You are really thrown into the story from the start, which I really loved. It gave you the perfect eerie winter setting, making you tense and waiting for more.

Besides the first 30-40 pages and the plot on general, there wasn’t much else I really liked about the book. I thought the characters where very bland, and the narrators „voice“ just really got on my nerves. She tried analyzing all the other characters, but in a way that didn’t really make you see her point. Also there were a few things that I think would’ve happened differently, if you’re stuck in a situation like this, but I don’t want to Spoiler anything now… Sadly I also had a feeling about the big reveals / twists, so that didn’t come as a shock.

I think if this story would’ve had a quicker pace, and few better characters that you actually connect with, this could’ve been the perfect thriller!

What a story. Type of book I couldn't put down. Friends travelling together and 1 by 1 they are ended up dead. Is there a murderer among them and who can it be. A page turner for sure.

This didn't work for me, the pacing was super slow to build anticipation and suspense, but it was very clear who the killer was from early on, and it just frustated me that the main character couldn't figure it out.

Wow! I’ve heard Darcy Coates’ books described as “cozy horror,” but NOT THIS ONE. Dead of Winter is a truly troubling, anything-but-cozy horror. And I think I loved it?

A bus-load of travelers and their tour guide-slash-bus driver get stranded in a winter storm on their way to a mountain lodge. Shortly after their trip is derailed and they take cover in a tiny (abandoned?) cabin, members of the party start dying in horrific ways. Suspicions erupt, and really, all they need is Hercule Poirot to rein everyone in and pinpoint the murderer. Alas, there is no mustachioed detective, and as the blizzard rages on, so does the butcher.

It takes a few chapters to get rolling, but once it does, it’s clear something is terribly wrong and the suspense is palpable. Coates knows how to end a chapter on a mini-cliffhanger and get me furiously reading on! This is definitely a JUST ONE MORE CHAPTER book!

As others have mentioned in their reviews, I also “figured it out” fairly early on, but I had so much fun doing so. Also, the author definitely worked in several twists and turns that made me question my theory. I had tantrums when it seemed it was wrong and then did a victory dance when it turned out I was right. In other words, I was FULLY ENGAGED. My favorite kind of reading experience. Others might not enjoy having figured it out, but as for me, I felt like a smarty pants. 🤓

I haven’t fully thought this through, so don’t come after me with a pitchfork, BUT I kind of think Darcy Coates is for the adults who loved Fear Street as teens. (Me. They’re for me.) Are the books perfect? Nah. (Plot holes, improbabilities, over-the-topness everywhere!) Are they fast-paced and creepy and pageturny? Hell, yeah. Do I want to read them all? Yeah, I think I do!

Full review posted on Goodreads on 5/29/23: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5344425926

This was one where you should read it in a cabin with a blizzard raging outside.
Definitely thought this was more gory than what I’m used to seeing from this author but it’s not so bad that you can’t make it through.
I guessed the ending pretty early on but still enjoyed the read.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Christa is excited about her new adventure. When the weather turns bad, she does not know who she can trust. This book kept me guessing.

Prior to this book I had only read two other Darcy Coates books.  Both were similar in plot, atmospheric, and entertaining.  But this one was definitely a bit more gory and I loved every second of my reading experience with Dead of Winter.
In this story we follow the main character Christa as she and her boyfriend embark on a week-long group tour to a scenic snowy lodge nestled in the Rocky Mountains.  While en route to the lodge a fallen tree in the road blocks the group tour access forcing them to shelter in a small cabin to wait out the storm.  While forced together in close quarters, without power and cell phone service, tension starts to build and the group soon finds themselves fighting for their life not only from the dangerous snowstorm but one of them just might be a crazed killer.
Wow, the suspense starts from the first page and it never lets up.  Coates masterfully blends a lock room style mystery with slasher elements that I quite enjoyed. I felt like this was a mix of the horror movies "30 Days of Night" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer".  This was a visceral reading experience; I could feel the cold air, the claustrophobia of being stuck in small quarters with a bunch of people, the yearning for a tall glass of water.  The panic that sets in when you are in a situation that you feel completely helpless with no resources to get yourself out of that situation.  Such an engaging reading experience.
As far as the horror elements, they were definitely effective.  Not the most disturbing or gory, but certainly a lot more than I have seen from the books of hers that I have read.  While I would have to say that I knew who the killer was pretty early on, that didn't take away  my enjoyment I was still gripped enough to want to know the how's and why's.  And the twist was pretty satisfying.
I would definitely recommend this book.  It read so fast and will be the perfect read when craving a story set in the winter, I especially think fans of No Exit will especially enjoy this book. Thank you so much to netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an arc copy in exchange for my honest review.

Christa and her boyfriend Kiernan's rustic getaway is derailed by a blizzard before their bus even reaches the remote mountain resort. She finds herself trapped in a cabin with nine strangers. None of them will be lucky enough to die of hypothermia or starvation, though, since a murderer is methodically decapitating the stranded travelers and desecrating their corpses. Paranoia runs rampant as the body count climbs and the snow just keeps falling. The short chapters and constant cliffhangers keep the action moving propulsively all the way to the end of this gore-filled thriller.

