I don’t remember ever being afraid while reading a book. I have read thrillers. I have read horrific scenes (The Ruins, I’m looking at you). I have read really bad dialogue. But I have never had a book so gripping that it encouraged the same sensations as watching a horror movie. Btw - I’m a wuss and hide behind cushions during horror movies - harder to do when you’re reading them…

Christa joins a tour group, with her boyfriend Kiernan, on a winter exploration of the Rocky Mountains. The plan is to spend two weeks in a lodge retreat, nestled in the mountains, in an area like Kiernan grew up in.

There’s a trauma in Christa’s past, revealed during the course of the narrative, that had a significant impact on her; she quit her job, wouldn’t drive at night and rarely left her house. Things started to improve for her when she met Kiernan and, slowly but surely she’s learnt to trust again. That’s why this trip is so important to her - and for her relationship.

Their romantic trip away is derailed early on by an unexpectedly severe snow storm. The tour group take shelter in a nearby, abandoned cabin, hoping to wait out the worst of the storm before continuing to the lodge.

Then people start dying.

Now early on I had my suspicions - I’m a self confessed Poirot wannabe, so how could I not. But Coates’ writing is SO GOOD that you start to doubt yourself. Then you doubt your doubt. Then you doubt your doubt of your doubt - you follow - until you’re down to only three suspects and you’re still not sure…

My only criticism, and it’s minor in the grand scheme, is that the build-up towards the end was so intense that the actual final pages fell a little flat for me. To be honest though, I think it was an adrenaline slump…

If you like having your world turned upside down, if you like questioning everything you think you know or if you like reading stories that mean you need to keep the light on at night, this is 100% the book for you. If you’re just looking for an engrossing read - same.

Woo-hoo, what an intense, icy-cold, crazy who-done-it ride. Thoroughly enjoyed it! Thank you, NetGalley for the great read!

After completing grad school, I looked forward to diving into a book that was not listed on a syllabus. Lucky for me, I received a review copy of Dead of Winter to wash away the business jargon I have been reading for the last 18 months.

In this thriller, Christa and her boyfriend are on a winter getaway to the Rocky Mountains. Plans go awry and Christa and the other vacationers are stranded in a winter storm with a killer who appears to be targeting each one of them.

This novel jumps right into the action pulling in the reader during the raging storm. Although I was able to figure out the killer pretty early in the story, there were enough twists and turns that left me second guessing myself. The way the author unfolds the story of the characters deserves much recognition. Too often exposition is simply announced at the start of a book but this was not the case. Coates doles out information in masterful way which allows the reader to care for these travelers.

If you are a fan of thrillers and trying to figure out "whodunnit," you might enjoy this read. There were a few instances where I was mentally screaming at the characters but it just goes to show how invested I had become in the story.


This ARC was provided to me by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

What a great thriller! The description of the cold weather was such that I was freezing by the end of the book. It sounds cliché, but the book kept me guessing until the end.

I love Darcy Coates books and this one will not disappoint. Even thought t he premise seems to be popular nowadays the way Darcy Coates writes makes you want to keep reading. Beware to be scared and love this thriller. Lock the doors.
Thank you Net Galley for allowing me to read and review this one.

This was my first Darcy Coates book, but it won’t be my last. This was a crazy ride!

I really loved the setting and atmosphere of this book. The snowy woods really lent themselves to the feeling of being isolated. Coates did a great job of fleshing out this cast of characters enough for you to have some strong opinions about them. Christa was more of a badass than I thought, and I really liked it!

It turns out I guessed the twist at the beginning, but there were so many red herrings that I was questioning myself the whole time. It was a great reveal.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC!

Darcy and her boyfriend Kiernan to the Rocky Mountains for a romantic getaway. But an unexpected snowstorm blocks their ability to get to where they’re going. Early on, Darcy and Kiernan get separated, and now it’s just her and a group of eight strangers who take shelter in a small, abandoned cabin. When the guide goes missing and then his severed head is discovered on a tree outside, the other members of the group have to figure out if one of them is a murderer and what the motive is. They die off one by one.

I never felt real fear for Darcy. I just never felt that suspense that I feel when reading other books like this. The twists and turns are good enough, but the killer’s ultimate motivations seem a little ridiculous to me--to go this far, to kill this many people . . .

NetGalley provided an advance copy of this novel, which RELEASES JULY 11, 2023.

This is my first Darcy Coates book and it won’t be my last. This book was a terrific nasty little suspense-horror novel. It really did grab me from the first page and kept me flipping the pages. Sometimes so fast I was breathless from what was happening. The characters and the story was very well done. I love these types of books and this one does it well. Get this book when it comes out. I got an early copy through NetGalley.

