This is the perfect cozy winter thriller! I’m such a mood and seasonal reader and I’m
mad I read this in July! Will be recommending once it’s cold for sure!

I am very grateful for the opportunity to read Darcy Coates new novel (I love her work).
I thought this was fast paced, and I truly only had an inkling of who might be committing the murders-as well as I enjoyed figuring out how everyone was connected.
But I skimmed large portions of this to get to the end. Something kept me from being hooked, and I think it’s largely that the characters just didn’t feel fleshed out enough for me to care about them. They felt a tad too one dimensional.
I know this book will find its right audience and I will continue to reach for the author’s future novels. This one was “just ok”

Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates
A winter getaway turns into a frosty nightmare for Christa and the eight others on the tour. As part of a tour group going into the Rocky Mountains, a sudden winter storm turns the happy getaway into a fight for their lives. The group takes shelter in a small, sparse hunting cabin to wait out the storm. However, one of the group is killing off the others one by one. Who can be trusted?
This story grips you right from the beginning. There are lots of twists and turns. I did not see the ending coming. Well written, great character developments and just enough suspense to keep you up way past your bed time. Enjoy!!!

I received a gifted eARC for DEAD OF WINTER By Darcy Coates – thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley!

DEAD OF WINTER follows Christa as she sets out on a group tour to a remote lodge in the Rocky Mountains. She is looking forward to spending the time with her boyfriend, but things quickly go awry and take a deadly turn. A tree down on the road and an unexpected snow storm cut the traveling group off from the world short of reaching their destination.

Christa winds up trapped in a small one room cabin with a group of strangers, injured and without the ability to call out for help. Worse yet, people begin to die and no one can be trusted.

I have really loved many of Darcy Coates’ books so I was thrilled to hear she had a new book coming out. The timing of this one was great as I was really in a thriller/horror mood. This book I think straddles the line between thriller and horror. There is definitely some gruesome body horror combined with mystery as we follow in Christa’s head trying to figure out who could possibly be to blame. The atmosphere is really well done which is no surprise for this author.

While I think a lot of the answers in this one were pretty easy to guess at, there were a few surprises along the way. Even knowing the ultimate bad guy pretty early on, I did really appreciate what the author did to try to throw the reader and the characters off the scent.

I think if you enjoy Darcy Coates’ writing or are looking for a fun wintery summer slasher/thriller, this is one to definitely pick up!

First a big thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for giving a copy to review.

This was a very well done thriller mystery, I had so many constant and changing theories about what might be happening, some twists were less surprising than others but it kept me on my toes the whole time.

The main character had very enjoyable POV to read, and the rest of the characters all had just enough flaws to make them seem guilty while also having enough reason to see them as innocent.

That’s really all I can say as I don’t want to spoil any of it, highly suggest this book for those who love a good thriller mystery.

If you like “And Then There Were None”, then this book is for you! “Dead of Winter” by Darcy Coates is a brilliant closed room thriller. Christa goes on a trip with her boyfriend to a mountain cabin. They get separated in the woods Christa is forced to share a cabin with ten other travelers. One by one, they are brutally murdered. This book had me turning the pages so fast to see what would happen!!!
I don’t want to give away too much, but this was a really great read! It had me guessing until the end. Many thanks to the author, Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

dead of winter definitely reads as a classic darcy coates story — full of suspense and keeps you at the edge of the seat while you’re unable to put the book down!

the plot is pretty straight forward: a group of people who don’t know each other are going to a cosy lodge in the middle of nowhere until their bus gets stranded during a snowstorm. with nowhere to go they’re forced to hide out in an abandoned cabin until the storm is over… but one by one they’re killed off and it can only be one of the people in the cabin, so who can they trust?

it’s a pretty classic plot and it’s got all the fun little tropes, which also means that it’s pretty easy guessing who the killer is from the beginning with the motive becoming clear about halfway through. it’s one of the main criticisms i’ve seen from other reviews, but i genuinely think it doesn’t take away from the book since coates manages to keep you intrigued all the way through. she’s an excellent writer and it shows.

not to mention, the revelation of the killer and their motive really just felt like a win to me since i was trying to pick up clues along the way and being proven right is always a neat feeling.

i’ve still got a ton of other darcy coates books i need to read but so far she’s not disappointed me!

