as I found them both quick and fascinating to read! I received this book gratis as an Advanced Review Copy from NetGalley and am giving my opinion freely.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc. I was hooked from the beginning. I really like Christa. Didn't see that ending.