Christa and her boyfriend, Kiernan, are on a tour bus with eight strangers headed towards an extravagant lodge in the middle of the Rocky Mountains for a week of solitude, adventure, and relaxation. Kiernan grew up near these mountains and is excited for the trip, but Christa isn’t an outdoorsy person, she’s silently dreading the thought of spending time in the wilderness.

When a tree blocks the path of the road, everyone steps off the bus for fresh air but a snowstorm swiftly consumes them and everyone is separated from one another. When Christa and the eight strangers find safety at a nearby cabin, they realize nobody is safe in the eerie forest. When those around her are being killed one by one, it’s hard to trust the strangers beside her. Is the killer sleeping right beside her or is there a serial killer lurking in the woods?

This was my first book by Darcy Coates and I’m so glad I read it while staying at my cabin in the woods, it added a bit of creepiness and a few frightful nightmares. It’s a great claustrophobic thriller that brought the chills, gore, and mystery. I loved that most chapters ended on a cliffhanger that kept me glued to the pages. I did guess a few twists but the adventure that followed kept me on the edge of my seat.

I read this whole book in about 6 hours total, once I started it I could not put it down until I was finished, my jaw dropped. I do not want to spoil anything for anyone so I will just say GO PREORDER THIS BOOK!

I had the best time with this book. It was nonstop action, suspense and intrigue from the first few chapters. The pacing felt familiarly formulaic but it didn’t take away from the overall enjoyment. The isolated, wintery setting, the mysterious group of strangers trying to survive while an unknown person picks them off one by one. All of this is very well done and I loved it. I do wish the ending had an epilogue but that’s just a personal thing. I wanted JUSTICE!


Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for allowing me to enjoy this book early in exchange for my honest review.

I have always wanted to read a Darcy Coates book and I’m so sad that I waited this long because this book was so good. It had a mystery that kept me turning the pages nonstop. I want to go back and read everything this author has written!!!

Well. Darcy Coates is my new favorite author. I read a ton of thrillers and this is by far, at the top of the list. What a brilliant and well written whodunnit...so creepy, so dark.......and lots of twists too. I did guess the ending but I did second guess myself on it multiple times. Even with guessing the ending, it was still really well done, and really, it was the perfect ending for this book. I don't want to give away too much because this is a book you need to go into knowing very little to get its full impact. Read it! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC. I will be buying all Ms. Coates' books from here on out.

"From bestselling author Darcy Coates comes Dead of Winter, a remote cabin in the snowy wilderness thriller that will teach you to trust no one. There are eight strangers. One killer. Nowhere left to run.

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.

She couldn't be more wrong.

Deep 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. As the storm grows more dangerous and the number of survivors dwindles one by one, Christa must decide who she can trust before this frozen mountain becomes her tomb."

It's July, you need some chills and thrills to cool off and Dead of Winter will do the trick!

This book was totally different! I’ve read so many Darcy’s books and they were mostly paranormal horror, but this one was gruesome!

A group of strangers on trip get stuck during a storm and one by one heads are gone. Who’s the killer? You’ll be guessing who’s the killer is till the very end.

I was so stoked to get this ARC. Darcy Coates is one of my auto-read authors. I love her haunted house stories, and Dead of Winter is an intriguing departure from the stories I'm used to seeing from her. Without losing her unique voice, Coates managed to create a completely different vibe for this book. The setting is just as atmospheric, but the stakes feel even higher and the remote, frozen setting hit all of the best scary buttons for me.

The story follows Christa, a young woman with some past trauma who is learning to trust herself and others again through her relationship with boyfriend Kiernan.

Kiernan persuades her to go with him on a small-group tour to a remote lodge in the Rockies. Their romantic getaway goes immediately awry when the bus is stopped by a treefall and a blizzard rolls in. Christa and Kiernan go for a walk while the tour guide and some of the other tourists work to clear the road, but they get lost in the storm, and when the group ultimately finds and rescues Christa, Kiernan is nowhere to be found.

Unfortunately, this marks only the beginning of Christa's troubles.

Stranded in a cabin with few supplies, the group hunkers down until people start disappearing...and turning up dead.

This book blends thriller with slasher, survival horror with locked door mystery.

If you liked the isolated settings in Lucy Foley's the Guest List or the Hunting Party, this book could be right up your alley.

I'm excited to see this new direction in Coates' writing, and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

This book was the perfect combination of horror and thriller. We jumped right in as Christa is stranded in the Rocky Mountains during a nasty winter storm with her tour group. Being stuck is not the biggest of their worries though, because something more sinister is lurking within their midst's. Darcy Coates takes you on an exciting ride with this story, and is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.

I am always excited to read a locked in mystery with a twist! This book started out with drama and it never stopped! I was very invested in trying to figure out who the killer was but I could not figure it out. Well done!

A thrill ride! Cant beat an isolated location, a murder victim, and lots of twists and turns. Keeps you guessing! Thank you to net galley and the author for allowing me to read and review. Can t wait to continue to read more by this author.

