Christa and her boyfriend joined a tour group heading into the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, to Blackstone Alpine Lodge, where they were set to have two weeks of adventure, off the grid. On the way there, Brian, their tour guide and coach driver, lamented the wild storm which they were surrounded by, but also affirmed their safety. When they were brought to a standstill by a large tree across the road, Brian set to with his chainsaw, and volunteers from the group. Taking shelter in a nearby cabin, with little to eat, no comfort for sleeping and the bitter cold keeping them company, they hoped the following day to head to the lodge.

But there was a killer out there - or among them? One by one the group was picked off, murdered in a gruesome fashion, starting with Brian, their guide. They were all terrified, but Christa was trying to work out who she could trust - not knowing any of them made it difficult. With no phone reception, they couldn't call for help. They should stay together, isolated in the cabin with the storm continuing to rage around them...

Oh my goodness!! High adrenalin from the very first page - Dead of Winter by new to me Aussie author Darcy Coates (who lives less than an hour from me!) was brilliant! The thrilling tension was electric, I had trouble putting it down. Fast paced, an excellent plot, great characters - I could feel the chilling cold! Highly recommended.

With thanks to Poisoned Pen Press via NetGalley for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

Dead of Winter is a captivating and fast-paced thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. This gripping page-turner is perfect for fans of horror and thriller fiction, as it skillfully combines magnetic storytelling with vivid descriptions that will send shivers down readers' spines, both from the bone-chilling cold and sheer terror.

Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates comes out today! It's a thriller mystery -cabin -psycho murderer -and then there were none -locked room mystery book.

A group of people are traveling on a bus to a lodge in the mountains when a fallen tree keeps them from continuing. While removing the tree a blizzard appears and the travelers find shelter in a one room cabin. That's when the murders start and won't stop until all of them are dead.

This was fun to read during the summer because I could just feel the chill coming off this book. It had some pretty gruesome scenes that made me wish I didn't play movies in my head as I read.

This book will keep you guessing the entire time. I ended up guessing who it was, but it definitely had me questioning the whole time. Plus I love yelling "I knew it!" at the end.

It has Agatha Christie vibes, which I love. This is my first book by Darcy and now I want to read her backlist.


Thank you @netgalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to love this one, the opening scene fully had me, but I quickly lost interest thereafter. I found the writing too choppy, with very blunt sentences. I think the short chaotic sentence were meant to give the reader insight to the mental state of the protagonist, but I was just incredibly bored. I struggled to be invested in any of the characters which contributed to my lack of interest in the plot elements.

This book was not the normal Darcy Coates I have read before. This book was filled with tension and gore. The twist was incredible! My jaw dropped when I reached the crazy twist. Each implied “suspect’ ended up not being who the killer was. The fact that the whole situation took place in the mountains during a snowstorm was what made the book that much more appealing. I would recommend this to anyone wanting a great psychological horror set in a dangerous location.

this was a thrilling mix between thriller & horror and would be the perfect winter read. This was definitely an edge of your seat, whodunit with twists and turns. There was one part of the ending that I had figured out, but then other plot twists that I was not expecting.
I did find the middle to get a bit repetitive and maybe it could have been a teensy bit shorter, but all and all I loved it.

Eleven people, mostly strangers, board a charter bus for a private holiday at the Blackstone Alpine Lodge located in the remote Rocky Mountains. In the winter. The bus encounters an obstacle and a big storm rolls in with icy winds and blinding snow. Death is assured if they stay outside. If shelter can be found, will they be any safer? Some strange things are happening.

I found this book to be a scary, thrilling adrenaline rush from page 1. It is in the vein of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None". There are elements of horror. I read it in one day. I had to finish it before I went to sleep!

This is my first book by Darcy Coates. I look forward to reading more!

Christa and her boyfriend are on a bus tour to a lodge in the mountains when a tree is downed across the road and a blizzard strikes. Things turn sinister when the group seeks refuge in a remote cabin when it becomes apparent that a serial killer is on the loose. With nowhere to run in the bitterly cold wilderness, how will Christa and her tour mates survive?