Darcy Coates 👏👏
My only regret in reading this ARC was reading it in Spring. This is the perfect winter read while away at a remote cabin, if you really want to be scared.

While I predicted the ending very early on, it did not deter me from reading all the way to the end and second guessing myself the whole time. There are a lot of characters but once they are all introduced, it's easy to follow along and it gets much easier as they start to disappear one by one. I could not wait for each chapter to deliver a new horror. Anything more revealed would require a spoiler alert and the summary others provided gives enough details. I went in blind and enjoyed the mystery fully.

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press, Netgalley, and the author in exchange for a review. Releasing July 11th 2023.

My thanks to Net Galley and Poisoned Pen press for allowing me to review this arc. Christa and her boyfriend embark on a trip in the snowy mountains with a tour group, get stuck,and murders start to occur one by one.

I liked that this had elements of And Then There Were None, a parallel to I Know What You Did Last Summer, and the book, The Hunting Party. You had Christie's locked room story telling foremat.

The way the victims were killed will.be a bit graphic for the squeamish. I was going to initially give this 3 stars because I thought at times it dragged on from the protagonist POV self narration but boy when the twist came at the end, it quickly jumped to 4 stars!

Love Darcey Coates and this was no exception. Love the snowbound setting and the creepy vibes that Coates is famed for were ever present!
Twisty, slightly gruesome it was an utterly compelling and entertaining read

This was really atmospheric and creepy and I loved it. A serial killer picking off stranded bus passengers on their way to a secluded lodge in the dead of winter. I didn’t catch where it was going until quite a ways in and I love a book that keeps me guessing. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Stranded in the mountains, lost in a blizzard and that’s not the worst of it! What happens when a group of travelers are murdered one by one? Can Christa figure out who the killer is in time to save herself? Just when you think you have this figured out, Coates comes up with another twist!

lmaoooo this book was so wild
toggle the spoilers at your own risk !!!


our mc is Christa, a young lady with a terribly spelled name serious anxiety who is struggling to recover from some ~mysterious~ event that happened last August 8th. her boyfriend, Kiernan, talks her into visiting a fancy rich person place called Blackstone Alpine Lodge, which is in the middle of literal nowhere nestled picturesquely among snow-capped mountains. he swings her permission because he takes her during the off-season, where they'll be going in with a tour group of just nine other people.

(the important part here is that the off-season is the off-season because the area gets terrible inclement weather. gee.)

Kiernan grew up locally and wants Christa to see a little bit of his childhood, and she loves him so she finally agrees to go. they load up on the bus with the rest of the group (refer to cast list below) and set off. they get just far enough away from civilization to be scary when they come across a felled tree and have to pull over to cut it up. Kiernan asks Christa to go on a walk with him while they wait and takes her into the woods, because it's beautiful.

unfortunately, as one might suspect, that aforementioned inclement weather rears its ugly head. Kiernan and Christa get lost in a massive snowstorm, reduced to very little visibility and in danger of freezing to death. they walk onward because the only other option is to lay down and die but they are inevitably split up when Christa accidentally falls down a ravine.

when she wakes up again, she's alone. the storm rages on and she can't find Kiernan anywhere, so she continues to walk. she is in danger of immediate death when she hears a distant whistling and, upon approaching the noise, sees the leader of her tour group, Brian. he escorts her to the little cabin they've all taken shelter in, where everybody minus Kiernan has gathered.

it's explained to Christa that the storm moved in too quickly and after searching fruitlessly for Kiernan and Christa, the group was forced to retreat here. it's a little cabin an unknown ways away from the Lodge, but there's at least enough room for everybody to cram in and lay on the ground.

Christa demands they help her find Kiernan ("we must go out and look for Kiernan! I don’t give a hoot there’s a legitimate snow storm outside !! my canadian boyfriend !!!!!") but she's too weak to manage much of a search on her own, and eventually she relents and returns to the cabin to sleep. she doesn't sleep very well, unfortunately, because in the morning the murders begin.



the cast ;;
+ Miri & Steve Peltz, older married couple from Louisiana, Steve is a trucker (and an asshole)
+ Brian Hernandez, event coordinator and their bus driver, certified in wilderness survival (view spoiler)
+ Blake Shorey, newly retired 911 operator, traveling alone and an enormous bitch
+ Denny & Grayson Olstead, father and son duo (Grayson is the son), son similar age to mc, Denny is a mechanic
+ Hutch Huang, stylish dude w/ undercut, similar age to mc, fairly famous DJ in California
+ Simone Wall, severe blonde woman, ex-military
+ Alexis Barras, a little strange and shy (view spoiler)
+ Kiernan Marshall, Christa’s boyfriend of four months, adventurer and the one to suggest this trip together



Christa makes a really fascinating mc because our girlie has some debilitating anxiety, and there's segments where I couldn't really tell if she was reacting proportionately or freaking out. (there was a big chunk of the book I was actually convinced Christa was prophetic because she kept saying spooky shit like "none of us are getting out of here alive"👻, but she just had anxiety lmao)

I feel like I can't really say much about the parts of the book I loved because they are steeped in spoilers, so I'm just gonna leave it at -- this book was phenomenal and kept surprising me over and over and over again. every time I thought for sure I finally had a handle on who the killer was I would get blindsided by some new fact.

