Who doesn't love a good "strangers stuck in the snowy wilderness with a killer" story. I really liked this one. I had read other books by the author which were hit or miss for me but this one kept me reading until the very end. It was chilling and gory. I didn't figure out the ending which is always a good thing with a thriller. Highly recommend this one to anyone looking for a spooky read.

The first time I read a Darcy Coates book was because it was recommended to me by a librarian, I had never even heard of her before that. I devoured the book I was recommended, and immediately sought out more. Now I don’t even look at the description- if I see she is the author I will instantly pick it up.

This is of course another exciting thriller. With the winter setting I could see it being fun to read during the winter months or perhaps Halloween.

Very suspenseful. Coates has a flair for making us see her characters with great vividness and immediacy.
Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion

My thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was my first read by Darcy Coates and it was everything I can ask for in a thriller! It took me awhile to get into through my own fault, not through any fault of the authors. Once my life finally settled down enough for me to read, I couldn't put this book down!

Coates really paints a picture that brought the eerie landscape and setting alive. Her writing is lyrical and beautiful, even as she is describing the gruesomeness that is this book. This was tense, fast paced, and brutal. I couldn't read this fast enough to find out what would happen, right down to the final page and survivor. You suspect everyone, you trust no one, and you are delivered shock after shock.

I read the kindle version as well as listened to the audiobook version. I absolutely loved the narrator of the audiobook. She did a phenomenal job of voicing each character, establishing the right pacing, and inflections. I loved it!

Dead of Winter is a lovely, dark novel. I found the writing beautiful and the prose near flawless. It was a timeless novel that I would definitely read again. What an amazing hit!

4.5 This book was an edge of your seat thriller that I loved every minute of.This story follows a tour group as they journey to a closed down ski lodge for a private two week stay. Only problem is the weather turns bad stranding the group before they could make it to the ski lodge. Now stranded in a small cabin with no communication to the outside world people start going missing and the tourist start looking to each other as the culprit.

This book throws you right into the action from the first page and it didn’t slow down from there. I though this was a unique play on a slasher and really enjoyed the originality and the twist and turns along the way. The best way to describe this book is cinematic I could easily see this being made into a movie someday and I am all for it ! My only complaint was I did have a little bit of a hard time keeping the characters straight especially a few of the men I kept getting mixed up because their characters were very similar. Even with that I really enjoyed this book and hope to pick up more from this author in the future. I would like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for a chance to read this book for an honest review.

I absolutely love Darcy coates ' books usually but this one just didn't hit for me. I actually couldn't even finish it and I'm so upset about it but I've been Reading it for months and I cant anymore. I find it strange that we had zero set up to this story, I don't know these characters at all so why would I care what happened to him or what happens to her? I need the usual build up that coates often gives. I didn't like the odd sentence about a man wearing a size XXL "which still didn't fit".. felt very out of place and an odd thing to comment on. As a plus size reader this made me quite uncomfortable and was a further sign that this book was not for me sadly.

A dark, gruesome horror story. The setting in a snowstorm is perfect with unexpected twists as I tried to figure out who the killer is. A recommended read for fans of horror.

I want to thank the publisher "Poison Pen Press" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Christa has agreed to accompany her boyfriend on a winter retreat to a remote lodge deep in the mountains. When the weather deteriorates and their bus is unable to reach the lodge because the road is blocked the group is forced to take refuge in a deserted cabin. Meanwhile, Christa’s boyfriend has disappeared….then the tour guide is nowhere to be found…. And then it only gets worse and more terrifying.

Sounds similar to Agatha Christie’s Then There Were None, doesn’t it? But Dead of Winter goes far beyond the Christie story. Darcy Coates has created a story that is interesting, creepy, and suspenseful, with a variety of characters and backstories – not to mention the blizzard that is almost another character as well. Her descriptions of wintery mountain weather are spot-on and well-done.

At times the story seemed to be a bit drawn out and occasionally the suspense lagged a bit, but overall it moved along at a good pace with plenty of surprises. I found most of the characters to be fairly unlikable but that also kept me engaged while I tried to figure out the essence of the plot. I enjoyed Dead of Winter and it was a great book to read in the middle of our relentless summer temperatures. NetGalley provided an advance copy.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for this ARC!

I decided to read his book on some of the hottest days of summer and it definitely kept me cool with the chilly wintery landscape in the mountains!

This book had me guessing until the end who he killer way. I enjoyed the characters and the storytelling. It was a bit more grisly then I normally read but wasn't too bad that it absolutely creeped me out and turned me off. I would say the perfect amount of grisly.