// arc courtesy of the publisher, poisoned pen press, and netgalley.

When Christa and her boyfriend, Kiernan, take a bus trip to a remote lodge in the mountains with a group of strangers, everything goes terribly wrong.
They find themselves stuck in the middle of a snowstorm and everyone on the bus takes shelter in a nearby cabin. One by one, people start dying and everyone questions whether someone in the group is the killer or is someone from the outside watching them...and where are the I owners of the cabin? Christa desperately tries to figure all of this out in a race to save her life and the lives of the others on the bus tour before they all become victims.

This was my first read by this author and I really enjoyed it! It has everything I look for in a good thriller... mystery, suspense, twists, shock value and horror! I definitely look forward to reading more I Darcy Coates' books in the future!

Pub Date: July 11, 2023

Thank you to @netgalley and @poisonedpenpress for this ARC copy

The writing of this one is descriptive and honestly gave me chills, which I was definitely appreciative of, since summer temps are here to stay!! 🥵 The story follows multiple unreliable characters and just when I had a feeling I knew who did it, I was quickly proven wrong multiple times before the big reveal 😅. The final reveal was definitely a jaw dropping moment for me!

Once I got past the half way point, I caught myself saying, "okay I'll just read one more chapter", only to then end up binge reading the second half of the book. I have no regrets for the hours of sleep lost! Although, the elements of horror in this one might just cause me to lose sleep for days after finishing this one.

The chapters are short and are written with cliff hangers at the end of them that push you to keep reading until everything is wrapped up and revealed!

If you're looking for a page turner thriller/horror read definitely give this one a try!! I will warn you, the descriptions do get gory though! 😵

Things I loved about this one:
❄️ Mysterious pasts
❄️ Snowy locked in trope
❄️ Page turning twists
❄️ Multiple unreliable characters

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I love a good locked room mystery, and Darcey Coates explores this trope brilliantly in Dead of Winter, her ice-cold homage to And Then There Were None. Eight people are stranded in the Rocky Mountains, trapped in an isolated cabin, and are being picked off one by one in grisly, gruesome ways. We get the story from the first-person point of view of Christa, one of the eight, as she desperately tries to figure out who is doing the killing before she herself becomes a victim.

Dead of Winter will transport you from the sunny skies and balmy temperatures of summer right into a frigid, menacing, bitterly cold winter landscape. Coates uses the setting itself as another character, an antagonist that prevents the characters from rescue and threatens them with its unrelenting desolation and chill. The plot proceeds at a lightning-fast pace, with cinematic writing and short chapters that make it impossible to stop reading, and the narrative is laced with tension, terror, and dread. There are plenty of horror elements here (specifically graphic violence), but Coates proves with this novel that she can write a good murder mystery, too.

I sometimes have issues with large ensemble casts; keeping all the characters straight can be challenging if there isn’t enough detail to differentiate them. But each of the characters in Dead of Winter is multi-faceted and memorable and has an integral part to play in the plot. The way Coates weaves everything together is dark and devious and quite brilliant, actually. I will say that I did guess the ending, but that didn't do anything to deter my enjoyment of Dead of Winter; Coates kept my eyes glued to the page as everything unfolded.

This is only the second book I’ve read by Darcey Coates, and I’m absolutely thrilled I still have so much of her backlist to explore. Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for the early reading opportunity.

I love a mysterious thriller. This book is just that. If you're looking for a book to escape and a mindless read then this one is for you. Darcy Coates and Dead of Winter will have you guessing throughout this book as Christa, and her boyfriend Kieran, set out for a trip that quickly goes wrong. Kieran disappears when they get separated while outside when their bus is stranded in a snow storm. Kieran is missing and the others on the trip start getting murdered. This is a classic who done in. It was a fun read with shorter chapters. There are many characters that can be a bit to keep up with.

This was a really fast paced thriller that has you suspicious of everyone in the story. A group of people are taking a quiet trip to a remote lodge in the middle of nowhere. But when their bus is detoured by a felled tree and they have to hike to an abandoned cabin - the bodies start piling up!

I loved how creepy the story was and how it kept me guessing who was behind all of it. But the story is completely from one character's perspective and she left me wanting a little. She tended to see the potential good in everyone, which is honestly nice to read from that perspective, but it clouds your judgement a lot when reading the story.