(view spoiler)

I'm gonna be recommending this to anyone looking for a spooky winter read and a propulsive murder mystery.


thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc ✨

I must have a thing for snowy horror.

This book will give you chills no matter the season.

Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates is a book that will suck you in from the very first page and hold you captive until the last. The mystery kept me hooked and left me guessing. I did guess the killer in the end, but there were a few red herrings that made me doubt my choice.

My only true complaint for this book is that I wish I had some closure on what happened to some of the characters. I need an epilogue or even just one more chapter to see who survived.

This book is a chilling 4.5 stars. Read if you like isolated mysteries, gore, and snowy landscapes.

Thanks @netgalley for the ARC

DEAD OF WINTER is a tightly written, excellently crafted, and superbly paced suspense/mystery drama that is a worthy successor to AND THEN THERE WERE NONE by Dame Agatha Christie. I found it very hard to put down and I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it.

The story’s focus is on Christa, a young woman who has experienced a tragedy in the not to distant past—one that has been very hard for her to get past. A tragic accident left a young man dead and Christa bore a lot of guilt relating to his death. A step along that healing journey involved meeting and falling in love with Kiernan and the trip that they were taking together was intended to move that healing along and draw them together.

As with the classic novel by Agatha Christie, Christa and Kiernan find themselves in an isolated community of people, all of whom are bound for the same resort. The bus becomes stuck on the mountainside, a blizzard is settling in, a downed tree blocks the road, and there is no communication with the outside world. This is the kind of setting where great suspense mysteries are made.

In what seemed to me to be a crazy thing to do in a snowstorm, Christa and Kiernan choose to go hiking to find a better vantage point to see where they are. By the end of the first chapter, Christa has slid into a ravine and Kiernan is missing and presumed dead. Unable to proceed to the resort, the group settle into an empty cabin by the side of the road and prepare to make due with no communication, no heat, and very little in the way of food supplies.

Then, one by one members of the group are killed in grizzly ways, their bodies put on display for the survivors to see. As panic, paranoia, and fear grip the group, the question becomes: Who is the monster? Is it someone “out there” attacking them? Or is one of those from the bus the monster murdering them one? And most of all, why? Of course, Christa is the last survivor standing to face the monster who had been either directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of the other passengers.

I loved this book and highly recommend it!

When I initially started this book, I was a little put of because it felt like I was missing the REAL start of the story. THEN...oh boy, did it ever take off.

The chapters are short, so I felt like I was actually making progress in the story. The characters were very well written, and the story was twisty but flowed at the same time.

If this is any indication of her other books, I have some MAJOR catching up to do.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

🪓🪓🪓🪓

"When Christa joins a tour group heading deep into the snowy expanse of the Rocky Mountains, she's hopeful this will be her chance to put the ghosts of her past to rest. But when a bitterly cold snowstorm sweeps the region, the small group is forced to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Despite the uncomfortably claustrophobic quarters and rapidly dropping temperature, Christa believes they'll be safe as they wait out the storm".
This is a horror novel and not the expected cozy mystery.
I couldn't get into it because it was not the expected genre.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion of this book which I read and reviewed.

Much in a similar vein to the classic Agatha Christie mysteries I grew up reading, “Dead of Winter,” pits a group of snowbound strangers against one another, as they each fight for their very survival. With food and supplies at a bare minimum, the group finds refuge from the harsh elements in a small, abandoned cabin, while a killer among them begins striking them down one by one.

This twisted and deadly tale is told through the first person POV of a young girl named Christa, who, along with her boyfriend, Kiernan, joins a tour group that is headed for a vacation lodge in the Rocky Mountains when they are hit by a storm that derails their plans and puts the group right in the crosshairs of a crazed killer.

Despite the murders being quite grizzly, the story drew me in right from the very start and held me captive right up until the very end. Admittedly, the killer’s identity did not come as a big surprise to me, as I had put two-and-two together quite early on. That said, there were moments that had me questioning the validity of my theory. Still, I remained steadfast, trying to figure out the “why” behind the killings, if not the “who.”

All in all, a chilling thriller I was hard-pressed to put down.

"When Christa joins a tour group heading deep into the snowy expanse of the Rocky Mountains, she's hopeful this will be her chance to put the ghosts of her past to rest. When a cold snowstorm sweeps the region, the small group is forced to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Christa believes they will be safe as they wait out the storm. She couldn't be more quite wrong. In the night, their tour guide goes missing only to be discovered the following morning, his severed head impaled on a tree outside the cabin. Terrified, and completely isolated by the storm, Christa finds herself trapped with eight total strangers. One of them kills for sport and they're far from finished." Are they going to kill everyone? Or are they on hunt for one person? You will have to read the story to find out. Absolutely loved story, disturbing, thrilling and engaging. Quick read as well. Absolutely love this author's books that she comes out with.
Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press, Netgalley, and the author in exchange for a review.
Published July 11th 2023.