Money will make you do crazy things to protect your fortune, family, and reputation. The rich seem to believe they are above the law as long as they are protecting their interests. I enjoyed reading this story of a woman trying to find out where she came from and what those secrets may mean for her future. She finds herself immersed in a family that is hiding some major secrets and she is trying to figure out the truth vs the lies they have told. There are a lot of characters both living and deceased to keep track of, which can make it confusing at times, but totally worth the read.

I literally squealed out loud when I got an ARC of this book, and now that it’s one of BOTM’s January options (check out the link in my bio!) and about a month away from pub day, I have no hesitations about telling you that I loved loved loved this book. It starts out slow, but I promise you that by the middle you’ll not want to put it down. Between the remote location, the narrator’s memory loss, and the surprise ending, this was an instant hit for me. You’ll want to add this to your preorder list ASAP!! Thanks to Kate Alice Marshall, @flatiron_books , and @netgalley for my advanced copy, which in no way affected my honest review!


𝗦𝗬𝗡𝗢𝗣𝗦𝗜𝗦: Theo is finally going to meet her fiancé Connor’s old money family at their remote winter retreat, and she’s already on edge. She’s been receiving threatening texts to stay away, and Connor has been asking more questions about her past: questions she can’t answer because she can’t remember anything about her life before she was school age. The Dalton’s are less than welcoming, someone’s been spying on her every move, and the place gives her a disquieting sense of déja vu, but all of that pales in comparison when she finds a photograph of herself as a toddler in one of the abandoned cabins. Theo has been here before, the memory buried deep within her psyche. But uncovering the answers about her past means uncovering Dalton family secrets, and putting herself in mortal danger.

I may have the unpopular opinion with this one, but I didn't love it. I have mostly enjoyed this author's YA books. Rules for Vanishing is my favorite. I previously enjoyed What Lies in the Woods, but was pretty disappointed with her other adult thriller No One Can Know. This one falls somewhere in the middle of those two for me. I liked the atmosphere. It is definitely perfect for this time of year (winter). I wasn't super invested in any of the story though. I have a really hard time getting into stories where the main character has amnesia and the entire plot is just them trying to remember stuff. It very rarely works for me. I didn't think this book was bad. It just wasn't for me.

Theodora is engaged to Connor, who is quite wealthy and a member of the elite Dalton family. They instantly fell in love and six months later, he's brought her back to his family's isolated winter retreat to win over his skeptical relatives. Theo starts receiving threatening messages to stay away from Connor and has the sense she's been at this cabin before.

I have read the author's previous two books and this is by far my favorite of her recent books.
I love a good locked room mystery and the remote cabin setting in the middle of winter was perfect right now. This is very bingeable with some really good family drama, lots of hidden secrets, and some fun red herrings to keep you guessing up until the end.

Highly recommend on audio - narrated by Karissa Vacker who is one of my favorite thriller narrators. The story is single POV but she uses different voices to narrate for the large cast. .


Recommend if you enjoy:
Locked room mysteries
Rich people behaving badly
Remote winter cabin setting
Winter thrillers
Family secrets

A Killing Cold is an atmospheric psychological thriller set at a wealthy family’s estate in the dead of winter. The protagonist is there with her fiancé to meet his family. After she arrives, she has strange flashbacks that indicate that she might’ve been there before. Strange things happen and mysterious circumstances are slowly revealing until the intensely riveting conclusion. The winter setting drew me in. For fans of Lisa Unger and Mindy Mejia.

❄️🧣📚 A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall 📚🧣❄️
Genre: Thriller
Length: 304 pages
Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the e-ARC of this book. The opinions stated here are solely my own.

Synopsis:
Theodora Scott, a girl with a mysterious and tragic past, has fallen in love with Connor Dalton, a man from an extremely wealthy family. After six months, they are engaged and finally going to meet Connor's family at his family winter retreat, Idlewood. While there, Theo tries to win over Connor's difficult family, but has also been receiving mysterious threatening messages to stay away from Connor.

As she gets to know the Dalton's strange memories from her forgotten childhood begin to resurface and she can't help but wonder why Idlewood starts to feel familiar... Will Theo connect the dots? Can she truly trust Connor, whom she has only really known for six months? As the winter weather worsens, Theo tries to decide whether she should stay and dig deeper into the Waltons secrets, or run away and risk never knowing what haunted her past.

Opinion:
I was really invested in this book from start to finish! The more you read, the more complicated and twisted the Daltons' family secrets become. I loved how each character in the family had different motivations and backstories of their own, all of which kind of came together for the big reveal. I always enjoy a rich family's dark drama as part of a thriller and this one was done perfectly. Theo was also a very strong female character and I loved how she was able to trust her own instincts to get to the bottom of her past, present, and future. Great book!

