This gave me such good locked room vibes and I was here for it. A trip to the Rockies for a group of friends only to get lost and found themselves at an abandoned cabin, yeah, sign me up. The story telling and the narrative were so well written that I had no idea who was the killer, and I LOVE that. It was refreshing to get into a thriller where I’m stuck on who it is.

An excellent whodunit thriller about friends who are on a getaway in the Rocky Mountains. They get lost but find an abandoned cabin and thats where things go south. What I loved most about this was that it was not predictable. I honestly didn’t know who the killer was until it was revealed. Excellent story. Perfect for a cold, winter day.

Hoo boy this one started off strong and was intense the ENTIRE way through. This one is a locked room thriller and it is a doozy. Our girl Christa is joining a tour group that is heading deep into the Rocky Mountains, and they are hit with a snowstorm on the way there, forcing them to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Folks, if that doesn’t get your spidey senses up already, then I don’t know what will, and we are barely past the introduction here. Night one someone goes missing, and as they set out to find them, they do the next day, well, they find their severed head. Umm, WHAT? And from there bodies are dropping like lightning, folks are scared, trust is gone, and everyone thinks they are the next victim.

This was heart pounding good, I could not stop reading and there is a twist at the end that I did NOT see coming, and it left me with my jaw dropped open. I mean this ending got me and boy did I love it. Overall this was fantastic, chilling, and so suspenseful that I had to do some deep breaths to relax once I finished. I’m not sure how this was my first read by this author but I need to go back and fix that now.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for the digital copy to review.

A young woman, Christa, and her boyfriend Kieran are headed to a lodge for a romantic vacation. Their bus has to stop because of a downed tree, and while Christa and Kieran are stretching their legs nearby, Kieran becomes lost and Christa injured.

Christa is frantic that everyone help her look for Kieran, though most just want to take shelter in the cabin the tour guide found close by. Christa fruitlessly wanders for hours before returning exhausted and falls asleep. Then, the tour guide is found butchered outside. Gradually, various other strangers Christa is with are murdered by someone they feel is part of their tour group, and the tension and tempers ramps up.

Darcy Coates' gory riff on Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None" was such a disappointment. From its frequently irritating main character, to the extremely easy-to-figure-out identity of the murder, this book never came together for me. The first moment I fell out of the narrative: Christa is wandering around, injured, not dressed all that well to handle a blizzard, has no real understanding of how to navigate a forest, and she DOESN'T get lost and succumb to hypothermia?!? Or fall off a slope or something far more believable than returning to the cabin cold and tired? Nope.

I also never cared about the other characters, much less Christa's emotions as the situation fell apart. And when the murderer was revealed, I was totally underwhelmed, having long known who it was.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Poisoned Pen Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

I have already read this book twice and recommended it to everyone I know . Darcy Coates never disappoints with spooky stories that draw you in and captivate you . Revenge is a dead shot best served cold in this unique story.

This one was so fun! More of a thriller than Darcy Coates usually writes, but still gory and kept my attention. I think that there were some predictable aspects of this but that did not impact my enjoyment. I do think it got a little repetitive in some moments which is my main complaint about Dead of Winter. I do appreciate how certain things that happened impacted the entire story and didn't magically fix itself like I feel like books typically do. Not my favorite from this author but still would recommend and will continue to read anything Darcy Coates writes!

I absolutely LOVED this . I could not put this book down . Crazy thing is I guessed the ending but the plot twist was amazing . I loved how all the pieces of the stores fell into place . Definitely a 5 star read

Well this was certainly a thrill ride! The heads literally start rolling from the beginning and the gruesome suspense continues to the end. There were times that this felt one-note because the murders were all so similar, but it was still an intense story. If you’re a fan of survival thrillers, you’ll definitely want to read this. Despite being set in the mountains during a snow storm, this is a perfect read for spooky season.

I have heard so many good things about Darcy Coates. This however was so underwhelming, I was expected to be shivering and scared the whole time. This game me a little more graphic one by one but Ruth Ware. Which I hated. I have no opinions on any of the characters because I was so disinterested. This felt more thriller than horror.

I will read Darcy Coates again though I want her to make me terrified.

Dead Of Winter
Darcy Coates @darcybooks
Genre: Horror/Thriller/Mystery
Page Count: 341

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.

"Technically, the statistics on that are ugly on a regular day: the average person is likely to cross paths with three to ten murderers in their lifetime, including not-insignificant odds of having one inside their broad social group."

O-EMM-FREAKING-G Darcy delivered. This is SOOO unlike the paranormal gothic vibes Im used to seeing from Coates and I absolutely loved every danm minute of it. From start to finish. EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE.

Isolated location with a snowy setting, say less. I'm here for it. Jam packed with characters you will love, loathe and despise. Atmospheric descriptions that had my fingers frozen with frostbite. Gorey scenes that just gave you the ick. And OMG the intensity of it all. There was no way I wasn't on the edge of my seat the entire time.

Hands down one of my favorite Coates books I have read so far

Huge thank you to @netgalley and @poisonedpenpress
for the advanced readers copy in exchange for my honost thoughts and opinions. 🖤

The premise for this one had me excited however the execution fell a little flat for me. There were parts of the story I did enjoy such as everyone being a suspect, the gruesome killings and the atmospheric setting however I did also feel the story was a bit too out there and unbelievable. This was my first book by this author and I would be interested to read more.

Christa is part of a tour group on their way to a resort in the Rocky Mountains, but when a brutal winter storm interferes, the group has to take refuge in a remote cabin -- and then things get even worse.