This was my first Darcy Coates book and I am looking forward to reading more.

4 Stars!

A surprisingly suspenseful story of a bus load of people stranded in an isolated mountain area during the winter,, being picked off one by one in a gruesome manner. With an unexpected twist ending I quite enjoyed this one.

Alright, so I haven’t had a book in a minute that has given me the creeps. This book did it, and I LOVED IT! The scenery was 👌🏻: stormy, middle of nowhere, freezing and the woods. Couldn’t ask for more in my backdrop. Traveling can be stressful enough, but add being stuck in the middle of nowhere in a snow storm, with no one you know and this was a stress filled situation. The back 40% was 🤯🤯. It was a lot of things happening, I binged the back half because I just had to know what was next. The ending was equaling as mind blowing. This was an excellent novel!

The dread creeps through the snow and ice and freezes you to your bones in Darcy Coates' latest. I read this novel courtesy of NetGalley, but I would gladly have paid to experience the suspense and terror. A simple trip on a bus to a forest lodge in the winter... what could possibly go wrong? Especially when the people on the bus all seem so normal...

Darcy Coates has done it again!

Every once in a while, you come across a book that makes you want to just forget all your responsibilities and snuggle up to read from cover to cover. “Dead of Winter” was definitely one of those books for me. I enjoyed every moment of this book with all of its twists and turns.

Thank you NetGalley, Darcy Coates, and Poisoned Pen Press for giving me access to this wonderful ARC. I can’t wait for what is next!

This book was super good! Had me interested from the beginning and couldn’t put it down. I definitely recommend this book! 5 stars !!

This was one of the most intense and thrilling books I've read in a while, and I couldn't be happier about it! The story had me hooked from the beginning, and I couldn't put it down. Definitely recommend this one to EVERYONE!

This was my first book by Darcy Coates, but it won't be my last! 4.5 stars!

Christa joins a tour group that gets stranded in a small cabin due to a snow storm. In the middle of the night, someone goes missing, and his severed head is found outside. Now they are trapped in close quarters and one of them is a killer.

This is one of those books that just makes you feel incredibly uncomfortable. You can feel the cabin they are in, closing in on them. You feel the claustrophobia.

The book was a quick and easy read, and kept me flipping pages. I will say that some of it is incredibly unbelievable, but I didn't even care because it was just fun.

Big thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for sending me a digital copy to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This was my first Darcy Coates book, but it most certainly won't be my last. The setting was perfect for a hot summer day, chilling me to the bone with the imagery of the brutal snowstorm and I was left gasping at the end of each chapter. The suspense throughout this novel is heavy, and you don't know what the next turn of the page is going to bring you. I loved everything about this book, and honestly didn't want to put it down at all. I give this one five stars overall, and would highly recommend it to anyone that enjoys a good horror/thriller.

This was a mind-twisting tale that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very end. It was a slow build for me. I’d say maybe 40% was around where it started to really pick up and I found myself becoming more and more invested. This had the perfect creepy vibes for a late night spooky story read.

Why is it that winter makes the best setting for horror novels? Better even than Halloween. Maybe it's the bleak hopelessness of being trapped by mountains of snow and ice, the roads impassable and the slightest glitch in the power supply threatening the most extreme conditions. I don't know. But horror stories in winter are the things that spook me the most.

And Darcy Coates' Dead of Winter did not disappoint when it came to sending chills up my spine as the nine total strangers are picked off one by one while trapped alone on a snowbound mountain, with no suspects other than the people they can see every minute that passes.

Dead of Winter focuses on Christa, an introverted young woman with a murky personal history who is traveling with her boyfriend and a tour group of strangers into the Rocky Mountains in, obviously, the dead of winter. Christa is underappreciated and underestimated by the group, even by her boyfriend and especially by the group after her boyfriend disappears and is presumed dead in the blizzard conditions. Taking that indifference that borders on animosity, Christa sets out to be a part of the group because it will help her survive longer but also to look out for herself above all else, because that will help her survive. Period.

The others in the group are a diverse, falliable cast of characters, all with a small, random thing in common that they eventually find out has drawn them together on the tour bus. And the common thing is never spoiled, hardly hinted out, and almost impossible to guess until the big reveal.

And even after it's revealed, the story continues on for at a breathtaking, but fascinating pace until the last sentence.

If horror novels, murder mysteries, psychological thrillers, and snow-based stories are something you like, give this book a try.

Disclaimer: Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the chance to read this novel in exchange for a review. All thoughts are my own and no compensation was