The first half of this book felt impossibly long and formulaic, to the point where I saw I was a little over halfway through and went “what else could possibly happen?”

Let me tell you, the second half of this book is worlds better than the beginning. Twisty, fast paced, terrifying. There is a legitimate jump scare somewhere around 70/75% through. I entertained the idea of the killer’s identity early on, as the author does lay the framework for a solid reveal. The last half alone would have gotten a higher rating, but because it took a while to get to the good part, I’d give this 2.5-3 stars. Slow to pick up, but ultimately an entertaining read.

I loved almost everything about this book! The mystery, the suspense, the cast of characters. However, I would have liked a little bit more closure at the end. The ending just felt a bit too abrupt to me. I also feel like the book could use a final edit to remove the Australian word choices and turns of phrase since our narrator is supposed to be American.

I have heard amazing things about Darcy Coates and her writing. I was excited to get an ARC of Dead of Winter. In this book we follow Christa who is on a vacation with her boyfriend to the Rocky Mountains. The vacation takes an unexpected turn when a snowstorm sets in and the group that she is traveling with is stranded in the middle of the mountains in a tiny cabin. During the night, the tour guide goes missing only to be found the next morning brutally murdered. Christa finds herself terrified as she is trapped with 8 other strangers and her boyfriend is still missing in the snowstorm. One by one they are picked off and they have to figure out who the killer is before another person dies.

This gave me very And Then There Were None vibes. I figured out who the killer was 3 chapters into the book and so nothing really surprised me unfortunately. I don't think Darcy Coates thrillers are going to be for me. I did enjoy her writing style though so I will be picking up a horror and going from there.

2 stars.

**Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.**

I could easily see this book as a movie, a plot of revenge that includes a serial killer.. There were also enough graphic details of decapitated bodies that I'm comfortable calling it horror. Although it's the beginning of summer here, I did lots of shivering as I read Dead of Winter, and not all of it was because it takes place in the mountains during a blizzard. I thought I knew who the killer was but second-guessed myself because of details and ended up going down the wrong path more than once - those were fun red herrings.

As for what I didn't enjoy as much? Overuse of the word sour. It was used as 1) a taste in a person's mouth (multiple times), 2) the tone of a room, 3) a description of one person's skin (I still don't understand how skin can be sour), 4) an opinion (something soured him on a course of action), 5) a facial expression and 6) the taste of fear.

Chrissy, the narrator, was inconsistent at times. For example, she'd tell herself she wants to keep a closer eye on who leaves or enters the cabin but a few minutes later she's already lost track of people. She found an important clue and misplaced it soon after. For my taste, she veered a little too suddenly between observant and clever & TSTL (too stupid to live).

Overall, though, it was a solid three stars and I look forward to reading Ms. Coates' next book.

Christa is grieving an accident from two years prior. Hoping to finally put it behind her, she joins her boyfriend on a trip to a remote hunting lodge with an assortment of strangers. But a freak winter storm threatens to derail her plans. And when the tour guide is found decapitated, Christa realizes that there is a worse killer after her than just the blizzard.

I've never read anything from this author before and I was not expecting to like this book as much as I did, but it was a tense, claustrophobic thriller that was truly hard to put down. Coates paints a convincing setting of relentless winter, the frozen landscape as much of a danger than the killer stalking the group. Characters feel real and distinct from one another and the twists are satisfying. I'm very curious to check out Coates's backlist.

Special thanks to the publisher for making this book available to read through NetGalley in exchange for a review

Darcy has done it again with this cold weather thriller! She kept me guessing until the end and kept throwing me off the trail. I was super pleased with the ending even though I felt like it lacked closure. Darcy is an excellent writer though and her work never ceases to hook me!

DNF @ 25% - as a reader, I typically 100% go in blind. if someone recommends it, it’s a favorite author of mine, it’s all the buzz, or if I just like the cover sometimes, I’ll typically crack it open. most of the time, it doesn’t fail me - this time it did. if I had read the synopsis and gotten to the severed head, I most likely wouldn’t have picked this one up. anything that is borderline horror to me just isn’t my cup of tea. the writing was so intriguing and I wished I enjoyed it more - I definitely would recommend this to all horror fans alike though because I was loving it up until that point! thank you netgalley and sourcebooks for the advanced copy - I’m sorry it didn’t pan out for me :(

I had never read a book by Darcy Coates before, but I'm looking forward to getting my hands on them ASAP. This book kept me up late reading furiously past my bedtime to see what would happen next..
This story was everything I hoped for when I picked it up, a cast of characters trapped in a remote location getting picked off one by one. It is a plot that is well known to most mystery fans, but Coates does a great job coming up with a fresh story that grips readers!

