I absolutely love "cabin in the woods" style thrillers and this one is perfection! Our main character, Christa, joins a tour group headed to the Rocky Mountains. After a storm hits and their tour guide goes missing, horrible things start happening.

There was so much tension and "whodunit" accusations flying around. Coates is a master at creating suspense and tension, and I couldn't guess who the killer was at all. I also really liked Christa and her back story. She came on the tour to lay her past to rest, and she got a lot more than she bargained for. Our other characters were interesting in their own way, but the story was so fast-paced that we didn't get to know them as well as Christa.

The setting was incredible and I felt like I was right there in the cabin with them. I also loved the horror aspect. I thought this would be more of a thriller where there isn't a ton of horror and gore, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes thrillers and locked door mysteries with a horrific twist.

☆ ☆ ☆ .5

This was my first Darcy Coates book and I was definitely not disappointed! This book is about a group headed to a remote lodge during the middle of winter in the Rocky mountains. When their trip is thrown off by a huge, unexpected storm and their bus can't get through to the lodge, they find shelter in a small shack in the middle of nowhere. Things quickly take a turn for the worst when members of the group of strangers start to be killed off one by one. Our main character is tasked with figuring out who she can trust, trying to find her partner who has been missing and out in the cold since night one, and also trying to stay alive and figure out who this murderer among them is. Will she make it out of this trip alive?

This is one of those books that is very fast paced. The chapters are really short and leave you with that "One more chapter, then I'll go to bed!!" feeling. It also has a very interesting group dynamic. This group is made up of strangers, but there are smaller pairings within the group. A husband and wife, father and son, etc. So while there is the element of being unfamiliar with the group members and not being able to trust virtually anyone, there are also members who have a support system where other's don't.

I was able to get through this really fast, which is great. My only hang up and why I rated it lower than a 4 is just because the plot twist, to me personally, was predictable and I knew what was happening pretty much immediately. There was a point toward the end where I thought "Wait, was I wrong?" But that did not last long before realizing it was what I had initially thought. Which is fine!! My friend always tells me that I'm creepily good at being able to predict plot twists way in advance, so not necessarily any issue with the story, it's just a me thing but there are books that do truly shock me so if a book doesn't do that I tend to rate it a tiiiiiny bit lower than if it completely threw me off.

This was an excellent read and I'm so thankful to have gotten early access to it, and was also lucky enough to attend an in-person event with Darcy Coates where she spoke about Dead of Winter and a bit about her process and what she was aiming for with this novel, which was so incredible to be a part of!

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an eARC of this book!

Wow what a book, To be honest the opening couple of pages frustrated me and I didn't think I would enjoy it, however 2 chapters in and that thought was dispelled.
This books truly has twists and turns throughout, I did guess who the killer was, BUT my guess was put into doubt right until the end several times.
I do not do spoilers, so my suggestion is read the book. Definitely looking forward to reading more from this author.

I’m not usually one to read thrillers like this, but I am glad I picked up this one!! I could not put this book down, and honestly the twists were all well done and I was completely shocked at the ending! I plan to pick up more of her books as I found them both quick and fascinating to read! I received this book gratis as an Advanced Review Copy from NetGalley and am giving my opinion freely.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc. I was hooked from the beginning. I really like Christa. Didn't see that ending.

This was a good one, even if it was slow for me in some places. It had me doubting who the real killer was. I had thought it was them in the beginning, but it had me wondering if I was right a few times. That ending was great!

This book had me floored. From the first chapter. Hands down one of the best suspenseful, murder, mysteries I've ever read. Coates did an amazing job with the plot twists and character development. Each character had such depth and was entangled in the storyline so well. It's impressive. I wasn't expecting to like this one as much as I did, but I can say it surpassed all expectations by a landslide. I cant wait to recommend it to all those suspense readers out there!

I absolutely loved this gripping horror, thriller. It had me on the edge of my seat and I could not stop reading. Following Christa on her way to a remote vacation in the Rocky Mountains, Dead of Winter is an account of everything that went wrong. This is not for the faint of heart. It is gory and detailed. The setting was absolutely amazing though, as well as the plot (love a locked room mystery). It is non stop action. And I loved how Coates fits in things that happened in the past to what's happening in the present. This is one I highly recommend for the TBR! Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an early digital copy.

