This newest novel from Kate Alice Marshall is so full of twists that days after finishing it my head is still spinning. The cold isolated mountain setting and family drama made this an absolutely perfect winter read. Then throw in was our main characters amnesia and slow piecing together of her childhood to make this a completely engrossing read. This is definitely my favorite of the three books I’ve read by Marshall!

I started reading the digital version of this and then switched to audio which is narrated by Karissa Vacker. She did a phenomenal job and I would highly recommend the audio route!

Thank you Macmillan Audio for the alc via Netgalley and Flatiron Books for the arc via Netgalley!

Eating: 4.5/5⭐️
Pub day: February 4, 2025

A Killing Cold

I did a little happy dance when I received an advanced listening copy of A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall, from Macmillan Audio and NetGalley, narrated by Karissa Vacker.

The blurb for A Killing Cold intrigued me, having just listened to No One Can Know in November.

What I enjoyed:
• loved the tension buildup as this carefully constructed, complex story developed
• Marshall set the scene for a great sensory experience with her description of the retreat
• I enjoyed getting to know some of the actors while others provided the counter in a love-to-hate character relationship

What I struggled with a bit:
• with high intensity pushing in near the end, I found the audio a bit confusing
• the story flips from 1st person POV present tense to 2nd person POV past tense, for some of the reveals (I haven’t seen this in print yet, so maybe it’s more clearly delineated by a font change)
• I listened to the last few chapters again to confirm what happened

Overall, I loved the story and I recommend this locked-room style, atmospheric adventure of a domestic thriller.

With thanks to #NetGalley, #MacmillanAudio and Kate Alice Marshall for the opportunity to experience and early audio copy!

I'm in the minority here, but I could not stand any of these characters, and that made me disengage from the story. Plus the narrator's "little girl" voice was so grating I was tempted to stop reading.

This was a weird one for me personally. Did it deliver of the twisty, chock full of details, and a love of great writing? Absolutely! So why did so have a hard time staying with it?

I’m glad i did as the last 25% of the book was non stop mind blowing (albeit far fetched) drama that even surprised me but I would be remiss in not mentioning that I kept starting and stopping the first 30% as I kept getting sidetracked but that’s a me problem!

I think folks will really enjoy the ride and love to hate the Dalton Family. It reminded me of Dynasty and Dallas level distinction and backstabbing so if that’s your jam, get this on your TBR.

The narrator did a good job with the read. I did speed it up to 1.75x as that was a comfortable rate for me to listen.
I am thankful to have gotten the ALC for free from Macmillan Audio through NetGalley to enjoy which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

Theo finds her dream guy and goes to meet his family who by the way....is rich and she gets the normal questions. Who are you? What do you want? How’d you get engaged so fast, but she doesn’t remember where she comes from. She knows she was adopted at a young age by a very religious family. But she doesn’t know who her birth parents are and then when she’s with her fiancé’s family, she finds a picture that looks a lot like what she would’ve looked like as a child with her fiancé’s father does she have a connection to this family already? And if she does what happened to her mother?
This book had me hooked from the beginning. Such a good thriller with some twisty parts that I do love and did NOT see coming.

A Killing Cold

The Daltons do not lose, and what happened at Idlewood may cost Theo everything.

To be honest I did not have high hopes for this book at first. I have been burned in the past by rich family thrillers but when I read the description I was intrigued, and the cover caught my attention, so I gave it a chance. This book had so many twists it gave me whip lash in the best way. I did not know you to trust and the more the story got uncovered the more unreliable everyone became. Theo’s memories from her childhood and the Daltons secrets slowly start coming out/back one by one and we get to see the mystery unfold. If you think you figured out the killer guess again this book keeps you on the edge of your seat. I enjoyed the setting of the families in isolated winter cabins, and I think this is the perfect winter read! The narrator did a great job!

Thank you, Net Galley, the author, and the publisher, for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"A Killing Cold" by Kate Alice Marshall (audiobook) was an adventure, to say the least! I appreciated how the main character, Theodora Scott, continued to evolve and morph as the narrative progressed. The twists and turns were almost overwhelming, as each time I thought I knew what was happening next, I was completely wrong! This book will keep you guessing until the very end. While I admire Kate Alice Marshall for her surprise plot twists, this book was almost confusing. However, if you can endure the ride, it is worth it! Solid 4 stars! Well done!
As always, if Karissa Vacker narrates it, it is going to be exceptional. She did an excellent job, very intense! No one could have done a better job with this audiobook! Great choice!
Thank you, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley, for the ARC audiobook!