Genre: Mystery and ThrillerDead of Winter
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Pub. Date: July 11, 2023

Be prepared to read about being lost in the extreme cold, freezing rain, snow, ice, and high winds ad nauseam. Think of “Ten Little Indians,” with none of Agatha Christie’s talent. Here not ten, but eight strangers are on their way to a ski lodge in the Rocky Mountains. Their bus breaks down, leaving them stranded in a brutal blizzard. There is a high level of tension when the temperature drops. Right about then, one by one, they are murdered. Even with the author throwing in a few twists, I guessed the killer early on—a “whodunnit” survival thriller tale without an “unguessable who.”

[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Dead of Winter releases July 11, 2023

4/4.5

This was an unputdownable, chilling and atmospheric blend of a thriller with some horror, and some added elements of isolation, sabotage, and revenge.

A group of 11 individuals are headed up to Blackstone Alpine Lodge during the off-season through an organized tour guide, and have planned to stay there for two weeks.
Only, on the way there, a tree has felled in the middle of the road, halting the bus ride up to the lodge. As they work to configure a safe passage, an oncoming snow storm picks up in speed at the same time as our main character and her boyfriend wander off in search of a lookout.

This story is mainly set in a very small isolated cabin, with dwindling resources.
Beginning on day one, an individual is murdered, beheaded, and displayed for all to see. This anonymous killer amongst them quickly escalates and each day another member of the group turns up beheaded.

Seemingly strangers, this group of individuals are actually all connected to one singular event that happened two years ago — but who orchestrated all of this and is the face behind all of these murders?

I loved the setting here and truly did not know who the killer was until the very end which makes for some really good writing.
I do wish there was an epilogue included, or a one year later follow up to tie everything together, and the characters could have been more fleshed out, but otherwise it was great!

This is my second Darcy Coates book. One part of me hoped that at the end, the ending would be left-open or we would meet some ghosts or other supernatural creatures, however this did not happen. This book is purely human-on-human terror.

In general, the idea is great, the isolated setting, people getting killed one-by-one - a perfect psychological horror. However, for me, it did not fully deliver. I do have to mention that the ending did raise the rating a little bit. The main thing that missed the mark for me, was that somewhere around half-way into the book, I kinda got bored. The suspected killed hopped too fast from one character to another and I could have used more descriptions of the setting, it didn't give me the chills of being isolated on top of a mountain. Not a perfect horror, but decent enough and a fast read. That is always a good point in my book.


Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this novel. All opinions are, as always, my own.

“Dead of Winter” is a first person POV thriller, told by Christa, an ill-fated passenger on a tour bus in the Rockies that is stranded in a storm, with 10 people taking shelter in an isolated cabin. And almost immediately the tour bus guide goes missing and turns up decapitated, his head hung from a nearby pine tree like mistletoe. Being cramped in a small space with an assumed killer is no fun; having Mother Nature ready to kill you as well is equally horrific.

The author drops you right into the action: Christa and her boyfriend Kiernan are lost in a sudden storm after the bus stopped when a tree blocked the road and they went exploring. We know that Christa fell (off a cliff? Into a crevice?) and Kiernan tried to grab her; her hand is ravaged, and she wakes up in that crowded cabin without him. The others can’t find him and they reluctantly search again with her. They’re a varied crew of all ages, from a DJ scouting a venue to a tense married couple. Christa is consumed with finding Kiernan, who the others have written off as dead. The group also comes to realize that the emergency radio has been broken, there’s no cell service, and the bus has been disabled. It's possible no one will be looking for them for 12 days. A full set of human teeth is left on an outside windowsill — so aside from butchery, the killer also has superhuman dentistry skills.

I took some comfort in believing that Christa probably wasn’t the killer, but she could become a final girl. This is my first thriller by Darcy Coates, but it won’t be my last.

This is a non-stop thriller, wonderfully crafted to give you all those awful feelings of being trapped in a horror movie. This kept me guessing and my heart racing! 5 stars!

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Kiernan has pale green eyes and there are lots of frozen eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO As advertised in the title, the novel’s world is frozen and inhospitable with nothing particularly growing (pine trees are used to hang up body parts, but don’t blame the trees).