Christa and several strangers are on a bus to Blackstone Alpine Lodge in winter when they are stopped by a fallen tree across the road. Christa and Kiernan are on the trip so he can share with her the memories he made with his family at Blackstone Alpine Lodge in years past. The two wander off while the other bus passengers work on moving the tree. A storm hits and Christa falls out of Kiernan’s reach. She’s found later by the rest of the group but Kiernan is lost. The group soon discovers that a killer is in their midst when they’re taken out one by one and their heads are displayed on the large tree next to their cabin shelter. Creepy and surrounded in mystery to the very end! 5 stars!

Likes/dislikes: I enjoyed the double layer mystery, the creepiness factor and suspense. I thoroughly enjoyed the twists.
Mature content: gentle kisses
Violence: R for several bloody deaths by decapitation and heads being displayed on tree branches.
Language: PG-13 for 16 swears and no f-bombs.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC! This book creeped me out! I loved it! I was suspicious of everyone. Really good book that I couldn't put down. I rate it a 3.9

I know Darcy Coates for her horror books and this thriller didn’t disappoint. Addictive and intense, it was impossible to stop reading.

A tour group is heading deep into the snowy expanse of the Rocky Mountains. Christa is looking for a chance to put old ghosts to rest, but things don’t exactly go has planned. A snowstorm leaves the group stranded halfway to the resort, and they are forced to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Things go from bad to worse when their guide goes missing and they find their head impaled on a tree outside the cabin. There’s a killer on the loose, and they seem to be just in the beginning of a killing spree. One by one, the number of survivors dwindles, and Christa must decide who she can trust and identify the killer before they come for her.

Darcy Coates is a great writer and an expert in creating atmospheric and creepy settings. The claustrophobia, the mounting psychological pressure, and the horror of not knowing if the killer is part of the group or not, it created the perfect winter horror story.

The chapters are short, and the pace of the story is great.

We see it all through Christa’s POV, the protagonist. She’s a great main character and very believable. She has her own demons but decided to face her fears and take this trip, only for it to be a complete nightmare. Even so, despite her moments of pure fear and panic (I mean, who wouldn’t?), she remains rational and doesn’t stop trying to think of ways to keep them alive and find out who is killing them and why.

I had my suspicions about who the killer was, but in the end, it was surprise and so was the motive.
Creepy, atmospheric, and addictive, I recommend it to anyone who loves a good thriller.

DANG! I had never read from Darcy Coates before, so I didn't know what to expect from her horror/thrillers. This was gorey and unsettling, but never quite scared the shit out of me, I did NOT see the end coming (although I never do) and I would 100% pick up more from her.

I will say at the beginning I got names/characters mixed up because they're introduced quickly, but I'm also just dumb.

4.5 stars

This is one of the best thriller/who done it books I've ever read, exceptionally well written, and there is enough to the story that even if you guessed who the killer was, there is always that doubt in the back of your mind, asking yourself is there more to the story, (which there is)

There is a little bit of gore, but for the most part the horror comes from not knowing who to trust, as the numbers dwindle down.

I will be defiantly be checking out more Darcy Coates books.

*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.*

I was given an advanced copy of this book from net galley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are truthful and my own.

I liked this book. Its not very long, because there is something happening all the time. The plot is stretched over a few days but moves quickly. The atmosphere feels isolated and smothering all at once. Admittedly the "twist" is predictable but fun to get to. A lot of characters but unique enough to tell apart. I'd read more by this author.

This is the stuff of nightmares already, sans any murderer stalking your group from the treeline: a pack of strangers, stuck in the snowy woods, far from civilization, seeking refuge in a cabin not stocked with supplies nor equipped with the facilities for a stay of any great length. Add broken radios and flaring tempers, and this is pretty scary on its own, right? But what if someone disappears during the night, reappearing as only a head stuck in a tree, Vlad the Impaler style?

And so begins <i>Dead of Winter</i>, Darcy Coates' latest foray into her unique style of horror. For southern hemisphere readers, this release timing might not be as great as for us up north; the wintry setting and chilling events were great for a hot summer reading experience. This book reads very smoothly, as Darcy's work often does for me.

Besides all this, there isn't much mystery to this story, and I found myself disappointed for maybe the first time reading something by this author. I predicted the killer and what was going on very, very early on. Add to this the fact that victims were dying relatively similarly, so there wasn't the exciting vibe that you get in some slashers of, regardless of knowing the killer's identity, questioning how the next victim will die horrifically at the hands of a garden tool or household essential, if that makes sense. This blah feeling of disappointment was enough to knock stars off, but I'll round up to four because Darcy Coates is a go-to favorite.

It was a weird experience to read this in 30 degree heat because the setting was so immersive. This book feels incredibly claustrophobic for being set in such an expansive natural setting. The atmosphere is really the star of the show in this novel. I predicted the ending twist but it was still interesting enough to keep me engaged!

Gosh, this was such a disappointment. This book started out so promising but then it kept going and going and going. This book was way too long and had way too many chapters. I never had that on the edge of my seat feeling with this book. I did enjoy the first 30% but then it got extremely repetitive and it became way too obvious who the actual killer was. I wish the author did a better job at keeping this a thrilling whodunit story. Keeping this review short because I don’t want to be too negative. I will say, I did love the setting of the story and the survival aspect but that was about it. Overall, I would not recommend this one because it’s too long and not worth the ending that I was given. There are much better books in this genre that I would recommend before this one.

Thank you so much for my gifted copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.