Everyone stop! Darcey Coates just pulled out a total "who dunit" in this totally engrossing thriller! I had it about guessed at 75% through but kept on reading and when I was totally disappointed that I was wrong she threw another break neck twist in that left me lingering on afterwards. My only negative is the ending, I would have loved an absolute ending to this gripping tale but sadly was left with more questions then answers. Thank you Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Released on July 11, 2023

4.75 stars. I LOVE.

Dead of Winter is an incredibly suspenseful and genuinely scary action-packed thriller. It’s the perfect book to read on a cold winter evening; the blizzard setting is obviously horrible for the characters but it’s perfect to get into as a reader.

It has countless twists that will leave you constantly questioning your own theories. It’s fast paced with short chapters and the writing style is simple and easy to get through. And the main character, Christa, is a total baddie and will have you on the edge of your seat urging her to keep going.

I can expect that some readers might not like the book as much, perhaps for them it’ll feel too drawn out, unexciting, predictable, etc. But I personally didn’t find it to be any of that and loved the read from start to finish.

I wouldn’t recommend this for readers that dislike gore and prefer lower stakes kind of mystery books. But if you can tolerate gore and love a well-written, high stakes, winter themed thriller? HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

’m a solid Darcy Coates fan although I’ve only now read half a dozen of her 40+ novels. She’s got a smooth and captivating way of writing horror thrillers that continually keep me creeped out and forever guessing the outcome.

Dead of Winter is a serious page-turner; a read you don’t want to put down until you finally get to the bottom of the chaos.

As a constant traveller who is terrified of being lost or trapped in a vast wilderness, this read freaked me out! And Stranger always equals Danger in my mind so yeah, this was scary 😧

Thanks to #netgalley and @poisenedpenpress and of course @darcybooks for this awesome ARC opportunity👊🏻

Dead of Winter is EVERYTHING I could have ever wanted from Darcy Coates. It's gory, it's gross, it's brutal, and most importantly it's unforgiving (in some ways). I found myself blown away by Darcy Coates latest novel. So let's break it down -

It's gory:
- This book tells you from the get go that a head might be found on a spike and it is. This is the first time in a Darcy Coates adventure that I feel like the gore and viscera was exactly what I've wanted in other stories. Don't get me wrong - Coates is the MASTER of the ghost stories at this point, but this gave a level of gore that I was very pleased with.

It's gross:
- This book had a few moments of giving me the ICK and I think readers will love that. Did I mention the gore and viscera? Okay well let me also give you the messed up idea - prepare for a desperate cold including frostbite to scare the warmest reader.

It's brutal:
- Okay as mentioned above the gore and gross factors are going to combine together to pack a punch. And the twists and turns of this story are BRUTAL!

It's unforgiving:
- This book is going to make you feel things. It's going to gross you out, it's going make you wince while reading, you might read this book with your mouth wide open like I did. All in all for a book where there might be a lesson on forgiveness hidden within the text, this book is also unforgiving.

I can't say enough good things about this story. So run, don't walk to pick up your copies!

I did not want to put this one down. And when I did I found myself waiting to get back to it. The writing style of this book you will find yourself invested in these characters! I was completely submerged in this book. I’m this book we follow Christa and her boyfriend on a tour up into the Rocky Mountains. As weather conditions worsen the bus comes to a stop due to fallen trees. Taking shelter in a near by abandoned cabin. Waiting the storm out the next morning the group find the severed head of the tour guide atop of a tree out front and shit gets SPOOKY!! The accusations start to fly , snow starts to pile, and the body’s start stacking. What happens next?? Pick up Dead of winter and find out i promise this book is a ride and a spectrum of emotion.

Wow. Slightly disappointed at the very very end of the book but otherwise fantastic novel. The whole thing was deeply unsettling for me and most books don’t tend to unsettle me this much. Fabulous job!