💙I’ve loved this author’s previous two thriller books so I was super excited to get an early copy of her next one!

📘Family drama, devastating secrets, sinister plots, and a claustrophobic setting all combine to make this a page-turner. You never quite know who to trust in this one.

❄️A perfect winter thriller read and the audio is done really well. Definitely recommend it if you like a thriller that is heavier on the family drama and mystery.

*Thank you to Flatiron Books, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the gifted ARC and ALC in exchange for my honest review*

OKAY KATE ALICE MARSHALL!! This is a fabulous winter thriller. An amnesiac's visit to her fiance's family's cabins reveals more than anyone could've predicted. This book is chilling in more ways than you'd expect: the cold, the terrible crimes that occur(red), and the constant sense that one of Thea's memories is on the cusp of returning. And the narration really helped build the tension of the story!

I love a thriller where you can't know who to trust, especially when the characters are rich people behaving badly. We constantly ping-pong between comfort and stress, I swear this book took a year off my life. The scarf visuals alone? Oh my god. The ending/epilogue was a bit abrupt, but I really enjoyed this quick read.

Wow! It’s been a long time since a book hooked me from the very beginning and had me on the edge of my seat right through to the very end. I devoured this book in less than 24 hours.

This book had a good bit of everything - class struggles, family secrets, a child raised by foster parents with nothing but snippets of her life that flash by in nightmares. I tend to be pretty good at picking up on plot twists, but this one let me guessing. The atmosphere is perfect - stranded on a mountain that’s one part playground for the ultra wealthy and one part a burial ground for deep, dark secrets. The only drawback for me was that the book, at times, could be a little TOO twisty and the lines between people and events sometimes felt abrupt and rushed.

Overall, a great book. Perfect reading for a cozy winter night - especially if there’s snow falling outside.

This was a fast paced thriller that kept me turning the pages. The setting was perfect, a secluded mountain house, snow, and Christmas time. The family is just as you would expect, wealthy and secretive, with multiple character flaws. The mystery was also pretty good. The only reason I didn't give more stars is because the ending was extremely lackluster compared to the build-up from the rest of the book.

Wow! What’s a cold thrilling trip I just took! Amazing read, taking you on a wild adventure of love, lost and truth. Highly recommend, easy to follow and captures your attention out the gate!

Kate Alice Marshall knows exactly how to raise my heart rate with her suspenseful, twisty, and atmospheric thrillers. This one combines rich people behaving badly with a secluded location and long-buried secrets to create the perfect winter read. I was kept wondering what was going to happen next the entire time. I read this one over five days with my booksta besties but you’ll definitely want to binge it on a cold night. None of us wanted to stop each day and it was really hard to stick to our schedule!

If you haven’t preordered this one yet and loved Kate’s previous works…go ahead and add it to the cart because you’re not going to want to miss it!

4.5/5⭐️

This is the third adult thriller that I’ve read from Kate Alice Marshall and I think A Killing Cold is her best yet! Theodora “Theo” Scott and her fiance Connor Dalton head up to Connor’s family’s mountain home for the holidays. However, Theo started receiving threatening texts from an unknown number to “stay away” from Connor. On the mountain, there is a main lodge and some cabins, one of which she stays in with her fiance while Connor’s family members stay in the others. While there, Theo starts to feel like she has been there before and is starting to piece together some memories from when she was a little girl. It starts to become even more clear that someone doesn’t want Theo to remember what happened to her as a kid as she continues to uncover clues that she was there on that mountain before.

This thriller was truly so fast paced that I read it in less than 24 hours—I kept needing to know what happened next. The twists and the layers to the story were done so well. I really didn’t know which characters to trust and every time I thought someone was the culprit, there was a new twist and even more tension added to the story. This thriller is also very atmospheric with the wintery mountain setting, making it a perfect book to curl up with during the winter. Overall, definitely one of the best fast-paced, high-suspense thrillers I’ve read in a while!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

TW: miscarriage, abuse of a minor
While the abuse depicted was very short in the book and not super central to the story in my opinion, it was a little jarring to me and probably what kept me from rating it a full 5 stars.

When Theo meets Connor, she hopes to leave her troubled past behind. Although things are moving fast, she’s happy to spend the holidays at Connor’s supremely wealthy family’s mountainside retreat called Idlewood. When Theo arrives, however, her soon-to-be inlaws are a bit intimidating - maybe even menacing. And then the Idlewood begins to feel familiar. Theo can’t remember anything about her early childhood, but she starts to think she may have been there before.

This is the third KAM book I’ve read, and it’s my favorite so far. A KILLING COLD is twisty, well-plotted and well-written. There are juicy secrets, multiple points of view, and shifting timelines, but the plot is easy to follow. As the plot thickens, everyone becomes a suspect and I stayed up way too late finishing it because I needed to know how the story ended.

