Thank you Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for a digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Uhm...wow. That's all I could say after I finished the book. I sat back, shocked, and tried to process everything . This book literally starts out action packed from page one and did not stop until the very end. No break, not pressure off the consistent dread and anxiety. The only 'break' I got, is by having to put down the book to exist in real life - which was honestly needed with how much pressure I felt with each short chapter I read.

I had sneaking suspicions and theories in this whodunit suspense thriller, but Darcy Coates threw a wrench or at least enough of one to second guess my theories. I did manage to puzzle it out half way through the book, but I was left second guessing to the very end on if my wild theory was even true.

Was there flaws? Yes. Did it feel a tad bit too long? Yes. But overall the book deserves the five stars I'm giving it despite these flaws. Just don't go into this book expecting everything to be completely realistic. There's holes, there's questioning moments where you go 'how?!', but you continue to enjoy the crazy ride regardless. Or at least I did. Exactly how I feel thrillers, horrors, and those sorts of genres should be enjoyed. I do have some questions that were left unanswered in the end, that I wished I knew the answers to, but I'll live.

Review shared through NetGalley, Goodreads, Storygraph, Instagram, and Twitter all under the name thegrimbookworm.

What. A. Freaking. Rollercoaster. This book kept me guessing. It was almost like reading a Frieda McFadden book. Just when I thought I had it figured out, I was wrong time after time! My favorite part of this book was how suspicion would turn toward one person, and then the main character would investigate that lead with you. This book definitely has suspense starting on page one and makes you feel so claustrophobic along with all the other characters. This book was quick, well written, and definitely a must read and hard to put down. Highly recommend!

If Steven King had written Agatha Christies And Then There Were None then you would have Dead of Winter. When a group of people find themselves stranded in a remote cabin in the dead of winter, it not long before they are one by one targeted by a vicious killer who likes to decapitate their victims and impale their heads on a tree like morbid christmas ornaments. No one can be trusted, as each one of them could easily be the killer. Great read overall. The ending was nicely foreshadowed but not overdone. Kept me guessing to the last page.

O.M.G.

I’ve never read a Darcy Coates book before, but I certainly will again! I chose this one because it seemed more thriller than mystery, more thriller than horror. But it was all of that, wrapped up into one amazing book that I couldn’t put down. Every page, even when someone wasn’t getting killed, was genius, just absolute enthralling hair raising fiction!

Christa is traveling with her fiancé Kiernan in the snowy Rocky Mountains. They never reach their destination, Blackstone Lodge, but they do manage to find their way to a dilapidated old cabin that will at least shelter them during the snow storm. But then their guide goes missing.

They eventually find him, but only his head! Stuck on a branch on a pine tree out in front of the cabin. And he’s only the first. Christa realizes that she is trapped with a killer and they will all have to try and figure out “who dunnit,” knowing full well it’s one of them.

The climax of the book, the ending of the book, it’s just pure suspense and shock and scary excitement on every page! If you don’t mind a little blood and gore, and you like to figure out who the bad guy is, read Dead of Winter. I didn’t see it coming.

Thanks to Sourcebooks for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

As with all her other books Dead of Winter is another hit. There were so many twists and turns and surprises that made it hard to put the book down. I thought I had the killer figured out a short way into the story only to think I'm wrong...everybody is a suspect right up to the end.

Even though I thought maybe the dangerous-isolated-cabin-in-the-woods storyline might have been done too many times already, I decided to read this book because I’ve really enjoyed the spooky haunting stories I’ve read from Darcy Coates in the past. I am happy to report that my original thought was wrong & people should definitely give this story a shot! Darcy Coates brought her own twists to the plot & I was impressed with everything she managed to pack into this bone-chilling book.

Christa has had a seriously rough couple of years but feels like she’s starting to really live again when she heads off to the Rocky Mountains with her boyfriend on a tour bus. The weather takes a terrible turn, & she becomes stranded in a cabin with other occupants of the bus - mostly people are just somewhat grumpy at the inconvenience, but then their tour guide goes missing… and they later find him slaughtered.

The gore, paranoia, the freezing temperatures, the nonexistent cell phone reception: I’m glad I read this book over the course of a couple nice Spring days, because if I was reading this during the dark nights of a chilly Iowa winter I would’ve been double-checking my locks & keeping all the lights on! This book had my heart racing (the mark of a good horror/thriller) & I’ll definitely pick up another Darcy Coates book the next time I want to be terrified.