Christa isn't a fan of a trip into the mountains during winter but her boyfriend planned a trip to share where he grew up. She can't say no to that. She keeps an open mind about it and tries to enjoy herself. They meet some of their fellow guests on the bus ride out to the cabin and she can tell they won't become overly friendly with any of them. The winter scenery is beautiful and when a tree blocks the path, Christa and her boyfriend decide to hike up to beautiful viewpoint. That's where it all goes wrong. A winter storm comes up suddenly and seperates Christa and Kiernan, her boyfriend. Christa wasn't prepared for this weather. She isn't the outdoorsy survivalist type. She needs to find the group. But everything just keeps going from bad to worse.....

This book was phenomenal!! A completely spellbinding thriller that had me questioning everyone's motives. It's a secluded killer/thriller that grabs you from the first page and never lets go. Highly recommend!!!! My heart was beating out of my chest and the twists just kept coming!

After reading The Haunting of Ashburn House, I've instantly become a huge Darcy Coates so naturally, I couldn't pass up the chance to read her other books.

Dead of Winter is another masterpiece by Darcy Coates. This is the story of guilt-ridden Christa who joins a tour group with her boyfriend Kiernan in the Rocky Mountains with 6 other people. Little does she know that time supposedly spent relaxing in the mountains is going to end up becoming a fight for survival.

Gripping, creepy, and unputdownable, the book got my rapt attention from the first page until the last. I had my theories while reading the book but when the killer was finally revealed, I was proven wrong and that's a good thing but no one likes a predictable book, right?

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

My thanks to Poisoned Pen Press, Darcy Coates and Net Galley.
Well, I'll tell ya' what. This damn story got me! Seriously, got me! The cold. The butt jobs that I shared the cabin with. "So, maybe it was a character, but it felt like I was there!"
Me? Hell, I'd have been looking everywhere for a weapon! People who can't find weapons? Phtts. That's nuts!
Truly? I adored this damn book! Ms. Coates is often hit or miss with me, but good god, y'all! This was some decent story telling!

3.75
I wanted sooo bad to love this book and give 5 stars.
The concept and beginning sucked me in and excited me. The first incident found surprised me. I happily read on. The atmosphere was great and the suspense. However, for myself, I found after that I never cared about any of the characters. They did not have depth and I just felt they were pawns for the story. I did not really care when or how they would go really and i knew they would. I also knew the main character had some experience that would be a main plot point so none of that excited me any. I did like the few surprises and struggles but not enough to stay invested in the parts that dragged as they wondered who did it. I love Darcy coates writing so much but is not my favorite one.

This book started out very strong, grabbing your attention from the very first sentence. This is a fast pace, edge of you seat thriller. The middle of the book felt slightly repetitive but picked back up again towards the end. At one point I had guessed the twist at the end but then talked myself out of it. By the time I got to the twist, I was only slightly surprised.

i like to read my books with a monthly theme so this is on my tbr shelf for now. excited to read this i know the author has some popular books out already

WOW! WOW! WOW!
I knew it, I just knew it! Or maybe I just wished I knew it but wasn’t shocked, just happy after going back and forth that maybe I was wrong. Such a great murder, mystery, horror book.
Please write more like this, because I enjoyed it so much. I finished it in under 24 hours, would have been sooner if I could have escaped life around me.

Amazing writing, hard to put down, page turner. The suspense was killing me and I loved it.

10 people head to a lodge in the Rocky Mountains. An isolated 2 week vacation far away from civilization and surrounded by snowy blizzards and mountains. Their bus stops because of a tree across the road, just before they reach the Lodge.

Some go off to see the scenery and get lost, while others are cutting the tree. Some get lost and some find a small cabin to see refuge. Cold and frozen they stay the night, lost, hungry, tired, cold,1 is hurt, so they stay the night. What awaits them as they wake up the next morning is gut wrenching and horrific. Things keep on happening as they try to survive. You will not be able to put this down!

OMG, my kind of book, movie and murder mystery!! Absolutely loved it.

I have read a lot of Darcy Coates and most of them have been of the supernatural variety. I was intrigued by a story that didn't involve the supernatural and was sucked in just as quickly with this as I have been with all of her others.

Every time I felt like I had figured it out, something would happen and I would be back and square one. I am sure that was the intent. I was fully engrossed and couldn't put this down. While I did have to suspend belief, I do that with almost all books I read and simply let the author tell me their story. Each character had their own personality and I would get mad and frustrated just as I would if I was interacting with them. I connected with some and was like "yes, yes, do that!" while reading.