Dead of Winter is a standalone thriller by Darcy Coates. I’ve read a few of Darcy Coates’s horror novels so was pleasantly surprised to find out this one was a thriller. Darcy Coates’s novels suck you in but this one didn’t let up from the very first page. Thrown straight into a survivalist’s nightmare, the small cast of characters find themselves in a locked room style murder mystery which may just prove fatal. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Ruth Ware, or Lucy Foley. The suspense and build up to the final reveal and ending is fantastic and you feel like you are right alongside the characters in this frozen nightmare. I loved trying to guess the reveals only to be very very wrong each time. Darcy Coates is an author that I will click buy without even reading what the book is about. Highly recommend.

A group of tourists head for a winter stay at a Rocky Mountain lodge. What could go wrong?

In a story that is equal parts Agatha Christie and Stephen King, ten vacationers are headed for a private stay at the Blackstone Alpine Lodge in the Rocky Mountains in a bus driven by their tour guide, Brian. It’s winter, the off-season for the secluded resort, and the group is dismayed when the bus has to stop due to a fallen tree blocking the road. Brian is prepared for this, and most other eventualities it seems, and sets to chopping up the tree to clear the way. Kiernan, one of the passengers and who grew up in the general vicinity, convinces his girlfriend Christa to take a walk while they wait, looking for a view of the mountain vista that surrounds them. She is still dealing with a traumatic event in her past, but trusts Kiernan and allows herself to be convinced. Before they can return to the waiting group, an unexpected snow storm hits, and Kiernan and Christa are not only unable to find their way back, they can’t even tell if they are safely on a path. When Christa slips and starts to fall down a steep incline, Kiernan struggles to hold on to her….but can’t. Miraculously Christa survives the fall, injured and dazed, but she has no idea where Kiernan is, nor how to reconnect with the tour group. Brian finds her, and gets her back to the cabin where he and the rest have sought shelter from what has proven to be a heavy storm. There has been no sign of Kiernan, though, and while Christa holds out hope that he too has found shelter and is alive somewhere out there, the rest assume he is dead. A search party is organized, mostly to placate Christa, but to no avail. When Brian’s severed head is found outside the cabin the next day, the group is stunned and scared. A retired couple from Louisiana, a mechanic and his teenage son, a recently retired emergency dispatcher, a quiet bookish young woman, a professional DJ, and a no-nonsense woman with a military background, they have no ties to one another but will have to work together to survive. Have they somehow stumbled into the hunting grounds of a killer? They are trapped in the cabin, with no way to summon help and the weather continues to worsen. Frigid temperatures, dwindling supplies of food and sources of heat, and a killer who is picking them off one by one….can they find a way to protect themselves until someone realizes that they are missing?
With characters trapped in a remote location, snowed in and cut off from the rest of the world, it was hard not to immediately think of The Shining….there is even an ax that factors in eventually. When these characters started disappearing one by one, And Then There Were None snuck into my thoughts as well. The story pulled me in right away, and the quick pace made it hard to put the book down. If you like a gripping whodunnit, and don’t mind a bit of gore along the way, this story is for you. As a longtime reader of thrillers and mysteries, more often that not I figure out the whodunnit part before the end, and that was the case here as well about halfway through, but I wasn’t 100% convinced that I was right until nearer the end. I still enjoyed the read, however, and definitely recommend it to fans of Darcy Coates’ earlier books, as well as those who enjoy thrillers with remote mountain settings, killing sprees, or “locked room” mysteries. Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for access to the advanced reader’s copy.

I think I'm convinced I will like anything Darcy Coates writes. Dead Of Winter is your perfect hot weather read. If the descriptions of snow, ice, and freezing cold don't cool you off then what you read as you fly through the pages will send chills down your spine.

In this horror thriller we follow a group of 10 plus their tour guide as they head into the snowy mountains for a vacation at Blackstone Alpine Lodge. Before they reach their destination they become stranded and have to wait out a storm in a log cabin. Christa, after becoming separated from her boyfriend, is the last to arrive. Soon they will all find out that frostbite is the least of their concerns as people are picked off and brutally murdered one by one.

I didn't intend to read this when I did. I wanted to just read a couple pages to see what it was going to be like but once I started I forgot that other book I meant to read. Dead Of Winter had me in its freezing grip for two days. The descriptions of the snowy landscape are wonderful. I felt every blast of ice.