This had me on the edge of my seat, doing whatever the kindle version of furiously flipping pages is called (frenzied poking?) -- anyway, there were a zillion well-executed red herrings, nonstop tension, and some truly gruesome moments (a head! in a tree!) - loved it!

Somehow this was my first Darcy Coates book (?) I definitely need to hit up her backlist -- and will be the first in line to read whatever she writes next. What a treat!

This was such a fun story filled with the familiar tropes you see in the one by one style of story.
If you've read a Darcy before you know she is the best at setting up atmosphere and this was no different than any other book of hers. From the start of the book I felt the chilly vibes. I was on the edge of my seat. I found myself flipping through the pages as fast as possible to see if my guesses were right. I will say it is at times very predictable if you've read other one by one stories. However this didn't take away from my overall enjoyment of the story.

It reminds me of if One By One by Ruth Ware and Near The Bone by Christina Henry had a book baby.

I have always enjoyed Darcy Coates’s writing, and her characters! While this story was suspenseful, immensely atmospheric and very quick paced, I found it to be a plot that is a bit overdone.

All in all, the horror of how each member of the group was being picked off and the couple twists that Coates threw in made for an enjoyable read! If you enjoy Locked Room Mystery and Psychological Thriller then this is a great read for spooky season!

I have been putting off reading this because it happens in the snow and I don’t know what’s it is about snow, but I hate snow lol. Anyways, finally picked this up and I regret not reading this sooner!!
Christa is on a trip to a mountain lodge with her boyfriend when their bus gets stranded. They merely went for a walk when the weather got worse and she got separated from her boyfriend.
The remaining people somehow find an abandoned cabin nearby to rest. Everybody decides to rest till they find help. The book follows Christa trying to find him while something/someone is killing all her tour mates one after another. Christa needs to find the killer if she has any chance of survival. But who can she trust?
This book had me up all night. And I devoured it. The character development is amazing, all the characters were different and very interesting. Even though the plot seemed so simple in the beginning, the author managed to keep us interested and guessing till the very very end. . Definitely recommend.
4.5⭐️/5. Dropping half a star only because at one point I guessed the perpetrator.
Thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Press for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion!

3.5/5 stars - This is a fast-paced yet somehow also slow-build one-by-one murder thriller. The deaths are gruesome, the claustrophobia is real, and the cold is harsh, and everyone is a suspect. I guessed the answer pretty early on, but it didn't actually take away from the compelling jaunt of the read. Darcy Coates has certainly found a rhythm in these books, and I will continue to seek out her new works.

A remote cabin in the snowy wilderness thriller that will make you question who can you actually trust. Christa joins a tour group heading up into the snowy mountains in hopes to get a clean escape and figure out her demons. After the weather takes a turn the group is required to take up shelter in an abandoned cabin in hopes of letting the storm pass before going back out. Sometime during the first day of the trip and the cabin stop their tour guide going missing and later found dead with his head cut off. The group starts to get concerned and wonders if someone within their group is dangerous. Through their time in the cabin more people go missing and then turn up dead. Some of the group wants to stay and some wants to leave before more people are killed. Do they escape? Who is the killer?

WOW!! Such a captivating, thrilling, and scary book! I read this book in one sitting and I couldnt stop reading. I wanted to know what happened and who was to blame. This kept you on your toes the entire time and you never knew what was going to happen next. It had the perfect winter stormed trapped thriller that you would expect. It wasnt just the suspense but the secrets you discovered through this book that made you fall in love with this book. I would 100% recommend this book!

I found this book of people stranded in the middle of a snow storm full of edge of your seat suspense, I was totally invested. The end was a bit predicable. Overall it was a good suspense.

Take "And Then There Were None" meets slasher flick meets claustrophobic winter storm, and you get this book. I had a great time reading this. A page-turner with lots of twists and turns. Extremely thrilling and heart-pounding inducing. I had guessed the killer, but because of all the twists and red herrings, I had forgotten my original guess until the reveal. My only complaint was that the book was a bit too long, with some scenes dragging on and being repetitive. Nevertheless, an enjoyable read and recommended to anyone who likes locked-door-like thrillers.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Whew, I don’t even know where to start with this book. I’ve had to sit with this book for a while before I could actually condense my thoughts into a format that makes sense. This book was truly a wild roller coaster of a thriller.

As a thriller I can honestly say that I loved the complexity of the story and the way the tension built up. The story started strong and was quick to deliver action and add in details that left me in a constant state of stress. The author truly had a way with words that made the story come to life. With such a strong start, I really expected the action to continue, but the middle of the story lagged. Nonetheless, while the action lagged, the tension didn’t lag for a second. It was an interesting juxtaposition to feel both bored and tense at the same time.

The tension in the middle stemmed from the horror elements that were threaded throughout the plot. While I absolutely loved the thriller part of the story, I had a very hard time separating the gruesome details from the parts that I enjoyed. When I started the book, I did not realize that it was also labeled as horror. If I had known, honestly, I never would have picked it up. Separating the thriller from the horror was part of the problem I had with deciding how I felt about the book as a whole.

After the high high of the beginning and the lows of the middle, the ending was everything I’ve ever hoped for in a thriller. It was both expected and yet still twisty, and most importantly, it was mind blowing-ly suspenseful.

I didn’t touch on the characters because honestly, they are a cast that is to be expected in a “middle of nowhere” thriller. The characters themselves really fit many of the tropes one may expect, but they each share their story in just the most fascinating of ways. It’s not the cast that makes this book, it’s the writing and the mastery of storytelling that really makes this a fantastic, albeit gory, novel.

⅘ stars- taking one away for the graphic gore.

Please make sure to check trigger warnings on this one!

Thank you to Netgalley and Poison Pen Press for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest review