lmaoooo this book was so wild
toggle the spoilers at your own risk !!!


our mc is Christa, a young lady with a terribly spelled name serious anxiety who is struggling to recover from some ~mysterious~ event that happened last August 8th. her boyfriend, Kiernan, talks her into visiting a fancy rich person place called Blackstone Alpine Lodge, which is in the middle of literal nowhere nestled picturesquely among snow-capped mountains. he swings her permission because he takes her during the off-season, where they'll be going in with a tour group of just nine other people.

(the important part here is that the off-season is the off-season because the area gets terrible inclement weather. gee.)

Kiernan grew up locally and wants Christa to see a little bit of his childhood, and she loves him so she finally agrees to go. they load up on the bus with the rest of the group (refer to cast list below) and set off. they get just far enough away from civilization to be scary when they come across a felled tree and have to pull over to cut it up. Kiernan asks Christa to go on a walk with him while they wait and takes her into the woods, because it's beautiful.

unfortunately, as one might suspect, that aforementioned inclement weather rears its ugly head. Kiernan and Christa get lost in a massive snowstorm, reduced to very little visibility and in danger of freezing to death. they walk onward because the only other option is to lay down and die but they are inevitably split up when Christa accidentally falls down a ravine.

when she wakes up again, she's alone. the storm rages on and she can't find Kiernan anywhere, so she continues to walk. she is in danger of immediate death when she hears a distant whistling and, upon approaching the noise, sees the leader of her tour group, Brian. he escorts her to the little cabin they've all taken shelter in, where everybody minus Kiernan has gathered.

it's explained to Christa that the storm moved in too quickly and after searching fruitlessly for Kiernan and Christa, the group was forced to retreat here. it's a little cabin an unknown ways away from the Lodge, but there's at least enough room for everybody to cram in and lay on the ground.

Christa demands they help her find Kiernan ("we must go out and look for Kiernan! I don’t give a hoot there’s a legitimate snow storm outside !! my canadian boyfriend !!!!!") but she's too weak to manage much of a search on her own, and eventually she relents and returns to the cabin to sleep. she doesn't sleep very well, unfortunately, because in the morning the murders begin.



the cast ;;
+ Miri & Steve Peltz, older married couple from Louisiana, Steve is a trucker (and an asshole)
+ Brian Hernandez, event coordinator and their bus driver, certified in wilderness survival (view spoiler)
+ Blake Shorey, newly retired 911 operator, traveling alone and an enormous bitch
+ Denny & Grayson Olstead, father and son duo (Grayson is the son), son similar age to mc, Denny is a mechanic
+ Hutch Huang, stylish dude w/ undercut, similar age to mc, fairly famous DJ in California
+ Simone Wall, severe blonde woman, ex-military
+ Alexis Barras, a little strange and shy (view spoiler)
+ Kiernan Marshall, Christa’s boyfriend of four months, adventurer and the one to suggest this trip together



Christa makes a really fascinating mc because our girlie has some debilitating anxiety, and there's segments where I couldn't really tell if she was reacting proportionately or freaking out. (there was a big chunk of the book I was actually convinced Christa was prophetic because she kept saying spooky shit like "none of us are getting out of here alive"👻, but she just had anxiety lmao)

I feel like I can't really say much about the parts of the book I loved because they are steeped in spoilers, so I'm just gonna leave it at -- this book was phenomenal and kept surprising me over and over and over again. every time I thought for sure I finally had a handle on who the killer was I would get blindsided by some new fact.

(view spoiler)

I'm gonna be recommending this to anyone looking for a spooky winter read and a propulsive murder mystery.


thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc ✨

I must have a thing for snowy horror.

This book will give you chills no matter the season.

Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates is a book that will suck you in from the very first page and hold you captive until the last. The mystery kept me hooked and left me guessing. I did guess the killer in the end, but there were a few red herrings that made me doubt my choice.

My only true complaint for this book is that I wish I had some closure on what happened to some of the characters. I need an epilogue or even just one more chapter to see who survived.

This book is a chilling 4.5 stars. Read if you like isolated mysteries, gore, and snowy landscapes.

Thanks @netgalley for the ARC

DEAD OF WINTER is a tightly written, excellently crafted, and superbly paced suspense/mystery drama that is a worthy successor to AND THEN THERE WERE NONE by Dame Agatha Christie. I found it very hard to put down and I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it.

The story’s focus is on Christa, a young woman who has experienced a tragedy in the not to distant past—one that has been very hard for her to get past. A tragic accident left a young man dead and Christa bore a lot of guilt relating to his death. A step along that healing journey involved meeting and falling in love with Kiernan and the trip that they were taking together was intended to move that healing along and draw them together.

As with the classic novel by Agatha Christie, Christa and Kiernan find themselves in an isolated community of people, all of whom are bound for the same resort. The bus becomes stuck on the mountainside, a blizzard is settling in, a downed tree blocks the road, and there is no communication with the outside world. This is the kind of setting where great suspense mysteries are made.