Writing: 5/5
Character Development: 4/5
Plot: 4/5

Themes: Mystery, Thriller

Dead of Winter is about a group of people that get stuck in the cold wilderness while heading to a dream winter vacation. When their tour bus gets stuck they are forced to find shelter, however one of them ends up dead. Now they don’t only have to figure out out to be rescued but who is the killer. This was a really good closed door mystery. The entire time I was trying to figure out who the killer was. I really liked the story behind how each person got to be on the vacation. I didn’t guess the twist at the end but I could see the process of how it ended. I love Darcy Coates writing and this one did not disapoint.

I received an arc and am leaving an honest review.

Darcy does it again! Loved Dead of Winter!
🪓🪓🪓🪓
More psychological thriller than horror, and full of twists and turns - fairly reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None but in a wintry snow-filled mountain setting! ❄️🗻 Definitely recommend!!

I very much enjoyed this horror/slasher who done it mystery. The pacing was good, and suspensful. After a few chapters in I had two explanations of how I thought this story would end, and on one of those I was correct. Nonetheless I had a good time reading this book.

Christa wants to lay her past to rest. Wants to move past that terrible night and embrace life with her doting boyfriend, Keirnan. To build something new and wonderful. An out of season trip into the Rocky Mountains, the area Keirnan grew up in, seems like just the ticket. And she loves how excited he is to show her the beauty of this part of himself, the trip promises to be fantastic. At least it promises to be fantastic until a surprise snow storm leaves their tour group stranded part way to the lodge. Until their tour guide turns up murdered. Until the group of strangers she finds herself among starts to dwindle at the hands of a violent butcher and the abandoned cabin they sheltered starts feeling more and more like a trap.

I feel like one could argue as to whether or not Darcy Coates' Dead of Winter counts as a locked room mystery or not, there is quite a bit of wondering around from the characters. But it is definitely a solid mystery with a well developed through line leading to the killer's identity.

That is sort of the crux of my feelings in this one, Coates does a really good job of setting up her killer with a handful of clues and a couple inconsistencies in the Butcher's MO. It is a fantastic drip of information, but it also leaves Christa and the other characters feeling less like a group of people solving the mystery of who is killing them off and more like the victims in a slasher film waiting to die. This also has the knock-on effect of leaving it a little frustrating to be locked into Christa's point of view because the reader only sees what she sees and still gets all the clues. This is not to say that it makes Christa seem less intelligent, but that there is a strong divide between what the characters know and feel and what the reader can figure out. It leaves things a little tiring then, when Christa is desperately trying to figure out who done it without considering all the details. She literally cannot consider all of them.

Coates does a solid job with this though, since the characters are all strangers, everyone is a suspect. Everyone is only working with what they can figure out, sometimes to tragic results. There is only so much any of the characters can know and most of them, Christa included, are fairly closed off about their thoughts. This does a nifty sort of thing where perspective and interaction leaves characters who are fairly flat feeling a lot more three dimensional. The reader finds out bits and pieces, has room to try and figure out if there is a reason why the Butcher is going after these people and, if so, why? Room to try and build connections with short character bits and Christa's musings to try and tie them together.

It works quite well right up to the end of the book where there is a fantastic suspenseful action set piece with Christa on the run. It just kind of hits the wall there because that balance of reader knowledge and character awareness falls flat, leaving the whole thing feeling over long and a lot less solid than it had any right to feel.
On the whole, Dead of Winter is a really solid book with some frustrating rough patches. The mystery is enjoyable, with the question being more why than who with regard to the killings. The characters are well thought out and more multidimensional than it feels like they should be. Even the things I find frustrating have a very clear place in the writing. It earns a four out of five from me and I think I will need to look into more of Coates' work when I get the chance.