I could not stop turning the pages of this bloody suspense story. Coates knows how to keep you on the line until the last page. No character was above suspicion, and terror rang through this locked room mystery.

My only hangup was a medical situation that persisted throughout the story that I found distracting. I tried to research the condition, but it was more complicated than I wanted to pursue to satisfy my niggling questions. That's just me, though.

This one fits the bill if you want to curl up with a chilling, wintery suspense story. As you follow Christa's harrowing ordeal in the remote, blustery wilderness, you'll get the shivers despite the summer heat!

Pulse pounding suspense, very atmospheric and claustrophobic feel set to the back drop of a giant snowstorm and a killer on the loose. The pacing lagged just a bit towards the mid point of the novel but really gained traction. Overall a solid and entertaining read.

What an amazing, gripping, nail biting thriller!! I loved it. I was literally hooked from the first page!!! I'd definitely describe it as a horror.
I literally could not put it down!!

Dead of Winter is an engaging whodunnit with elements of a “locked door” mystery, people being stranded at an isolated cabin.

Christa and her boyfriend Kiernan are on a bus headed for a remote cabin getaway when a storm derails their bus, and they get stranded. Somehow along the way, Kiernan disappears, and Christa ends up inside a remote cabin with a bunch of strangers. One by one, people come up dead, and the author spares no details in describing the grisly details of their deaths.

Told from the point of view of Christa, readers are taken on a twisted mystery of whodunnit and along the way, the people inside the cabin must try to figure out who is doing the killings, who they can trust, and how do they survive. Perhaps I’ve read enough of these types of stories over the years that it was obvious to me from the start who the killer was, but the author does a really great job of leading the reader along and throwing a few misleading clues into the mix along the way to make you question who you think it is.

This was a horror story not in the paranormal sense, but in the grisly graphic details of each murder and in how the elements played such a huge role in all that was happening. It certainly gave me shivers along the way. The story was gripping, and I stayed glued to the pages until the very end. Not sure this will be a book I’ll ever reread, only because I don’t want to read all the gory stuff again, but I am impressed with the author’s writing style and delivery.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

his book is very similar to another murder mystery 'whodunnit' that seems to get a lot of retellings, but I'm not going to name it exactly because I feel like this 'twist' in this one will be guessed pretty much immediately after I say it. Pretty much every book based on that has the same twist, which isn't a bad thing, but it is hard to keep suspense or surprise because of that. That being said, I had a great time reading this one. Even though I kind of knew the twist, the pacing, gore, and survivalist aspect made it so fun. I very nearly finished it in a single day. I can't say it really added anything new or that it is one of my new favorites, but it was really fun and a great time I think, despite the lack of the shocking aspect. It still served the thrilling feeling that I wanted out of it, with the killer being meticulous and specifically doing things that they know would scare their targets.

Happy publication date 7/11/2023 !
Thanks to Netgalley , author Darcy Coates & Poisoned Pen Publications for sharing the ARC in exchange for honest review.
Dead of winter a big group of travelers stranded because of breakdown of their bus end up finding a remote unoccupied cabin to take shelter only to be hunted by ruthless and sly killer who butchers them one by one ! It’s down to survival now and with no help on sight and sign of anyone else close by , it’s pretty clear that one of them is the butcher and will anyone survive?
How crazy good was this pageturner! I couldn’t put it down until the very end , my detective cap was one from Page 1 trying to figure out the killer , motive . The snow ridden mountains , secluded cabin , people in peril with one of them to be killer captivates your attention. The author managed to transport me mentally to the location and ongoing events , my stomach churned with dread of next kill and a feeling of urgency to figure out who was responsible and why ? I though I had it all figured out and the reason to , but towards the end it turned out not to be the case! But ultimately turned out to be right , what a ride !!!
This would be great thriller to read during winters or Halloween time to make it more atmospheric.
This is first book I am reading from this author , turns out she’s got lots more of her books out there , I am checking them out for sure .
It’s a 4.5 / 5 star read .

