I'm a HUGE fan of "What Lies in the Woods" so I was beyond excited for "A Killing Cold". Kate's writing is very well done, and I enjoyed this thriller a lot!

I was so invested in who I could trust and what happened years ago when Theo was young. The building sense of anticipation and danger kept me invested the whole time. This book made me realize how much I love a book that takes place in only one setting. The remote winter cabins were the perfect setting!

The narrator on this one was great as well! Fans of fast-paced and suspenseful thrillers (with a dash of romance) will LOVE this one!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! :)

I tandem read and listened to this and it was amazing! The narrator kept my interest the entire time. The thrill and mystery of A Killing Cold is phenomenal.

Rating: 3.25★
The story follows a girl who does not know her true past as she ends up in a secluded mansion/resort of her fiancé’s family for Christmas…family secrets start to come out and people die. While it’s a page‐turner and has a nice slow‐burn tension, I found parts of the mystery a little underdeveloped. Still, a good chill‐inducing read for a cold night. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a fastastic job. Not my favorite of Marshall's but definitely worth a read!

I was hooked from the start; there were so many clues. I kept thinking I figured it out, but I was wrong.
Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Macmillan Audio for this ARC.

A Killing Cold written by Kate Alice Marshall and narrated by Karissa Vacker was a page-turning thriller that kept me on my toes. Karissa Vacker made the twists, turns, and drama all the more enjoyable with her seamless narration.

A Killing Cold follows Theo through a weekend getaway with her new fiancé that turns into quickly begins to spiral with years of family secrets. If you are a fan of Freida McFadden, run to read this book ASAP.

Really enjoyed this! This book has the perfect balance of twists, whodunnit and character work. I also love the snowy setting. A fantastic winter read!!

This fun and fast-paced thriller had me engaged from the start and kept me enthralled until the very last page. It has all the elements I appreciate in a good thriller: lots of family drama and buried secrets, nobody is as they seem, a locked-door mystery to solve, and lots of twists!

Newly-engaged couple Theodora and Connor visit Connor's family's winter hunting retreat on an isolated mountain. Theo's future in-laws aren't too thrilled about how quickly their relationship is progressing, and are hinting that she's after his money. Theo might be hiding something, but the Dalton family isn't exactly innocent either, and she can't shake the feeling that someone is watching her. When Theo finds a photo of herself as a child hidden in one of the unused cabins, proof that she had been there before, the family's secrets, and Theo's, start to unravel.

Narrator Karissa Vacker did an excellent job of bringing the suspense of this story to life. The audio production of this book was done very well.

This was a typical Kate Alice Marshall book. Slow reveal, twisty and suspenseful. Built on characters more than the plot. I think she's staying safe and it's one that will not make big waves or make you think about it for a long time. Kind of unremarkable.

The narrator was very good and easy to listen to.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for my ALC. It was a pleasure.

A Killing Cold is the newest mystery thriller by Kate Alice Marshall. This is the prefect mid-winter read as it’s set in December with plenty of cold temps and snow. Theo has fallen in love quickly with Connor who hails from a wealthy family. Hey head to his family’s compound to celebrate the Christmas season and their recent engagement with his family. It doesn’t take Theo long to realize that not everyone is happy she’s there. Lucky for readers, many family secrets are divulged. These revelations will keep you turning the page quickly, or in my case, going for extra long walks in order to keep listening. I thought the narrator did an excellent job with reading this audiobook and I was able to devour it over just a couple of days. Read and enjoy!

A Killing Cold is a gripping thriller that keeps you on edge from the very first page. It delivers a mix of characters you’ll love to hate, along with some surprising personalities that add depth to the story. Just when you think you have it all figured out, the plot takes unexpected twists that defy predictability. Suspenseful and well-paced, this book kept me hooked until the end. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it to fellow thriller fans!

Kate Alice Marshall returns following No One Can Knowand What Lies in the Woods with her latest, A KILLING COLD, a twisty thriller with gothic vibes —a snowed-in compound, a wealthy family, and dark secrets they will do anything to protect.

A woman invited to her wealthy fiance’s family retreat realizes they are hiding a terrible secret—mysteriously, she’s been here before.

About...

Theodora (Theo) Scott and Connor Dalton are dating and are now engaged. He is from a rich and powerful family. Six months later, he brings her to Idlewood, the isolated family winter retreat, to meet his relatives.

The place is eerie and familiar to Theo. She has tried to ignore the threatening message to stay away from Connor on her phone, and now footprints in the snow outside the cabin window. Shockingly, she finds a photo of herself as a child at Idlewood!

