Darcy and her boyfriend Kiernan to the Rocky Mountains for a romantic getaway. But an unexpected snowstorm blocks their ability to get to where they’re going. Early on, Darcy and Kiernan get separated, and now it’s just her and a group of eight strangers who take shelter in a small, abandoned cabin. When the guide goes missing and then his severed head is discovered on a tree outside, the other members of the group have to figure out if one of them is a murderer and what the motive is. They die off one by one.

I never felt real fear for Darcy. I just never felt that suspense that I feel when reading other books like this. The twists and turns are good enough, but the killer’s ultimate motivations seem a little ridiculous to me--to go this far, to kill this many people . . .

NetGalley provided an advance copy of this novel, which RELEASES JULY 11, 2023.

This is my first Darcy Coates book and it won’t be my last. This book was a terrific nasty little suspense-horror novel. It really did grab me from the first page and kept me flipping the pages. Sometimes so fast I was breathless from what was happening. The characters and the story was very well done. I love these types of books and this one does it well. Get this book when it comes out. I got an early copy through NetGalley.

Dead of Winter is a standalone thriller by Darcy Coates. I’ve read a few of Darcy Coates’s horror novels so was pleasantly surprised to find out this one was a thriller. Darcy Coates’s novels suck you in but this one didn’t let up from the very first page. Thrown straight into a survivalist’s nightmare, the small cast of characters find themselves in a locked room style murder mystery which may just prove fatal. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Ruth Ware, or Lucy Foley. The suspense and build up to the final reveal and ending is fantastic and you feel like you are right alongside the characters in this frozen nightmare. I loved trying to guess the reveals only to be very very wrong each time. Darcy Coates is an author that I will click buy without even reading what the book is about. Highly recommend.

A group of tourists head for a winter stay at a Rocky Mountain lodge. What could go wrong?

In a story that is equal parts Agatha Christie and Stephen King, ten vacationers are headed for a private stay at the Blackstone Alpine Lodge in the Rocky Mountains in a bus driven by their tour guide, Brian. It’s winter, the off-season for the secluded resort, and the group is dismayed when the bus has to stop due to a fallen tree blocking the road. Brian is prepared for this, and most other eventualities it seems, and sets to chopping up the tree to clear the way. Kiernan, one of the passengers and who grew up in the general vicinity, convinces his girlfriend Christa to take a walk while they wait, looking for a view of the mountain vista that surrounds them. She is still dealing with a traumatic event in her past, but trusts Kiernan and allows herself to be convinced. Before they can return to the waiting group, an unexpected snow storm hits, and Kiernan and Christa are not only unable to find their way back, they can’t even tell if they are safely on a path. When Christa slips and starts to fall down a steep incline, Kiernan struggles to hold on to her….but can’t. Miraculously Christa survives the fall, injured and dazed, but she has no idea where Kiernan is, nor how to reconnect with the tour group. Brian finds her, and gets her back to the cabin where he and the rest have sought shelter from what has proven to be a heavy storm. There has been no sign of Kiernan, though, and while Christa holds out hope that he too has found shelter and is alive somewhere out there, the rest assume he is dead. A search party is organized, mostly to placate Christa, but to no avail. When Brian’s severed head is found outside the cabin the next day, the group is stunned and scared. A retired couple from Louisiana, a mechanic and his teenage son, a recently retired emergency dispatcher, a quiet bookish young woman, a professional DJ, and a no-nonsense woman with a military background, they have no ties to one another but will have to work together to survive. Have they somehow stumbled into the hunting grounds of a killer? They are trapped in the cabin, with no way to summon help and the weather continues to worsen. Frigid temperatures, dwindling supplies of food and sources of heat, and a killer who is picking them off one by one….can they find a way to protect themselves until someone realizes that they are missing?
With characters trapped in a remote location, snowed in and cut off from the rest of the world, it was hard not to immediately think of The Shining….there is even an ax that factors in eventually. When these characters started disappearing one by one, And Then There Were None snuck into my thoughts as well. The story pulled me in right away, and the quick pace made it hard to put the book down. If you like a gripping whodunnit, and don’t mind a bit of gore along the way, this story is for you. As a longtime reader of thrillers and mysteries, more often that not I figure out the whodunnit part before the end, and that was the case here as well about halfway through, but I wasn’t 100% convinced that I was right until nearer the end. I still enjoyed the read, however, and definitely recommend it to fans of Darcy Coates’ earlier books, as well as those who enjoy thrillers with remote mountain settings, killing sprees, or “locked room” mysteries. Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for access to the advanced reader’s copy.

