This is a story about trauma and survival. Two sisters run away in a snowstorm, but one of them leaves the other out in the cold and disappears. Lily, the sister who was left behind, becomes a social worker to help children like herself. Rose, the older sister who abandoned the other, became drug addicted and down on her luck, forever guilty of leaving her sister.

There are twists and turns that took me by surprise, and other twists that were predictable. Writing this in a dual timeline helps the reader to understand why each girl turned out how they did and the ways they dealt with their trauma.

Entertaining, atmospheric and dark, this book will certainly entertain you. Thank you, NetGalley and Severn House for the opportunity to read this 4-star book.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

I very much enjoyed this book. The writing was great and the characters were well developed. I hope to read more from this author in the future.

What a great book! I absolutely loved how twisty and clever this one was! I was totally engrossed from beginning to end and would definitely read from this author again, So, so, so good!

A great mystery. I loved the plot and the MC's journey to discovering what happened that night. I loved the characters banter and inner monologues.

Thank you Severn House and Casey Dunn, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley

I enjoyed A Cold Whisper and do recommend as a decent mystery. Took me 3 days to finish.

I rated as 4 stars since it had a nice flow which made it easy to read. Storyline was entertaining, the characters were fleshed out enough to picture, and she did get me with the twist…which I am usually one to figure them out. I reduced the rating down from five because a couple of scenes had extra details at the end when retold as a memory, which were not just omitted during the original but altered. I feel as though those could have been handled with a little more care. This will probably be one I will purchase as a gift for friends.

3.5 - I would recommend A Cold Whisper to readers who enjoy thrillers that center around the trauma of the foster care system. As a whole, the book is depressing, and abuse is rampant throughout. The ending of the book was one of the better twisty endings I have read. However, for a book under 300 pages, I think there were too many individual side plots that were unnecessary or poorly integrated, which means there were some loose ends or elements where you had to suspend belief to make sense of the ending.

Thank you NetGalley, Severn House, and Casey Dunn for the ARC of this book.

SPOILERS AHEAD! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

What Worked for Me
While I can see how seasoned thriller readers could predict the ending, I was 75% surprised. Both the author and society is driving you to suspect that the sister who is a drugged up sex worker has something to hide. Rose's story is a stereotypical portrayal of the impact of abuse in the foster care system, while Lily's story is more subtle. I liked the character portrayals of both sisters, and would have liked to see those developed more throughout the story.

What Didn't Work for Me
While I could see psychologically how the ending played out, I didn't buy into it 100%. If Rose wanted to make sure Lily had a good life, why not stick around to monitor? And if you were constantly around, wouldn't you know that your sister is a serial killer? I also wish that Daniel and Hunter had a backstory that was more integrated into the main case (like if one of them started to suspect someone was targeting foster children) or Easton's case. They have too much page space to be two cops whose sole purpose is getting duped. The last main issue I had was the setting. I didn't need to be told over and over how cold it was or how often Lily checked her weather app. A more integrated setting would have made this literally and figuratively a chillier story, and could have given clues into Lily having an alternative motive to the weather app. Overall, I feel like this story lacked a masterful intertwining of plot.

I really had a hard time with this one. There were too many individual stories that didn't really connect. The characters were not very likeable and were very shallow and self centered. They experienced trauma but it didnt seem to fit their behaviors. As far as mysteries go it was disappointing and really didn't do anything different. There was so much extraneous information that you lost the story itself. I found myself bored, lost and struggling to finish it.

I just finished a great new thriller. A Cold Whisper by Casey Dunn was a page tuner that kept me up way past bedtime to finish.

A Cold Whisper checks all the boxes for a psychological thriller—trauma, a missing-person mystery, and chilling atmosphere—but it doesn’t bring much new to the genre. The dual timeline structure, following Lily in the present and Rose in the past, is engaging, and the cold, eerie setting adds to the tension. However, the plot follows a fairly predictable path, and while the story is well-paced, seasoned thriller readers may find the twists easy to spot.

That said, the novel still delivers a solid, emotional journey, especially in how it explores trauma and survival. Fans of The Child Finder or The Overnight Guest will likely enjoy the familiar themes and suspenseful moments. While it didn’t completely blow me away, it’s a decent read for those who enjoy atmospheric thrillers with a dark, emotional core.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was different to the normal crime books I read but I did enjoy it especially the difference
A lovely read with some interesting characters
This was a real emotion book I went through so many,
It was an intense interesting read with some great characters and a good story

This book was pretty run of the mill mystery/thriller. I was quite bored with it throughout reading.

I don’t give five stars out often, so trust me when I say, this book is IT.

From start to finish, I was absolutely hooked. The dark, the dreary, the dreadful. It was all there. The author did an amazing job of clearly identifying the perspectives of different characters, and brilliantly telling different views of the same story through different lenses.

I was NOT prepared for some of the twists, the ending being a major one. Daniel got played. Hunter got played. I got played.

Two sisters, beginning in a story of hurt, struggles of being strung along by their mother, and an unrelenting fire to escape the pain. To trust your sister with literally your whole life, to be left out in the cold. Alone. Scared. Unwanted.

They say childhood traumas are what make you into the adult you become, and that could not be more true for Rose and Lily. Two sisters and two brothers navigate the harsh realities of loneliness and the need for acceptance of their older siblings—to what cost? Is it really to die for?

The book is filled with heartbreak, angst, and page turning thrill, absolutely done right. I was on the edge of my seat (read as literally picking up my kindle any chance I could) waiting for what happens next.

The cold brings much more than snow on the ground—it can bring out the devil in others to heat things up.

*Huge thank you to NetGalley for an ARC for an honest review*

Thank you, Severn House for the copy of A Cold Whisper by Casey Dunn. At first, I liked the main story of Lily trying to find Rose, and how Lily’s job as a social worker fit in. If you like surprise reveals, you will love this book. I wasn’t a big fan of Rose, her lifestyle, and the trouble it got her into so it was hard for me to stay engaged. I’m not sure this book was for me. 3 Stars.

Catch your breath. It might be your last . . . A bone-chilling, terrifying story about two sisters and secrets hiding beneath the snow! Great read! This book had chilling suspense, murder, mystery, intrigue, a great who done it and some crazy twists! The story was very interesting! I definitely recommend reading this book! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

A Cold Whisper follows two sisters, Rose and Lily, as they run away from their home during a blizzard. The next thing Lily remembers is waking up in the snow with Rose nowhere to be found. In present day, Lily is now a social worker who specialises in missing children. When a teenager she loks after is found frozen to death in the snow, Lily's past starts catchin up with her.

If you enjoy general fiction stories with a bit of mystery & thriller in them, told from multiple POVs, with numerous characters and subplots, then you will love A Cold Whisper!!