* I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

5/5
This eerie novel ‘Dead of Winter’ by Darcy Coates follows Christa who travels with a tour group into the Rocky Mountains, but a snowstorm forces them to stay in an abandoned cabin and wait for the storm to pass. However, as morning comes one person is dead and the murderer is among them. They must ask themselves who can they really trust!

I have to admit that I love anything that has a cabin in the woods trope. What made it even more exceptional was the fact that I couldn’t guess the killer! This book had me on the edge of my seat and it was filled with many twists and shocking surprises.

Thanks to @netgalley and @poisonedpenpress for this incredible ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Keep watch for this chilling novel is due for publication on 11th July.

How could a vacation opportunity for Christa to spend time with her boyfriend in a beautiful resort out in the Rockies turn into a nightmare? As if a blizzard, eight strangers with seemingly no connection stranded a tiny cabin and no connection to the outside world isn’t enough…….. macabre attacks on the group  start singling them out, killing them: think Agatha Christie.
   The story, while gripping, was slow moving. That was until you hit Chapter 55 and it all came together in a rush and took off like a rocket. The compilation of this group wasn’t random, as we learn, and the planning of it had taken years: this was revenge at the highest magnitude.
   A horror story told in explicit detail, it has the reader cringing on every page. And just when you think the end is near, a whole new shock rocks whatever you expected.
   A compelling read for the lover of horror and murder mystery.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

***

I stayed up until 4:30 AM to finish this one, which is a common theme with Coates books. I love her brand of cozy horror, but this was certainly a departure from the last few haunted house books I have read.

There's a killer on the loose picking off stranded tourists hunkered down in a desolate cabin lost somewhere in a mountain snowstorm. I was engaged and needed to finish this one in a single sitting.

I was able to guess the killer about halfway through the book, but I still enjoyed the ride.

2.5 stars

I usually enjoy whodunit mysteries with isolated settings, but this one fell short. I thought I would enjoy the wintery setting and the tension the weather would provide, but it soon grew tiresome, as there's only so many times you want to read the same descriptions about people trudging through a blizzard.

The story was also full of one-dimensional characters making stupid decisions. I got so frustrated wondering why those idiots kept going out on their own with a killer on the loose? You'd think they'd learn their lesson after the first couple of people were brutally butchered, but no...they just kept going out on their own and getting killed.

Finally, my first five star read of the year!

After an initial struggle to get off the ground, this turned into one amazing book. I was truly hooked from start to finish, finding any spare few minutes to read just that little bit more. Despite reading this in the middle of summer, I felt the harsh chill of the icy mountains and shivered during the long cold nights spent in that isolated cabin. My stomach churned at the macabre displays left for them each day and I felt the fear and suspicion as they all started to suspect each other. All of the characters were well fleshed out and I never had trouble telling them apart. The only bad thing I have to say about this book was the fact I correctly predicted the outcome from the second chapter. It was so obvious I was screaming at the pages, willing someone to see it. Or not see it to be fair. I will always recommend Darcy Coates for bringing that little extra to the table every time.
Publishing July 2023.

Thank you to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press, and Darcy Coates for granting me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Dead of Winter takes place in a cabin, in the middle of a snowstorm, far up a mountain. When 8 strangers find themselves stranded there they are hoping to wait it out, that is until people start turning up dead.

If I am being honest, this was not my favorite Coates book. However, Coates will forever be an auto buy author for me. It was not that I did not think this book was outstanding, however that thriller, who-done-it storyline is not my favorite; especially considering that I am more of a fantasy or romance reader. There were however, several aspects of this book that I did appreciate. One being that it was difficult to discern who the killer was right up until the end. I suspected all but Christa at different points of the book. While I could figure out some of the big twists as the story goes on, the one I could not get was the killer, which makes it all the better. This was a very well set up story with a great presence, and a fabulous take on popular tropes. For me, my three-star rating simply came down to the fact that if this was not a Coates book, I likely would not have picked it up. It was my love of the author that attracted me to this book and if you are a bigger thriller person than I am, I am certain this book will be your next 5-star read.