I think I'm convinced I will like anything Darcy Coates writes. Dead Of Winter is your perfect hot weather read. If the descriptions of snow, ice, and freezing cold don't cool you off then what you read as you fly through the pages will send chills down your spine.

In this horror thriller we follow a group of 10 plus their tour guide as they head into the snowy mountains for a vacation at Blackstone Alpine Lodge. Before they reach their destination they become stranded and have to wait out a storm in a log cabin. Christa, after becoming separated from her boyfriend, is the last to arrive. Soon they will all find out that frostbite is the least of their concerns as people are picked off and brutally murdered one by one.

I didn't intend to read this when I did. I wanted to just read a couple pages to see what it was going to be like but once I started I forgot that other book I meant to read. Dead Of Winter had me in its freezing grip for two days. The descriptions of the snowy landscape are wonderful. I felt every blast of ice.

It doesn't take long for action to start and it never lets up. The tension is incredible. This is the kind of thriller I've been wanting to read. Every step the characters, who are all different, take means life or death. There is no room for error. There is a lot of blood and gore but if you can handle a slasher film then it should be no problem.

Dead Of Winter could easily be a movie. Darcy Coates is an awesome writer because she delivers the thrills and chills of a popcorn horror/thriller but with depth. I found myself anxious for everyone to survive and/or not be the killer. Alas that can't happen but I did guess the killer! This is a much different read than Coates's Gravekeeper series and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Dead Of Winter will be released July 11. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read!

I love winter but I do not like altitudes. I love my feet on the plains, thank you very much. Needless to say, to read a book where a group of people were trapped in the mountains surrounded by snow was enough to make me squirm with discomfort. And that's what made the book extra enjoyable. The finger-biting, edge-of-the-seat moments made me finish the book within the hour. It felt like I was holding my breath throughout the reading session and only the revelation at the end, the relief at the last page of the book could bring my breathing back to normal. The book starts on a high and maintains the suspense and tension throughout the book. Not a single scene is wasted, and not a single character unnecessary. The characters are not stupid and do not blindly walk into danger. And yet the danger is imminent. Christa has quickly become one of my favourite protagonists in a slasher thriller mystery. I had a working theory of the killer, but it still leaped at me like a gobsmack. I can totally imagine this as a movie with the killer in the shadows and the murders in the locked rooms. I obviously love Darcy Coates' ghost stories, but she hit it right out of the park with this thriller.

A heart pounding claustrophobic thriller/horror that you just can't stop reading. Trapped in a cabin in the middle of a blizzard Crista is trying to figure out who is picking them all off one by one before it's too late. The ending was definitely a shocker too!

I've never read anything by this author before but I'm glad I started with this book.

Super fun and fast-paced thriller. While I found the twist at the end to be a bit predictable, I enjoyed reading and flew through this book. I would happily read another book by this author.
Thank you for the opportunity to read!

Overall I think this was a solid read. Yes there are parts that you will have suspend all belief, but I find that pretty common in suspense/thrillers. None of the characters are particularly likable. Could have used a little character development so that you cared a bit when someone was killed. It kept me up late two nights so that tells me I was into it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Dead Of Winter is a unique take on locked room thriller that goes from 0-60 in the first few pages. On the way to a remote lodge for a winter getaway, a group of tourists are stranded on the road due to a downed tree. Faced with brutal winter conditions, the group decides to seek shelter in a nearby cabin. The extreme winter weather and lack of supplies would have been harrowing enough of a situation, but as the group's numbers begin to dwindle at the hands of a killer, things get even more dire.

Darcy Coates uses her horror prowess to imbue so much tension into this thriller. The descriptions of the harsh winter conditions will have you shivering (even though this book is a summer release). I guessed the twist fairly early on, but Coates expertly uses red herrings to the point where I started second guessing myself more and more in the final chapters.

If you like locked room mysteries, definitely give this one a read! You will be stressed out the entire time you read this book, but it's so worth it.

Crossposted to goodreads at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5532201474

Dead Of Winter is an upcoming thriller novel by best selling writer Darcey Coates, which I got an opportunity to read, thanks to an advance copy by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange of an honest review. I am reading Coates for the first time. The book is a locked door suspense mystery with cabin in the wood kind of horror elements heavily thrown in.

Story is narrated in the first person perspective of Christa. The narrative style of Coates puts the reader in the midst of the events. While reading through the eyes of Christa, we are aware of only that which she knows about. At the same time we are part of all the paranoia and anguish that she feels. This made me as a reader, more immersed and invested in her perilous journey.