In what seemed to me to be a crazy thing to do in a snowstorm, Christa and Kiernan choose to go hiking to find a better vantage point to see where they are. By the end of the first chapter, Christa has slid into a ravine and Kiernan is missing and presumed dead. Unable to proceed to the resort, the group settle into an empty cabin by the side of the road and prepare to make due with no communication, no heat, and very little in the way of food supplies.

Then, one by one members of the group are killed in grizzly ways, their bodies put on display for the survivors to see. As panic, paranoia, and fear grip the group, the question becomes: Who is the monster? Is it someone “out there” attacking them? Or is one of those from the bus the monster murdering them one? And most of all, why? Of course, Christa is the last survivor standing to face the monster who had been either directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of the other passengers.

I loved this book and highly recommend it!

When I initially started this book, I was a little put of because it felt like I was missing the REAL start of the story. THEN...oh boy, did it ever take off.

The chapters are short, so I felt like I was actually making progress in the story. The characters were very well written, and the story was twisty but flowed at the same time.

If this is any indication of her other books, I have some MAJOR catching up to do.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

🪓🪓🪓🪓

"When Christa joins a tour group heading deep into the snowy expanse of the Rocky Mountains, she's hopeful this will be her chance to put the ghosts of her past to rest. But when a bitterly cold snowstorm sweeps the region, the small group is forced to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Despite the uncomfortably claustrophobic quarters and rapidly dropping temperature, Christa believes they'll be safe as they wait out the storm".
This is a horror novel and not the expected cozy mystery.
I couldn't get into it because it was not the expected genre.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion of this book which I read and reviewed.

Much in a similar vein to the classic Agatha Christie mysteries I grew up reading, “Dead of Winter,” pits a group of snowbound strangers against one another, as they each fight for their very survival. With food and supplies at a bare minimum, the group finds refuge from the harsh elements in a small, abandoned cabin, while a killer among them begins striking them down one by one.

This twisted and deadly tale is told through the first person POV of a young girl named Christa, who, along with her boyfriend, Kiernan, joins a tour group that is headed for a vacation lodge in the Rocky Mountains when they are hit by a storm that derails their plans and puts the group right in the crosshairs of a crazed killer.

Despite the murders being quite grizzly, the story drew me in right from the very start and held me captive right up until the very end. Admittedly, the killer’s identity did not come as a big surprise to me, as I had put two-and-two together quite early on. That said, there were moments that had me questioning the validity of my theory. Still, I remained steadfast, trying to figure out the “why” behind the killings, if not the “who.”

All in all, a chilling thriller I was hard-pressed to put down.

"When Christa joins a tour group heading deep into the snowy expanse of the Rocky Mountains, she's hopeful this will be her chance to put the ghosts of her past to rest. When a cold snowstorm sweeps the region, the small group is forced to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Christa believes they will be safe as they wait out the storm. She couldn't be more quite wrong. In the night, their tour guide goes missing only to be discovered the following morning, his severed head impaled on a tree outside the cabin. Terrified, and completely isolated by the storm, Christa finds herself trapped with eight total strangers. One of them kills for sport and they're far from finished." Are they going to kill everyone? Or are they on hunt for one person? You will have to read the story to find out. Absolutely loved story, disturbing, thrilling and engaging. Quick read as well. Absolutely love this author's books that she comes out with.
Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press, Netgalley, and the author in exchange for a review.
Published July 11th 2023.

I LOVED this book! It was tense and suspenseful, thrilling and unpredictable and disturbing in the best way. This book kept me on the edge of my seat and I just could not stop reading. I loved all the twists and could not predict how it was going to end. It would have been a five star read for me but I didn’t love the very, very end (like the last half page). I wanted a bit more resolution to some of the loose ends and could have really used an epilogue. That being said, this was still one of my favorite books I have read this year and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a haunting thriller with a bit of horror mixed in.

Darcy Coates is one of my favorite authors! To be able to scare me with words should be worthy of an award in itself! And she did just that!!

Dead of Winter was such a suspenseful and creepy book - definitely don't read this one in the dark! The story starts off at a very fast pace, then slows a bit in the middle. The twist is spectacular - I had thought about the actual ending as a possible outcome, but the author does an amazing job creating a whodunit plot going until the very end. With so many other possible outcomes, this is an ending that is hard to predict with any certainty! Though not extremely graphic, there are some horror elements and a little blood, but overall I enjoyed it more as a tlocked-room thriller. I would definitely recommend this book!

I was given a review copy by Netgalley and Kodansha Comics in return for an unbiased review.

Christa and her fiance Kiernan are on a trip with a tour group heading to a lodge in the snowy mountainside. A fallen tree blocks the group's way to the lodge. Christa and Kiernan split from the group to take a bit of a hike but get caught in a blizzard and lose each other. Christa is found by the group where they are holed up in a little cabin. The group believes they can wait out the blizzard and head to the lodge but then they start being picked off one by one.