Thank you to NetGalley & Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am a MASSIVE Darcy Coates fan and will read anything she writes, but even if that wasn't the case- this book was a slam dunk.

This is a fast paced, brutally intense, paranoia inducing book that you will read in one sitting flipping from page to page with wide eyes. The characters are all questionable, their motivations mysterious, and the setting is a perfect snowy death trap.

While Darcy is normally an author of cozy horror books, this one is a stark departure from her normal work. Do not go into this expecting everyone to live- you won't get that! This is not The Carrow Haunt.

I would recommend this book to fans of Ania Ahlborn! Especially if you enjoyed The Shuddering- its a completely different book, but the themes are similar and the pacing is on par.

Available July 11, 2023
3 ⭐

Okay this book reads like a typical, classic whodunnit. The protagonist, Christa, decides to go away with her boyfriend and a complete bus filled with total strangers on a winter cabin getaway. Of course, they encounter a, drum roll please, winter snowstorm. And a tree blocks the road to the cabin. People begin to get murdered and none of them have any idea who is responsible for committing the murders.

The entire story is told from Christa's point of view, which is one of the few things I like about this book, since I didn't need to keep track of various points of views from the various characters.

I have to say the middle section was so boring as it dragged on and on. It was tedious, overly descriptive where it didn't need to be and just plain slow.

The beginning and the ending of the book were decent.

I found this novel to have had a decent amount of suspense however it didn't keep me glued to my Kindle. I mean, it wasn't my favorite book that I've read however but it wasn't my least favorite book. It was the middle of the road. A decent moderate whodunnit for someone that's not looking for something intense to read.

Finally 5 Stars.......is here!!!🥳

“Someone here has that hunger for violence. They came on this trip with a plan. To hunt us. And they don’t intend to stop until we’re all dead.”

"It would be a mistake to believe too much in anyone’s innocence."

SUMMARY:
There is a group of 11 people who are traveling to a remote area to enjoy the wilderness. However, due to the extreme weather, they get trapped in the cabin, and as time goes on, person by person goes missing and found dead later. Each of them is a stranger, but only one of them is the killer. So what's the killer's motive, and why did she or he kill them? It's just a random killing, or is there any connection among those travelers?

List of Characters:
▪️Christa (main character) and her boyfriend (Kiernan)
▪️Steve (a truck driver) and his wife (Miri)
▪️Denny (a mechanic) and his teenager son (Grayson)
▪️Blake (a former 911 dispatcher)
▪️Simone (unknown)
▪️Alexis (unknown)
▪️Hutch Huang (a DJ)
▪️Brian (their tour guide)
👉IN TOTAL: 11 People

👁️‍🗨️This story is told in first person POV (Christa)

🕰️ There is a Dual Timeline in here
- Past (Six hours earlier, 2 years earlier)
- Present (Now）

MY THOUGHTS:
📌 I loved how the author began the story and how the story flowed, and at the end of every chapter; it was very interesting. And I felt like every character held something (like a mystery). Also, the detail was excellent.

📌 This book kept me on my toes, forcing me to guess, figure it out, and reveal why it even begins. The graphic... argh, I like it something like this: "though it could be a trigger for someone." But in this kind of book, something graphic, sadistic, and brutality-filled is definitely needed. Like their all teeth got plucked out, head got chopped off and hang on the pine tree, body nowehere to find, mutilated, their neck got slashed. Oh, I love this. Blood, blood, and blood in anywhere or everywhere.

📌 Literally every character that is out of sight is going to die, and the killer closed every chance for them to get out and get help from someone outside, and they ended up bickering and blaming each other😆.

📌 it more strikes me as horror rather than mystery thriller hahaha.  I mean, the electricity got cut off; every single thing was broken, smashed, or gone. So yeah, it was more horror.

📌 It felt more like watching a movie rather than reading a book; I kept picturing scenes from a movie. The tension and mystery were perfect. And toward the end of the book, that was what made me think "I should give it 5 stars."

📌 I didn't feel enough of a breaking down or strong grieving feeling from each of the characters despite the fact that their spouse, partner, or son died. They were just crying at that time when they found a body, and that's all. No further emotion, they're more focused on how to get this light back on (because the electricity got cut off).