While she has no memory of her early years, she slowly pieces together fragments. Someone has a shocked secret and will do anything to keep them hidden. The situation becomes increasingly sinister, and Theo knows she is in grave danger, but how will she escape these monsters?

How is the past connected?

My thoughts...

A KILLING COLD is chilling and terrifying. The atmospheric cold, wintery mountain locked-room whodunit thriller with a wealthy, ruthless, and twisted family with long-held secrets, murder, lies that rise to the surface, and twisted sinister motivations are revealed.

TRUST NO ONE! You are dying to know if Connor knows the family secrets and how this will turn out.

With mind-blowing twists, the author keeps you in suspense, with darkness lurking with each page-turn. The intrigue deepens as readers try to solve the intense tension-filled mystery of the past and this twisted, evil family.

Creepy and spine-chilling with unexpected twists set against wintery snowed-in isolation. These twists will keep you on the edge of your seat, surprised at every turn. I enjoyed Theo's character. My favorite book from the author.

*Audiobook...*

I listened to the audiobook narrated by the fabulous Karissa Vacker (a favorite), delivering an epic and engaging performance with FINESSE— elevating the whodunit thriller with suspense and tension against the wintry isolated setting with shocks and twists. Her narration brings the story and characters to life for a genuinely IMMERSIVE listening experience. I highly recommend the audiobook.

Recs...

A KILLING COLD is for fans of the author and those who enjoy works by J. T. Ellison, Alice Feeney, Ruth Ware, Lucy Foley, Stacy Willingham, Carol Goodman, and No Road Home by John Fram.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio for gifting an advanced listening review copy via NetGalley for my honest thoughts.

blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars
Pub Date: Feb 04, 2025
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I have read Kate Alice Marshall’s new releases since 2023 and this one is my favorite!!

This was my first audiobook experience of her novels and I absolutely loved it!! Karissa Vacker did a phenomenal job narrating. I was so engrossed in the story I felt as if I was living it myself and listened to it all in one sitting!
Thank you Net Galley and Macmillan Audio for this early listen of ‘A Killing Cold’.

Theo Scott is swept-up in love, in a whirlwind romance, when she finds herself engage only six short months into her relationship with rich boy Connor Dalton. That’s when the threats begin….

Now Connor is taking Theo up his family’s mountain for a two-week Christmas stay and someone on the mountain doesn’t want Theo there.

Family secrets and lies start to unravel everyone as Theo gets to the bottom of why she is being targeted and why this mountain feels so very familiar to her. Reoccurring dreams she has had since childhood start flooding in and clues surface, and now Theo wonders are they dreams or memories?

I don’t think this is a story that will stay with me forever by any means, but I had such a good time while listening! I was engrossed in the story so much I finished it in one day!
Definitely a page-turner with so many secrets to keep you on the edge of each page!

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publisher for this opportunity to listen to an early copy of this book.
What a crazy ride this was. I actually felt anxious many times while listening to this. I never saw any of the twists and turns coming.
Great book! And the narrator was excellent!

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an early release audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

Theo and Connor have a fast courtship and after six months they go to his family's mountain home so she can meet his wealthy family. Theo has not been completely open with Connor about her past--she has no memories before she was adopted at age four. But at the retreat, things feel familiar. I liked Theo a lot.


I enjoyed Karissa Vacker's narration and think it added to the book.

I am a true fan of thrillers set in isolated locations. The psychological aspect of being so far from anywhere or anyone gives them an eerie feeling that pushes the story even further. So A Killing Cold, written by Kate Alice Marshall was a given for me to listen to.

Theo hasn't been engaged to Connor very long when he takes her to his rich family's mountain cabin for Christmas. Things start taking a weird turn, she gets a message from someone who tells her she needs to stay away from Connor, and she begins receiving small gifts, and things begin to look and feel familiar to her. Someone does not want her at the cabin----

Ok that is all I am going to tell you, I don't want to spoil anything

So obviously you know they are all at this mountain cabin, and it's winter, and the weather is going to get real bad... this is just what I love in a book

I have never read anything from Kate Alice Mitchell, I do not even know if this is a debut, or if she has written more, but that is not important, the important thing is she has written this sinister, locked-room thriller that is perfection.

The characters are complex, it is a family of evils, so just when you think you know who to trust or who to not trust, you are thrown against the wall, turned around, and find yourself going in another direction. I could not figure it out until the author told me, but honestly, I am no armchair detective, I just like to think I am.

A Killing Cold is one of those books that will keep your attention, so pick it up and enjoy the story.

Thrilling until the end! This was a keep you guessing kind of book that was written! The flashbacks made the depth so much better! I enjoyed every minute of this one!