I wish I had loved this book since I've heard so many good things about Darcey Coates, but I just didn't enjoy this one. I LOVED the setting, the middle-of-winter-cabin-in-the-woods, but I literally knew who the killer was within the first chapter and the heroine was not the smartest one, ignoring the red flags and not really thinking about what she was doing. I do still want to read more Darcey Coates' books and I'm hoping I'll like some of the other ones. Thank you for letting me read it!

Darcy Coates has written quite the murder mystery novel! A group of people go on a winter trip to a reclusive and exclusive lounge. Along the way the bus is stopped by a downed tree. People go exploring while others chop and remove the tree.
Unfortunately, some people get lost. The tour guide tries to carry on but the bus is stopped by the arrival of a sudden storm. All are found and rounded up to a cabin save one person still missing.
Then things begin to turn an awful way. People are dying, murdered in fact, heads on trees.
Very well done. Kept me guessing. Did not want to put it down. I recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me this ARC.

Dead of Winter by a Darcy Coates
Publishing Date 07/11/23
Rating (5/5) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this ebook arc. Loved it! This one was so intense! I did not want to put this one down. This is a must read !!!

A trip gone terribly wrong, with gruesome results. Coates takes us to a barren place in the mountains, following a group of people taking a leisure trip into the Rocky Mountains to Blackstone Lodge. Christa and her boyfriend, Kiernan, are two of ten people, counting their bus driver and tour guide. A downed tree causes what should be a temporary halt while the bus driver cuts it into movable pieces. While waiting it out, Kiernan talks Christa into taking a little walk with him, showing off country he grew up with, and having a moment alone. When it becomes obvious that the weather has taken a turn for the worst, and Kiernan is at a loss on where they are, the pair turns around to try and find their way back to the bus, and safety.

The weather shifts, they become lost, and as they search, they lose one another. Christa, thankfully, is found by the group on the bus, who had all been stranded as well, and taken back to a cabin found by the guide. From there it's too short days of bad weather, and increasingly bad tempers, and night after night of murders and mayhem. Making it out alive might be too lofty a goal for Christa, but she has to try.

Fans will be shocked at how big a leap this book was into horror as a genre for Coates. I've always called her style Cozy Horror, safe for basically anyone who wanted a little spook. This book goes full bore on the details, the gore, and descriptive terror. Solid four star read, and looking forward to more like this!

This was such a great read! It really kept you on the edge of your seat and kept you guessing until the very end. I thought that I knew who the killer was but then boom...I didn't see that coming! As also, Darcy wrote a great mystery! I highly recommend this book and any book written to Darcy!

Let me just say that I was very proud that I predicted who the killer was! I'm not going to lie, Darcy made me doubt the hunch I got while reading through the book but I shouted a loud YES once the killer was revealed lol.
This was a great read overall. The story was a bit drawn out but the book started out great, the middle was a bit eh for me but once you reach the ending, it picks back up again and you will be very surprised once everything is revealed!

A group embarks on what is supposed to be a relaxing retreat for a two week stay at a secluded lodge deep in the mountains. Christa and her boyfriend, Kiernan, are looking forward to solidifying their relationship further but quickly become lost in the woods after their bus becomes stuck. Christa is lucky to find her way to the secluded cabin where the rest of the group have found shelter...but is lucky the right word?!?!
When their tour group guide comes up missing and his head is found skewered into the tree outside their cabin, the group questions who among them is a murderer?? All means of escape and safety are one by one compromised and Christa begins to realize that none of them are getting out alive!! Who's head will be found in the tree next? Did someone lure this group here just to murder them one by one? Has Christa's past mistakes finally come back for redemption?

Wow!! What a ride this was!! I've enjoyed all the books I've read by Darcy Coates but this is by far my favorite! More horror mystery than paranormal as my other Coates reads have been told from the point of view of Christa. I really enjoyed the character development of this book and thought the whole build up from beginning to end was great and I could picture this as a screenplay for an awesome movie! Save this book for your snowed in, winter days!! You won't regret it!!

Thank you Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. whoa baby! I couldn’t put this book down. Twists and turns and then more twists and turns. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a great suspense novel, full of thrills and chills.