Many thanks to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for my advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

It is super rare that I rate a thriller 5 stars, but this one pulled me in from the first page and would not let go.

8 strangers board a tour bus destined for the remote expanse of the Rocky Mountains. When the bus breaks down, they are forced to take shelter in a small hunting cabin. As night turns to day, the tour guide is missing only to be found with his head severed and impaled to a tree outside the cabin. These 7 strangers soon realize one of them is a murderer and they all may just die out here.

Holy smokes, this is how a thriller should be! The story is plausible, creepy but not too creepy with an ending you don't see coming. I loved how Coates dropped little nuggets throughout the entire book but I was still shocked at the ending. Looking back, I probably should have figured it out but there was a smoking gun that had me blindsided. It was good! Fast paced with short chapters makes for a super easy and entertaining read!

Highly recommend if you enjoy:
*Serial killers
*Isolation
*Unreliable characters
*Light gore

So, yes, it’s me. The one who gets a freakish glee over mysteries in the style of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. You probably know the premise: a group of people are invited to an isolated location and then they start getting knocked off until . . . .

In Darcy Coates’ version, The Dead of Winter (please note the double meaning of the title 😉 ), travelers are expecting to stay at an inn in the Rocky Mountains when they are stopped by a fallen pine in the roadway and then a blizzard that moves in swiftly and ferociously. They find refuge in a tiny cabin that barely houses them. And then one-by-one, these stranded travelers begin to die gruesomely. The remaining travelers eye each other with suspicion. Who is the killer in their midst?

The main character is Christa, a young woman who was involved in a tragedy a couple of years earlier and is slowly beginning to regain her footing in the world, much of it thanks to boyfriend Kiernan. It’s through her eyes and thoughts that the reader ventures into this mystery, who to suspect, who might be innocent, but also her lack of steadfastness in adhering to her own intuition.

For the most part this is a delicious romp of a horror (does that make me sound like I am drooling blood? hmm). When Darcy Coates is writing action and building tension, she does it very, very well. Honestly I would have said that this was a much shorter novel because I went through it so fast–a page-turner, folks. While I did guess positively who the slayer was at 65% and had guessed less solidly earlier on, Coates tossed in a nice little twist in the final scenes that made me doubt myself (oh, no!).

A gruesome little caper of survival.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Dead of Winter is a suspenseful mystery revolving around a small group of people on a tour going to a lodge in the Rocky Mountains for a two-week getaway. Nature has its own ideas as a fallen tree blocks their path and a blizzard strands them near a cabin. One of the group goes missing, they attempt to locate them. But a search and rescue quickly turns into a fight for your life as one by one are murdered.

This was an intense murder mystery. I can't say that I liked any of the characters, but what do you expect when you are on a tour with people you don't know. But it was well written and holds the reader's attention until the final pages.

This was everything I hoped for!

I loved the atmosphere of the story once things really started heating up. Isolated in a frozen area without a way to reach authorities as one by one the travelers are being killed off in the most brutal of ways had me skittish and curled up in expectation of the next scene of horror that would play out. I loved the setup of the story and the characters were all very well developed and kept me guessing. I did guess the killer at one point but I admit, I moved on to someone else and then someone else as I was never certain the who and why of it all. The author gives tidbits of information along the way that had me constantly reaching for the next dangling carrot as it was never enough. The ending was satisfying and I’m questioning why this is my first book by this author. It certainly will not be the last.

Wow this a crazy good well thought out plot with a nice steady flow of twist and turns and a cast of characters that truly reflect just how flawed our prospective of others can be this was a page turner with a ending that was a total surprise it is very rare that I don't have the killer pegged within the first few chapters well done.

This was a such a good eerie book it will make you never think of a winter cabin the same again! I highly recommend this one!

A heartpounding thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat. I felt very Agatha Christie And Then There Were None vibes and really felt the cold winter setting! The perfect book to read curled up by the fire with a hot drink!