3.5 rounded up.

Thank you, Netgalley and Flat Iron Punlishing, for this audiobook.

I'm all about a Kate Alice Marshall thriller. What Lies In the Woods and No One Can Know where great reads for me. A Killing Cold didn't live up to the previous books, but the story kept me engaged. First, I'm not the biggest fan of the narrator. Her tone makes me think she should read romance books. I'm not looking for a sexy voice in my thrillers. Doesn't work for my tastes.

Theo is a young woman who has terrible nightmares about from a time in her childhood that she can't quite remember. She has a whirlwind romance with Connor and is headed to meet his uber rich family at their mountain retreat. Once she arrives, she starts to feel like she's been their before. I found Theo didn't operate from a place of common sense. " I shouldn't be here. I'm in danger, I should leave." She says this several times, yet not only does she stay, her "habit" puts her in precarious situations where dangerous could very well get her. She was frustrating to me, and her back story with her adopted parents served no purpose, IMO. Connor was more like an accent table, cute but just there for show mainly. Would've loved more backstory on Liam and Theo's mom. Kate Alice Marshall will continue to be an auto buy for me. This one just didn't do it for me.

Theo is invited by her fiance Conner to his family retreat in the mountains. When she gets there she realizes that they have secrets and that she has been there before.

This winter thriller is full of twists, secrets, lies and murder. Theo doesn’t remember the first years of the childhood or her biological family. There was also an incident with her adopted family. Connor’s family are wealthy and do not see her as appropriate for him.

The audiobook is narrated by the amazing Karissa Vacker that managed to make me feel all that Theo went through. There is only one perspective and she managed to narrate the different characters very well (female and male).

The suspense is high and the story kept me involved. As it is the first book I read from this author I did not expect to like it so much, but it made me want to read more.
I recomend this to all thriller lovers.

Thank you Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the ALC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

If Karissa Vacker narrates it, I will listen to it. I always enjoy her narration and this one was no exception!

A Killing Cold was my favorite Kate Alice Marshall book so far. It had a few things that didn't work for me, but overall it was still a fun, fast paced listen. Theo is on her way to her extremely wealthy fiancé's familys' remote winter retreat. Something about her fiancé has always seemed familiar and so is this winter retreat. She's starting to have flashbacks of her traumatic childhood that she thought she couldn't remember and now she feels like she may be in danger.

The beginning was fast paced and I was instantly hooked. The things that didn't work for me were just the convenient timing of the memories coming back. This all happened as a child, twenty years have passed and Theo has remembered nothing. Suddenly someone asks her a question and the flashback with the answer comes back perfectly every time? Or every time she confronted someone, she would actually remember the correct answer? It was just all too perfect and so unrealistic. It also really started to drag at the end as the author tried out EVERY single wrong answer before finding out what actually happened. I was ready for it to wrap up by the end.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the gifted ALC!

About the book: Theodora Scott is invited to Connor Dalton's family estate for a retreat. Before she goes, she receives a text to stay away from Connor, and when she's there, mysterious footprints show up outside her cabin window. Nightmares and flashbacks become more vivid and Theodora is left wondering if her relationship with Connor isn't the first connection she has with the Dalton family.

My review: I have absolutely loved Kate Alice Marshall's thrillers over the last few years, but this one takes the cake! I was hooked from the first chapter and binged it in one day. It was particularly good on audio, narrated by Karissa Vacker, who is my favorite thriller narrator! A KILLING COLD had just the right makings for a perfect thriller: the shady, rich Dalton family, the setting of their remote camp in the winter, the amnesia due to childhood trauma leaving some gaps that were revealed throughout the book, and a subtle love storyline. This book is a total winner - make sure it's on your list!

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator is one of my top tier narrators, I actively look for her when I’m choosing books. This one took until about 25% to really get interesting, and from there it just gets better and better. Excellent twists and turns! I’ve read books by this author before and have enjoyed them, highly recommend this one and especially the author in general.

I absolutely love the way Kate Alice Marshall tells the story. She crafts complicated plots and drops complex characters into them in a way that never fails to entertain. That being said, while I found this to be an enjoyable listen, it is probably my least favorite of her books so far because the plot is really absolutely ridiculous - and I say that with love...