📌 Move on to the twist, which is predictable and not hard to guess if you're a fan of this kind of genre. There's must be a connection and caused  why this tragedy happening. And when their jobs revealed, I think you will be able to connect the dots among them and what their roles in the past accident.

Maybe the one more difficult to guess was "Who Done It?"; Uhmmm...this one's a little bit tricky. You could guess it correctly or not even close.
(Well, for me? I saw it coming! I suspected that person but didn't hold onto it until the end. But I did feel something missing from this picture).

📌 The ending was satisfying, though I would like to know what happened to the remaining survivors.


MY PROBLEMS:
⚠️ Despite my high rating, I did have a problem with this book. At first, I didn't quite like it; I couldn't get into it. It was like, "I see... huh, okay then?" But chapter by chapter, it was getting intriguing, and the tension kept building up.

⚠️ I wonder how the killer removed the teeth. It isn't easy to remove the teeth, let alone make it perfect; you need tools, and it takes time. So how did the killer remove it? I really wanted to know.

⚠️ Also, how did the killer hang the heads on the pine tree? Did she/he climb the tree? Using ladder? Or what? 

⚠️ What I Thought (at the first):
It went from 2 stars, 3 stars, back to 2 stars, then 4 stars and ended up with 5 stars.

OVERALL:
It was a great journey!!!!

CREDIT:
Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press, for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

🐥

Dead Of Winter is a heart pounding thrill ride that dumps you down right into the middle of the action and doesn't let up until the very last page.
Traveling to the rocky mountains for a getaway with her boyfriend, Christa finds herself on a bus full of people in a snow storm headed into the middle of nowhere. A delay in their travels, as they encounter a tree that has fallen into the road, finds Christa and her fellow travelers made to sudden fight for survival as one by one they're targeted by an unknown threat.
This book kept me guessing until the very end and I loved every second of it.
Please find attached my spoiler free youtube review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja08Cc-VRRw

This book was adequate. I read a lot of thrillers and horror and it's not great at being either. If you are only lightly interested in either genre, you'll probably enjoy this book just fine. :)

Things I liked:
1 - Cell phones were dealt with well. It can be difficult to write around easy access to help/information/entertainment/etc.
2 - The main character is interesting. She's flawed in perfectly normal ways. She did something that we've probably all done without another thought. In her case, that split second went absolutely worst case scenario and changed her life forever. It was intriguing to think about.

Things I didn't like:
1 - The author repeats a lot of the same phrases within the same section of text. It's most noticeable early in the book. Either they were trying for a style that fell flat, or more likely, they need a better editor. It feels like rewriting errors.
2 - I knew what the big reveal was going to be almost right away. Most of the book was just getting through to the end to find out I was right. Again, this may be a result of a super suspicious mind that spends too much time in crime/thrillers. Maybe it won't be obvious to you.
3 - One of the characters is an ex-911 dispatcher. I really did not care for the way the profession was characterized. The women and men who work 911 lines and radio dispatch are the first first responders and do not deserve to be represented this way.

TLDR: I would recommend this for light readers, which is probably most of the people in the world. If you read a lot in the thriller genre, give it a pass or go in with proper expectations. I have zero regrets about reading it though, . Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Be advised - I am more of a harsh reviewer than most of the gushing gomers on Goodreads - not every book is amazing folks. For more information on my rating scale, see my profile.

All I can say is “wow.” This book was SO good. It took me a few days to get through it, which usually never happens, but I think that’s because I was spending the whole time trying to figure it out so I did a lot of thinking between chapters. Haha I did have it figured out (who done it) pretty early on or at least I suspected. But, that changed NOTHING, and the suspense was NOT lacking. Once again, Darcy has written a 5 star book!!

When Christa and her boyfriend are stranded with a tour group in the Rocky Mountains, she thinks it will be for a night or two. On their way to an elaborate resort, they soon find themselves taking shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Despite the cabin being small and the temperature rapidly dropping, the guest think they will be safe. Until they aren’t.

Now, the tour guide’s head is left on a branch on a tree outside the cabin and Christa finds herself shut-in with 8 strangers. As the weather grows increasingly more dangerous, so does staying in the cabin with a killer. Christa must decide who she can trust as she fights to stay alive.