I think this is Darcy Coates's first foray into the thriller genre. I'm a big fan of her horror books so I really looked forward to checking this one out. I will say it's a decent thriller. Darcy as usual knows how to set a scene and build tension. Some of the strongest moments are when the characters are outside and you can feel the horror of how isolated they are.

Where this book suffers is the characters themselves. They are just okay. None of them really stick out and they are one note. I think the story would have been served better by cutting the size of the cast down. Then we could have spent more time focusing on each character and feeling real pain when one of them is taken out.

Still, this is a fun fast read and I recommend it to anyone who loves Darcy Coates or who are wanting to cool off from the summer heat.

Dead of winter may have you thinking of Agatha Christie. A bus load of strangers go to a retreat in the woods. This snow is heavier than expected and their bus gets stuck in the snow. While they are deciding what to do a man drags his girlfriend thru the woods to see a special place of his. Girl slips and boyfriend disappears. The girl is rescued by passengers and they hide out in a deserted cabin. One by one the passengers disappear. The book keeps you captivated and the characters are well rounded and relatable. It’s a fast paced book with not many places that drag.

If you love a really good horror story, you will certainly love this book! Christa and her boyfriend, Kiernan, are on a tour bus heading to the Blackstone Alpine Lodge in the Rocky Mountains with others assorted vacationers. The bus comes upon a fallen tree blocking the road and when Brian, the tour guide and bus driver, begin working to clear the roadway, Kiernan persuades Christa to follow him to a place that he said has special meaning to him. The snow is falling heavily and visability is very poor which causes Christa and Kiernan to become separated. Lots of really crazy things happen in this book which will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC of this book that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Can I say THE BEST BOOK EVER! I love, love, love Darcy Coates and this book just made me an even bigger fan. Stranded in a snowstorm with a bus load of other people. Eight to be exact. They find shelter and although cramped it should be a safe haven for the night or until the snow slows. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Upon waking they find the head of their tour guide impaled in a tree. Someone in the group cannot be trusted but who? The twists and turns are everywhere and the author grabs ahold of you and will not let go. This is one heart pounding novel that will take you on one hell of a ride.


5++++ out of 5



Thank you to NetGalley as well as the author/publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Dead of Winter is my first Darcy Coates novel. I’ve heard great things, so I’ve always been curious about them.
Dead of Winter follows the rules of a classic “locked-room mystery” but makes it hers in horrible ways. I will admit that I am so happy the locked-room mystery is becoming popular again. They’re fun!
In this one, we start with a destination trip in the Appalachian mountains. An unexpected turn of events leads 9 strangers toward a small cabin to wait out the snowstorm and call for help. When people start dying in dark ways, they realize one of them has to be a murderer.
The killings were pretty brutal compared to the usual poisonings and other mysterious deaths that usually happen in the genre, but the unexpected is always a nice surprise.
My only real complaint is that I had a hard time remembering who all the characters were at certain points and wish I’d written down names and descriptions.
Would I read more from Darcy Coates? Absolutely!

4/5
*thanks to netgalley for allowing me to read and review

This was one of the most thrilling horror books I’ve ever read! I love a good “And Then There Were None” retelling, and this one did not disappoint. It was impossible to put down. There were twists and turns all throughout the book. I loved the main character and I really liked reading about the other characters, even though I wasn’t sure of their innocence. I will say that this book is not for the faint of heart. It was one of the most gruesome and gory books I’ve ever read. I personally liked this because it just added another layer of thrill to the book. This story reminded me a lot of No Exit by Taylor Adams mixed with the classic Agatha Christie novel. It was absolutely amazing.

What a fantastic story! Action filled from the get go! I did know who the killer was pretty quickly, and why they did it, but it was still so intriguing to read how it played out! And all of the reveals packed a huge punch. It gave that feeling of satisfaction knowing I had it figured out, but I was still surprised at the way they were revealed. Fantastic job, I will definitely be reading more from this author!

Huge thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

Wow! This book grabs you from the first paragraph and holds you until the last page. Lots of adventure and twists keep you guessing.

Solid but gruesome thriller. Lots of gore (perhaps too much gore) and I am not sure about all of the loose ends, like where did the killer stay the whole time.

These people fell for the oldest scam in the world. If mysterious tickets arrive for you, don't go. Do not go! DO NOT GO. Somebody wants you out of the house and your head on a stick.

Dead of Winter is a good mystery, lots of bloody horror, and lots and lots of snow. Read this on a summer day. It will make you feel icy cold. The antagonist went through an awful lot of trouble, expense, and toe-numbing cold and it seemed like he could do the same things in an easier, cheaper, warmer way, but hey, that would be a much shorter book. Lots of violence and snow. Red shows up so much better on otherwise pristine white.

Thank you to Poison Pen Press and Netgalley for allowing me to read, review, and get the chills from Dead of Winter.