This entire plot is beyond nonsensical. The amount of coincidences and ability to execute actions with perfect timing without detection beggars belief. There was a neat little twist at one point that kept me going but I found most of this story to be absurd and way too over the top. Plus, I guessed the killer approximately 20 pages in. I also felt that the ending was shockingly abrupt and the lack of epilogue was criminal.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates is a heart-pounding thriller with notes of horror. I was hooked by the plot and comparisons to Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." The comparison is accurate, but the execution is modernized, winterized and a bit more bloody.

Our protagonist Christa and her boyfriend Kiernan join a tour group heading to a remote lodge in the Rocky Mountains when their bus is blocked by a tree. The guests seek shelter in a seemingly abandoned cabin, and soon their bus driver is killed. Other guests get killed one after another while the survivors attempt to figure who among them could be the killer. There are some good twists and turns along the way, and the writing is strong. It is, of course, a plot driven story with less emphasis on characterization. Christa has a troubled past that she is trying to overcome, but this trip will dredge up that past in a way she cannot predict.

I give the author credit for writing a solid, if not unique, thriller. And although I should have been prepared for the horror aspect, some of the book's grisly details were a little too much for me.

I will recommend this to readers who appreciate the locked room mystery and can handle a bit of gore.

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

This novel is such a fun combination of genres. If “And then there were none” and a good slasher movie had a baby, it would be this book. It is creepy and the pacing would put the most pulse-raising thriller to shame. After unspecified problems, Christa is finally willing to rebuild her life with her boyfriend. The first step is for them to join a trip to a remote, snow-bound lodge. On their way there, their bus breaks down and the group barely makes it to an abandoned cabin, where they will have to survive. It is hard to imagine how the author will maintain the mystery and the suspense when, inevitably, their numbers start dwindling, but somehow, she does. Maybe it’s because of the characters. As happens in real life, some are more likable than others. Christa is smart and a born fighter, but she was not the only person I was rooting for. Ex-army ranger Simone and mysterious Alexis were easy to like, even if it wasn’t clear whether they could be the baddies. The novel is claustrophobic and atmospheric all at once, and I really, really liked it. If you’re looking for a book to cool you this summer, this one will give you chills.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Poisoned Pen Press!

For an author who normally writes ghost stories, she did a fantastic job on this locked room thriller! Cabin in the woods, freezing temperatures, missing people, what's not to love? The character development was really thought out, I like the way it came together in the end. Highly recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for gifting me an early copy. Here's my honest review:

Darcy Coates, you hooked me with this one. I'm going to have to go back and read the rest of the stuff you've written! You have a new fan.

I absolutely loved this novel, and definitely would love to see it translated to the big (or small) screen somehow. The characters are fantastic, and the setting is perfection. The storm and the cabin and the neverending snow almost feel like a second antagonist, creeping in around the characters, holding them hostage, aiding the Butcher to take them out, one by one. It's got a very Agatha Christie kind of vibe - the "locked room" type mystery, the cast of easily suspect-able characters, the confusion around every turn. While it's a little more graphic than a Christie, it's definitely drawn some inspiration from the Empress of Enigmas, the Mistress of Mystery, the Queen of Crime.

I'm not going to lie - I figured out a lot of what was going on early. That's one of the pitfalls of reading lots of mysteries and thrillers and way too many movies. But that really didn't stop my enjoyment watching it play out, and having Coates nearly convince me I was wrong a few times.

Absolutely recommend. This was a gem!

What a Horrible Plot. I have not read this Author before. If this is indicative of their work it is not for me. The countless beheading's were at the point where the shock value was not even there. The Story was very fast moving and kept you guessing is the best thing I can say about the story. Even at the end, the few that survived is left as a question mark. Why would someone have so much grief that they would Kill innocents like the cabin owners? Awful.

This book is high action & intensity from the very first scene and and barely let's up! Expect suspense, gore, twists, and brutal deaths. Definitely don't read this if you're squeamish, as there is an abundance of gruesome details. The ending isn't obvious, but it's also not surprising.

First of all, thank you NetGalley for this great opportunity. Darcy Coaster was one of my fav thriller author, and this chance to read the ARC was truly my honor.

At first quarter part of the book, it goes slowly but a victim following the confusions within. Honestly, boredom caught at the next part, when our main character fighting for searching her partner.

After the half-through, interest growing on me, again. The next victims, the way its placed by and how the execution was. It's good, actually, I'd enjoy it very much. The pace, the setting, I love the little journal that Alexis has—also become the whole quandary.

Unfortunately at the last minute, I already know the murder. So, 3.5 stars for this book. But this is a wild ride. I would recommend this, because of the thrilling aspect. Again, thank you NetGalley.