This was a creepy, atmospheric horror novel that will leave you shivering from the cold and the fear as you run from a killer. I love a locked room book where everyone is a suspect and no one is safe. This book is can be gory so know that going into it. I loved how the characters all had their strengths and their flaws and it was fun seeing how they all ended up on the retreat. 5/5⭐️

Thank you to Netgalley, Darcey Coates, and Poisoned Pen Press for an ARC of this book in exchanging for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️
TW: gore, suicide/suicidal ideation, ptsd
While sticking to horror elements, Darcy’s latest work nixes the supernatural elements in favor of the very real horrors humans inflict on each other.

A small group of winter travelers hoping to find beauty and serenity at a secluded, luxury resort. Instead, a blizzard forces the mostly strangers resort to whatever shelter they can find.
But, the harsh elements are far from only threat as members of the uneasy group begin to be gruesomely murdered one by one. As paranoia mounts, our protagonist must wade through lies and half truths to find the killer before it’s too late.
Fans of Agatha Christie and Lucy Foley will likely enjoy this book. Fair warning, it is definitely aimed at adults and far more gory than her previous novels.
Overall, I enjoyed it, though it dragged a bit in the middle. Still, I’m excited to see what Darcy Coates comes up with next.

Christa and her boyfriend are part of a small tour group going to a lodge in the Rocky Mountains for a two-week getaway. But when an unexpected and dangerous snowstorm strands the bus on the way to the lodge, the group finds themselves forced to shelter in a nearby hunting cabin. When one of their group goes missing, people don’t panic – until they find proof that the person was slaughtered not far from their cabin. As the storm grows more intense and the group grows more paranoid, Christa can’t help but feel that none of them will be making it out alive.

I do tend to enjoy reads set in dangerous environments/settings where no one knows who to trust. The author did a good job at incorporating the trust issues but could have utilized the environment much better. The work did suffer a bit from a slower-paced middle, which led to the initial tension of being trapped and hunted drastically decreasing. While there were some decently tense parts, the work didn’t keep me up late reading nor did it have me thinking about it after I put it down.

This was one of those reads where the characters were just good enough to not detract from the read but were too one-dimensional and lacking in real development for me to find any sort of emotional connection to them. And because everyone is focused on survival and not trusting anyone else, we never really got to know any of the characters in a way that made them meaningful or relatable. This also made it difficult to keep track of who was who as their characterization was all relatively bland. I also think this work would have been much more interesting if it were told from Alexis’ POV rather than Christa’s, as Christa was honestly quite boring.

I enjoyed this easy suspense read and imagine some folks will really get a kick out of this one, especially if you don’t think about it too much. My thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me to read this work, which will be published 11 July 2023. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book ahead of publication in exchange for an honest review!

I was very excited to read Darcy's newest book this early, given that I've read many of her books before and loved all of them. Unfortunately, this one didn't really work out for me but I still appreciate this book for what it is. I loved the isolated snowy setting, and the writing is top-noth as always. The main issue I had with this story is a matter of personal taste...it's basically a slasher disguised as an isolated close circle mystery (which I love), however, I do not like slashers. The other thing that lowered my rating to a 3 is that it was way too easy to figure out, to the point that I was very frustrated with the main character for not seeing the obvious.

All issues aside I think this is a fun and entertaining thriller that everyone should give a chance, especially those who enjoy slashers and isolated settings.

It's available July 11, 2023

So, this was fun enough. It wasn't great. But it wasn't boring. I was expecting supernatural, and it's more thriller. So there's lots of overthinking and paranoia and strange deductions because of the paranoia and overthinking. In the Rockies. In the winter. So major isolation thriller. Winter isolation horror is my catnip. This, again, was more thriller, but it was still fun and had some nice grue. I approve of the violent, horrible murders--fictionally speaking, I mean. Exactly what I wanted.

Basically, our hero Christa is traumatized and dragged on a winter trip by her boyfriend, whom she adores. There are 11 people plus the tour guide on the bus as it chugs through the Rockies. In the winter. In the snow. A tour bus. The Rockies. Yep. The road to their lodge ends up blocked by a big tree, so they all get out of the bus to see if there's anything to do about it. Whilst the tour guide is pondering the tree, Christa's boyfriend drags her on a walk. Along ledges. In the Rockies. In the winter. In a snowstorm. In enough feet of snow that when she falls, she's not broken to bits, just a bit sore and frost-bitten.