It starts out with great promise and potential and feels like one of her classic stories, but as the twists start to roll out they require such radical suspensions of disbelief that even I, a die-hard fan, struggled to keep a straight face. The narration completely sold this one for me. If I had read this I do not know if I would have kept going, and if I had I probably would have skimmed.

If you are fine with a series of seeming coincidences coming together into a web of plot points that defy gravity, you may have no issue with this one in any format. It was still an enjoyable experience, but I'm hoping her next novel falls back into more gravity-bound territory...

I thought this one was so good!!! It is REALLY suspenseful, starting at like 40% and doesn't take its foot off the gas. The story follows a girl, Theo, who is traveling to a remote cabin/hunting lodge with her new fiance to spend Christmas with his family. Theo is an orphan who has a storied past, and her fiance is RICH. You can see where this story might be heading. While at the lodge, Theo starts to think her surroundings are familiar.... but how on earth could she have been here before?

This book was GOOD. I'm a huge fan of Kate Alice Marshall's adult thrillers, and while nothing can top What Lies in the Woods, this a solid thriller to read. I thought I had it figured out less than halfway through (I mean you can kinda easily see where parts of this story is going), but I continued to read it because the writing is just so good and atmospheric. And while I did guess a lot of things correctly, the ENDING! It had so many twists and turns, I was gasping. The queen of last-minute twists strikes again. I loved this book!

This book was a decent read, though it had its slow moments. I appreciated how the author effectively brought the story together, even if it didn’t leave a lasting impression. While not particularly memorable, it was enjoyable enough that I’m open to exploring more by this author. Overall, this book was fairly middle-of-the-road for me.

This had such a great premise, and I loved the set-up and the atmosphere. I was so interested in seeing where it would go... and I waited and waited. There seemed to be a lot of repetition, and the story ended up not making sense. I can suspend disbelief, but there's a limit when it comes to books set in the real world. Also, the main character spent most of her time thinking and doubting herself.
The narrator was great, though, and that is how I made it through.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me listen to this audiobook

This author was new to me and I received an early edition of this audio book in exchange for my review. The production and narration were well done and easy to follow. The storyline of this book was mysterious without being overly scary. This was a quick finish for me and I appreciated the twists and turns throughout. I would definitely recommend to others

Thank you to NetGalley, Kate Alice Marshall and Macmillan audio for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This was definitely by far my favourite from Marshall! This was twisty and full of action. I love a good locked on an island in the winter type genre and also the rich people acting bad so this was perfect. Totally obsessed and listened as fast as I could.

Mysteries and thrillers have always been my go-to comfort reads. I've never been able to succinctly explain why when asked. I'm still not sure I can explain it in less than a thousand words. Luckily for everyone reading this, I can now just point to A Killing Cold instead of composing an essay. Just read it and you'll figure it out.

The novel centers on the newly engaged Theo and Connor, who have just arrived at Idlewild, the isolated winter compound owned by Connor's insanely wealthy family. Theo's mission? To spend the Christmas trip winning over the Daltons, Connor's famously impenetrable family while keeping her secret past closely guarded. A series of threatening messages and a weird sense of familiarity with her new surroundings spur Theo to start investigating, and what she finds out changes everything.

Theo’s sense of familiarity with the retreat, and the eerie discovery of a childhood photo of herself at the cabin, creates an intriguing mystery. The more she digs into her past, the more dangerous things become, and Marshall expertly builds tension as secrets are slowly revealed. Theo’s struggle to piece together her fragmented memories keeps you on edge, especially when it becomes clear that the Dalton family is hiding something sinister.

Marshall keeps the plot moving along at a fast clip, making it impossible for me to put this one down. There were so many twists and turns, but they all felt organic to the way the story was unfolding, never forced. I think the story lent itself well to the audio format, as well. The narrator was perfect, keeping me fully immersed in this twisty mystery. A Killing Cold is a fast, fun ride and I can't wait to read Marshall's other novels.

#AKillingCold is a twisty and soapy thriller about a family with secrets and the young woman one of them wants to bring into their circle..but she has secrets of her own. It was fun to try and unravel them all as new information was revealed. We eventually get to the heart of the matter: sometimes secrets are there to protect those we love, but other times….
I devoured this in one day, enjoying all the twists and turns.
My thanks to the author, publisher, @MacmillanAudio, and #NetGalley for early access to the audiobook for review purposes. Publication date: Feb 4, 2025