Thank you Net Galley, Macmillian Audio, and Kate Alice Marshall

Thank you so much to @macmillan.audio and @flatiron_books for the ALC!
#MacAudio2025

𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲: A Killing Cold
𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿: Kate Alice Marshall
𝗡𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿: Karissa Vacker
𝗣𝘂𝗯 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲: February 4, 2025
4⭐️

❄️ 𝙈𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 ❄️
This story has suspense, a remote winter setting, and a past mystery that turns into present drama! There is a slow build suspense to the story that keeps you intrigued and doesn’t give away too much at once!

We have Theo, newly engaged to Connor, who is taking her to his family’s remote mountain cabin retreat for the holidays. Connor’s family is wealthy and is ready to find out all about Theo, where she’s from, and if she has any skeletons in her closet. We learn right away that Theo isn’t who she presents herself to be, but that she may be hiding her past for a good reason.

Theo almost seemed like an unreliable narrator to me at times, with how she wasn’t sure during her childhood flashbacks if what she was seeing was real. I think this allows to readers to be on the discovery journey with Theo as she dives into her past.

Connor’s family immediately gave me red flags. You feel like some of them are shady but you aren’t really sure. There was a suspenseful build up as you learn more about all of them, with unexpected twists!

This is a solid twisty winter thriller to dive into! See if you can guess what would happen at the end! 👀

🎧 𝙉𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 🎧
Karissa Vacker is always an amazing narrator to listen to! She brings emption and depth to her voice and also knows how to make the moment feel suspenseful. Top notch!

5 Stars - A huge thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC of 'A Killing Cold' audiobook! This was my first book by Kate Alice Marshall, and it absolutely lived up to the hype. I’d heard great things going in, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to listen.

Kate masterfully maintained the suspense and mystery throughout, keeping me hooked from start to finish. Without giving anything away, I’ll just say—the Dalton family is seriously messed up. The sheer number of secrets and lies within one family made for a truly chilling read. I thought that I had figured out the "bad guy", but it turned out to be so much more twisted than my original thought. I loved how Kate unraveled Theo’s childhood bit by bit, keeping me on edge the entire time.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can’t wait to explore more of Kate Alice Marshall’s work!

whirlwind romance.

When Theodora Scott met Connor—wealthy, charming, and a member of the powerful Dalton family—she fell in love in an instant. Six months later, he’s brought her to Idlewood, his family’s isolated winter retreat, to win over his skeptical relatives.

Stay away from Connor Dalton.
Theo has tried to ignore the threatening messages on her phone, but she can’t ignore the footprints in the snow outside the cabin window or the strange sense of familiarity she has about this place. Then, in a disused cabin, Theo finds something impossible: a photo of herself as a child. A photo taken at Idlewood.

I’ve been here before.
Theo has almost no recollection of her earliest years, but now she begins to piece together the fragments of her memories. Someone here has a shocking secret that they will do anything to keep hidden, and Theo is in terrible danger. Because the Daltons do not lose, and discovering what happened at Idlewood may cost Theo everything.

This was a chilling, exciting, gripping and twisty read! There are family dark secrets with jaw dropping moments that will shock you. The twists kept coming with some surprises! Twist after twist! It was mind-blowing! There are lots of lies and the story gets intense.

There are some very unlikable characters and some very likable characters. My favorite character was Theo. I felt so sorry for her. The characters were very well done.
The family was a wealthy dysfunctional family. They lived in a mansion and I didn't know who to trust. I couldn't listen to the audiobook fast enough to find out what was going to happen next!

I was hooked straight from the beginning to the very end It was a fast-paced listen and I could not put it down. It was very atmospheric. It also is a domestic family drama and a psychological thriller. I really loved it! There also is a snowstorm in the story that makes it even more chilling.
I listened to the audiobook and it was fantastic.

I want to thank Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Now Available!

❄️🔪 Secrets, lies, and a chilling mystery wrapped in an isolated winter retreat—𝗔 𝗞𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗖𝗢𝗟𝗗 𝗯𝘆 𝗞𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹 is the perfect atmospheric thriller! From the moment Theodora (Theo) Scott arrives at Idlewood with her fiancé, Connor Dalton, the tension is palpable. His powerful and unwelcoming family, the eerie familiarity of the place, and the ominous warnings to stay away all build to an electrifying, edge-of-your-seat read. The setting is perfection—cold, remote, and unsettling, creating that trapped feeling I love in a thriller. The mystery of Theo’s past, combined with present-day threats, kept me guessing until the shocking, jaw-dropping reveal. I especially enjoyed the audiobook, which heightened the suspense even more.