Could not put this book down! Dead of Winter was a thrilling ride for start to finish. Loved the way the story came together. I felt that the suspense really keeps you at the edge of your seat for the entirety of the novel. I'd highly recommend Dead of Winter for anyone looking for a fast-paced thriller that will constantly keep you on your toes.

A straightforward horror/thriller that I enjoyed for the most part. The horror elements were more successful than the thriller ones -very creepy images, gruesome, and some actually heart-racing moments. The thriller part, though, fell short, with the ending being obvious and the backstory more frustrating to get to than engaging. Great setting, with fantastic use of the environment around the action, and distinct characters I occasionally cared about. 3.5/5

Thank you to Poisoned Press, Darcy Coates, and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

From the description, I thought this sounded like a good thriller.

The writing had a dark, gritty tone from the start. Initially, I didn't know much about the characters, but I wanted to know how they had ended up in the situation they were in. There was plenty of suspense, and an intense atmosphere that came to life while I was reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book! This was my first book by Darcy Coates, but certainly not my last. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, and felt it was fast paced and I never became bored. Every twist and turn had me on the edge of my seat. I gave it 4.5 stars because I needed more! I wanted a follow up, like a six months later, and it kind of left on a cliffhanger. However, all in all I will highly recommend this book.

This was my first read by Darcy Coates. I enjoyed it, but I felt like it ended a bit abruptly. The motive of the killer felt a little forced and I wish there had been an epilogue or a couple more pages to the chapter. Overall though it was a gripping read that kept me guessing.
I did seriously enjoy the 911 dispatcher’s character, even though she was portrayed in a harsh way. I have been one for 7 years and I felt like Coates definitely did her research as far as how the job affects us. We almost all have gallows humor and it can make interpersonal relationships a little skewed because we can come off uncaring or morbid, because we see and also manage life and death emergencies every single day and it’s something you just get used to. There is an incident Blake, the dispatcher, talks about that made my blood boil, because I know there are dispatchers and dispatch centers that are negligent out there, but the incident would have never have been handled that way where I work. But I never felt Coates was villainizing the profession.

● Book Review●
• Name: Dead of Winter
• Author: Darcy Coates
• Genre: Thriller
• Rating: 4 ⭐️
• Pls check the TW before proceeding!
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●Thoughts ●
The cliffhanger at the end like what?!?!?! I'm like give me more like what happens after this whole incident like what???? This book reminded me of No Exit. Both takes place in the winter, everyone is suspicious and you don't know who to trust, and everyone is here for a reason. The pacing was mostly evenly paced. I like playing detective and this book was giving me a bit claustrophobic vibes and I felt cold all of a sudden. I felt like I could feel the chilly weather, the ice cold snow against my skin 😭😭😭. This book made me confirm that I don't want to hike in the mountains or go near the woods 😭😭😭. I guessed it right at the end who it was but I was triple guessing myself 😂😂😂. I almost could not predict who it was and the graphic details of the murders gave me a bit of goosebumps!
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● Appreciation ●
Thank you Darcy, Netgalley, and Poised Pen Press for the e-ARC in exchange for a honest review!
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● Tags ●
#bookreview #darcycoates
#thrillerbooks #thrillerbookrecommendations #deadofwinter #mysterybook #bookstagram #booktok #bookstagrammer #bookrecommendations
#books #mysterybookrecommendations #arcreview #poisedpenpress

I can’t express in words how happy I am that this book exists and I was able to read it.

I have been searching for a slasher that has me on the edge of my seat, cringing at the graphic details and shaking in my boots. From the bottom of my heart, thank you Dead of Winter!

This had me hooked from the very first chapters. I found myself trying to connect the dots and find out who the killer was before it was revealed but I wasn’t even close.

Dead of Winter would make such a fantastic movie. The imagery and the pacing of the writing felt like I was watching a movie already and I can honestly say I would eat it up.

This was everything I’ve been searching for and I am so excited to get my hands on a physical copy when it’s available to buy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with this ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

• Thank you Netgalley & publisher for the advanced copy •

This was really really good! It’s exactly what I look for in a thriller: a thrilling, engaging story, with good characters. The author knows her craft very well and, although the prose is clear and direct, her voice shines though.

I did spot the culprit very fast, but never solved the mysteries until they were revealed. It really hooked me from the inciting incident onwards. I recommend it to anyone, and I’ll definitely read more books by this author.

I am a newer fan of Darcy Coates, but this one was not my favorite, it had a lot of great elements but I’m a fan of her horror/ suspense. I am someone who gets to caught up in a story that I often overlook predictable elements. The book was well written and provided a twist I did not see coming. Overall it was a book that was excited to get back to and I do recommend for fans of suspense.