Overall a wonderful read though and I'd recommend it to any lover of #thrillerbooks!

Fantastically creepy and keeps you guessing right up to the bloody end! Stranded in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of strangers you can't trust. People keep dying one by one. It's a horror plot we have heard before, but as always, Darcy Coates keeps it fresh and tense. I definitely will recommend to any horror book lovers!

Thank you Netgalley for my copy of this book. My review is unbiased and my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this amazing ARC!

Easily my favorite book of the year! what an amazing heart-pounding thrill ride this was. Mrs Coates has a way of writing that makes you feel every emotion like you were there.
From the characters, to the setting to the twists this is a must read book that is impossible to put down.

5/5.

I loved this book, as I love most everything that Darcy Coates writes. Very fast paced and entertaining and I flew through it in two days. I wasn't able to guess the killer, which was a plus. Very isolated and snowy thriller/horror tale.

Many thanks, NetGalley and Poision Pen Press, for this ARC! Immediately upon starting this book, I was HOOKED. I could not put down this book once I started it. I loved that I second guessed every single character and their motive. I love a thriller trope of stuck in the same place - I think that it makes for the most exciting hook. I am so excited to recommend this book to others. Murder, mayhem and mystery? Count me in.

Oooh this one was an eerie page-turner! It was definitely one of the more atmospheric books I’ve read! And downright GRUESOME with the murder descriptions.

I love locked-room thrillers and trying to determine the killer. It’s always a fun game of “are you smarter than the characters?” for me. This one definitely gets bonus points because I never did completely guess what was going on! I think the not knowing was definitely what made me so engrossed with this one as it definitely wasn’t the characters. I wanted to shake them all at one point or another!

Although I didn’t completely guess the ending, I wasn’t exactly satisfied with it either. The motive touches on my all-time least favorite thriller trope and l wanted a little more closure than we were given. Consider me needy!

Thank you @netgalley and @poisonedpenpress for the opportunity to read and review this arc!

Wow, Dead of Winter constantly had me on the edge of my seat with my heart pounding throughout the book. I was immediately hooked from Chapter 1 and it didn’t let up the whole way through. My head was spinning and every time I though I figured out the killer, I was so wrong. I would have never guess who the killer was or why.

This is my first book by Coates and it will not be my last. Every psychological thriller lover needs to READ THIS BOOK! While it is being released in the summer in the USA, it will make an amazing winter read with its snowy winter setting.

******Many thanks to Poison Pen Press, Darcy Coates, and NetGalley for my gifted ebook, in turn for an honest review.

Will be posting my review on Instagram (thriller_book_sisters) on 7/10/23.

Dead of Winter starts with a bang. The reader is immediately thrown into the thick of things, and the story stays tense. The location is perfect for terrible winter storms and trapping a group of people. A group of very unlikable people at that.

Our narrator, Christa, drove me up the wall. She was too meek, and she clenched her teeth a heck of a lot. She wouldn’t speak up for herself. Even when she woke up to someone trying to kill her by smothering her, she never once calls out that person. Why wouldn’t you mention it to everyone? I don’t understand that mentality at all. Things got a little repetitive at times, slowing down the pacing in the middle. Last, and this is a huge pet peeve of mine, 911 does not need you to be on the line for a “set amount of time” to find you. That hasn’t been a thing for decades, and I’m unsure why authors still try to write it into a storyline as a plot point.

However, I will say this: I didn’t know who we could trust because I mistrusted everyone. I didn’t like anyone, so it made me weary of everyone. And while I suspected why we were in this situation, that didn’t hinder my enjoyment of the novel because I didn’t have all the missing pieces. Even though there were a few hiccups, this is an enjoyable read—my thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for sending this over.

What an excellent introduction to the work of Darcy Coates. Dead of Winter will not be the last book of hers I read, that’s for sure. This is sure to be one of my top horror-thrillers of 2023. I did guess the who and the why pretty early but definitely was not sure up until the final pages.

If you’re looking for a nail biting, fast moving page turner to fill your hot summer night or day then you definitely should not miss this. The icy, snowbound setting also adds to the anxiety and thrills of the story.

**Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-arc I received in exchange for my honest review.**