It doesn't take long for action to start and it never lets up. The tension is incredible. This is the kind of thriller I've been wanting to read. Every step the characters, who are all different, take means life or death. There is no room for error. There is a lot of blood and gore but if you can handle a slasher film then it should be no problem.

Dead Of Winter could easily be a movie. Darcy Coates is an awesome writer because she delivers the thrills and chills of a popcorn horror/thriller but with depth. I found myself anxious for everyone to survive and/or not be the killer. Alas that can't happen but I did guess the killer! This is a much different read than Coates's Gravekeeper series and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Dead Of Winter will be released July 11. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read!

I love winter but I do not like altitudes. I love my feet on the plains, thank you very much. Needless to say, to read a book where a group of people were trapped in the mountains surrounded by snow was enough to make me squirm with discomfort. And that's what made the book extra enjoyable. The finger-biting, edge-of-the-seat moments made me finish the book within the hour. It felt like I was holding my breath throughout the reading session and only the revelation at the end, the relief at the last page of the book could bring my breathing back to normal. The book starts on a high and maintains the suspense and tension throughout the book. Not a single scene is wasted, and not a single character unnecessary. The characters are not stupid and do not blindly walk into danger. And yet the danger is imminent. Christa has quickly become one of my favourite protagonists in a slasher thriller mystery. I had a working theory of the killer, but it still leaped at me like a gobsmack. I can totally imagine this as a movie with the killer in the shadows and the murders in the locked rooms. I obviously love Darcy Coates' ghost stories, but she hit it right out of the park with this thriller.

A heart pounding claustrophobic thriller/horror that you just can't stop reading. Trapped in a cabin in the middle of a blizzard Crista is trying to figure out who is picking them all off one by one before it's too late. The ending was definitely a shocker too!

I've never read anything by this author before but I'm glad I started with this book.

Super fun and fast-paced thriller. While I found the twist at the end to be a bit predictable, I enjoyed reading and flew through this book. I would happily read another book by this author.
Thank you for the opportunity to read!

Overall I think this was a solid read. Yes there are parts that you will have suspend all belief, but I find that pretty common in suspense/thrillers. None of the characters are particularly likable. Could have used a little character development so that you cared a bit when someone was killed. It kept me up late two nights so that tells me I was into it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Dead Of Winter is a unique take on locked room thriller that goes from 0-60 in the first few pages. On the way to a remote lodge for a winter getaway, a group of tourists are stranded on the road due to a downed tree. Faced with brutal winter conditions, the group decides to seek shelter in a nearby cabin. The extreme winter weather and lack of supplies would have been harrowing enough of a situation, but as the group's numbers begin to dwindle at the hands of a killer, things get even more dire.

Darcy Coates uses her horror prowess to imbue so much tension into this thriller. The descriptions of the harsh winter conditions will have you shivering (even though this book is a summer release). I guessed the twist fairly early on, but Coates expertly uses red herrings to the point where I started second guessing myself more and more in the final chapters.

If you like locked room mysteries, definitely give this one a read! You will be stressed out the entire time you read this book, but it's so worth it.

Crossposted to goodreads at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5532201474

Dead Of Winter is an upcoming thriller novel by best selling writer Darcey Coates, which I got an opportunity to read, thanks to an advance copy by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange of an honest review. I am reading Coates for the first time. The book is a locked door suspense mystery with cabin in the wood kind of horror elements heavily thrown in.

Story is narrated in the first person perspective of Christa. The narrative style of Coates puts the reader in the midst of the events. While reading through the eyes of Christa, we are aware of only that which she knows about. At the same time we are part of all the paranoia and anguish that she feels. This made me as a reader, more immersed and invested in her perilous journey.

Could not put this book down! Dead of Winter was a thrilling ride for start to finish. Loved the way the story came together. I felt that the suspense really keeps you at the edge of your seat for the entirety of the novel. I'd highly recommend Dead of Winter for anyone looking for a fast-paced thriller that will constantly keep you on your toes.

A straightforward horror/thriller that I enjoyed for the most part. The horror elements were more successful than the thriller ones -very creepy images, gruesome, and some actually heart-racing moments. The thriller part, though, fell short, with the ending being obvious and the backstory more frustrating to get to than engaging. Great setting, with fantastic use of the environment around the action, and distinct characters I occasionally cared about. 3.5/5

Thank you to Poisoned Press, Darcy Coates, and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

From the description, I thought this sounded like a good thriller.

The writing had a dark, gritty tone from the start. Initially, I didn't know much about the characters, but I wanted to know how they had ended up in the situation they were in. There was plenty of suspense, and an intense atmosphere that came to life while I was reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.