When she climbs out of the snow, her bf has disappeared. She manages to bungle to a cabin, where she finds the other passengers--but no boyfriend. And then people start dying. And decorating the big old pine outside like so many Christmas ornament glass orbs. Who is doing this? Why? And how can the survivors trust each other?

Christa, gods love her, just isn't that smart. She fits the traumatized thriller heroine to a T. She's not that interesting, but she's an all right person. The characters all feel fairly tropey, but they aren't cardboard cutouts. But there were a couple characters I could have told her from the very beginning she should trust. Her judge of character is lacking. Sure, maybe it's the circumstances, but I'd argue that she just isn't good judging people at all for her whole life.

Still, that sounds like I hate her. I don't. I was just frustrated by her thought processes. I quite liked some of the characters, like nice guy Hutch. He's actually pretty decent and datable. I also liked Denny, to an extent.

But adding to Christa's distress is not only the murders and murder displays, but the fact that her boyfriend has disappeared in the storm. Then...spoiler...they find his body, with an engagement ring in the pocket. Poor Christa cannot catch a break.

There's mistaken identity, gore, murder, improbabilities found only in thrillers, and some fun frozen isolation distress. No matter the flaws, this was a grand time. If you actually LIKE thrillers, you'll probably like this quite a bit. It goes down very easily, although some might balk at the Christmas ornament heads--but I'm a horror girl, so I like that.

Even for me, who reads thrillers and almost always hates them--with a few rare exceptions--enjoyed reading this. Probably because Ms. Coates can write horror too. My main issues are mostly because of the genre itself, not because of Ms. Coates. I think she succeeded with the expectations of the thriller genre. The horror elements I loved. The thriller elements will never be my favorite, but again, that's not her fault. She succeeded in characterization, mystery, and action. She succeeded in improbably thriller plot whilst juggling multiple characters.

There were a couple grammatical errors that would just need to be corrected. Nothing major. The main issue would be actual travel through the Rockies in winter. There are places where it's impassable. I'm guessing wherever this takes place would also be impassable. Even in New England, there were places growing up in the White Mountains where the roads would be closed for the winter, because travelling was too dangerous. You would legit need a Snowcat, just like in The Shining. Which is not what they had. I'm guessing they would never have made it as far as they did in the winter in a bus. So logistically, this doesn't work. Nor is it that easy to decapitate someone, drag their carcass through feet of snow to a whole new place, and shove their decapitated head onto a tree branch. But I like the visual.

So good for thriller fans. For this not-fan of thrillers, still incredibly entertaining. Goes down easy, provides some grue, reads fast.

Thank you to the publisher and author for providing a digital ARC in exchange for a fair review.

Thanks to Darcy Coates, Poisoned Pen Press, and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this book.
Mysterious thriller. A must read!

I knew I was going to enjoy this just based of the fact that it was written by Darcy Coates but it exceeded my expectations! It had me on edge from the very first page! The way she writes made me feel claustrophobic and disoriented right along with the main character. It was the perfect blend horror and mystery.

This is my first novel by Darcy Coates and it will not be my last! She is a spectacular horror/thriller author!

Christa may not be a fan of the great outdoors, preferring the comforts of indoor living and steering clear of venturing out after dark. However, when her boyfriend suggests a retreat deep in the Rocky Mountains, she finds herself unable to resist.

As the trip takes an unexpected turn, with a massive snowstorm causing their bus to become stranded due to a fallen tree, things start to unravel for Christa. Her boyfriend is keen to explore the area, but they end up by a cliff edge and she ends up falling. To her horror, she soon finds herself trapped in a canyon, buried under a blanket of snow, with no clue as to whether her partner has suffered the same fate.

Managing to escape her icy tomb, she stumbles upon a cabin, which incredibly houses all of the passengers from the tour bus. While they wait for the storm to subside and signal for help, they awaken to a gruesome sight the next day - their tour guide's decapitated head mounted on a tree limb.

What follows is a gripping tale of mystery and suspense as members of the group begin to meet similar fates, their heads found on tree branches. Christa is forced to unravel the mystery of who the perpetrator is before she becomes the next unfortunate victim.

This book had me completely engrossed from the beginning, with its unexpected twists and turns leaving me on edge. I was unable to put it down until the very end and have struggled to find a book that compares since finishing it.