I highly recommend this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher Flatiron Books for the early digital ARC of A KILLING COLD in exchange for my honest feedback.

4.5/5

Thank you Flatiron Books for the advanced reading copy!

I loved Kate Alice Marshall's 2023 novel WHAT LIES IN THE WOODS, but found myself a bit disappointed by her 2024 release NO ONE CAN KNOW. Luckily for all of us, 2025 is bringing with it another phenomenal, dark and atmospheric thriller. This was a great one to read at this time of year, as it has a sometimes-cozy-sometimes-ice-cold setting with lots of wintery vibes. I was hooked from the start, despite feeling that the story was going to be predictable and overdone. I was so wrong! There were so many surprises in this shocking and twisted story, and my interest didn't wane in the slightest from beginning to end. This was a quick read that I could not put down, and really nailed what I was wanting from an end-of-the-year read: entertainment, shock value, and creepy winter vibes. Loved it!

Kate Alice Marshall knocks it out of the park yet again with A Killing Cold. I will literally read anything she writes. The way she twist and weaves her plot lines and characters is insane to me. A Killing Cold was no different.

First off the setting of this book is perfection. I could feel the cold seeping in to my bones while reading. I don’t want to say much about this book because it’s a journey I feel you need to discover on your own. But the vibes are top tier for a winter thriller. The characters are unique and strange and plot just kept getting thicker and thicker the more I read. I will say the middle got a little slow but it definitely picked back up in the last 20% of the book.
4/5 Stars

Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for sending me an arc in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Pub Date: 2/4/2025
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Kate Alice Marshall is quickly becoming an auto-buy author for me. She just knows how to write a suspenseful and twisty story.
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I was hooked to this story right from the start. I found myself hooked to the idea of Theodora and Conner being engaged after 6 months and how Theodora had no memories of her past plus of course - extra bonus was the sketchy rich family behavior badly.
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Absolutely loved the setting of the isolated wintry cabin setting. It is absolutely perfect for this time of year. The start of this is more of a slow burn but as the mystery unfolds I felt that the pacing ramped up and I couldn’t put it down. There are perfectly placed twists to keep you guessing and to give those shocking moments. I love where Marshall went with this one.
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I listened to this one via audiobook while reading my ears. Karissa Vacker is a phenomenal narrator and she really brought this one to life for me. I love listening to her work. The audiobook is truly fantastic.
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Overall, if your looking for a chilling, perfect for this time a year thriller - pick this one up you will not be disappointed!! Huge thank you to NetGalley, Kate Alice Marshall, MacMillan Audio and Flatiron Books for the ALC and eARC in exchange for my honest review!

A Killing Cold was a fast paced twisty book that is perfect for the winter time. I have read all of Kate Alice Marshall’s other books and have enjoyed them all, but this one I enjoyed even more. With a large cast of characters that all feel genuine, you are constantly guessing on who could have done what. It was really a great book to read.

Thank you NetGalley, Flatiron Books, and Macmillan Audio for ARCs of this book.

I am a huge fan of Kate Alice Marshall and this book did not disappoint! I love her descriptive words making me feel as though I was at the Idlewood Estate. This book is filled with a cast of crazy, awful, unique characters that wouldn’t trust with my fish. Their personalities felt so vivid and real to me. This was a super quick read because I could not put it down, I love that adrenaline feeling where you just have to know what happens next!

Connor and Theo have a quick whirlwind romance and are now engaged to be married. Connor comes from a wealthy family and Theo is adopted and not so wealthy. They travel to Idlewood Estates to meet the family, soon strange things start happening, warnings and memories are coming in hot. This is the perfect Locked Room mystery and setting.

I've read and loved all of Kate Alice Marshall's books so far. While I did enjoy this one, I feel like it needs a disclaimer that it's a little slower than the others and felt more like a mystery/family drama than a thriller. The ending was very twisty though.

The book centers around Theo, a woman who was adopted at 4 and can only remember fragments (or are they dreams?!) from her past, and Connor, her rich fiance. Connor is bringing Theo to a remote, snowy cabin (before of course he is 🤣) to meet his family, who we quickly learn have tons of secrets. There are lots of strange coincidences throughout the trip, which worked to keep me hooked, but when you stop and really think back on it, are kind of far-fetched.

This is a great atmospheric winter read, with plenty of suspense. I actually binged it in one day. It is a good read for fans of this author, readers who are able to suspend belief a bit with thrillers, and people who believe in fate (I'm still trying to wrap my head around that detail)

Thank you to MacMillan Audio for the ALC, and NetGalley and FlatIron for the ARC.