DEAD OF WINTER by Darcy Coates – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates
Published by Poisoned Pen Press on July 11 2023
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 341
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A tense slasher with an intriguing mystery makes Dead of Winter a must read for Darcy Coates fans.

So far I’m two for two with Darcy Coates! I loved her last book, Gallows Hill, and Dead of Winter is completely different but just as good. Coates uses the tried and true locked room mystery trope, à la And Then There Were None, to give her readers a terrifyingly tense slasher thriller set in a remote mountain cabin during a snow storm.

Coates throws her readers into the mystery on the first page. We follow a young woman named Christa who is lost in a snow storm, having been separated from her boyfriend Kiernan after their tour bus broke down. Later, after almost perishing from exposure, Christa wakes up in a cabin, surrounded by the other people from the bus, only to be told that Kiernan is missing and presumed dead. Little by little, the story unfolds and we learn that the bus was headed up to Blackstone Alpine Lodge with a group of people looking forward to spending a couple of weeks relaxing during the off season. But when a fallen tree in the road forces them to walk to the lodge on foot, the passengers get lost in the snow storm but luckily stumble upon an abandoned cabin, where they eagerly take shelter.

Now Christa and the others are stuck in the cabin with very little food and no cell service, hoping that the storm will die down and they’ll be able to make their way to the lodge for help. But when their bus driver Brian goes missing, they brave the weather to try to find him and discover a shocking site: Brian’s dead body lying in the snow with no head. And above the body in a tall tree, Brian’s head has been impaled on a branch, seemingly as a warning to the rest of the group.

As the weather worsens and the killer begins picking off the members of the group one by one, Christa fears that none of them will escape alive.

Despite a rather large cast of characters, each one is nicely drawn and fleshed out. The story is told in first person from Christa’s point of view, and I thought it was a good choice because Christa keeps dropping hints about a big secret in her past that plays into the story later on, although the reader doesn’t learn that secret until about halfway in. And for a thriller of this type, it’s important to cast suspicion on all the characters to keep the reader guessing. We meet husband and wife Steve and Miri, an older couple who just want to get away together; Denny and his son Grayson, who are trying to heal after their wife and mother died six months earlier; Blake, who used to be a 911 dispatcher but was let go; Simone, a stern, unfriendly woman; Hutch, a man about Christa’s age who’s a DJ; and Alexis, who confides in Christa that she knows why the group is being targeted. I loved the mix of different characters, and although at first it seems strange that they would all be in a tour group together, everything becomes clear later on.

I thought the mystery of the killer was very well done. I had several ideas about who it was and was wrong each time. Coates also knows how to scare the pants off her readers. This is a “pick ‘em off one by one” slasher, and assuming the killer is one of the characters—those characters I was getting know and like—it was shocking every time someone died. Even though elements like the secluded location, the storm, the dying cell phones, and no power are typical tropes of the genre, Coates used them to great effect and gave the reader a few good jump scares, in addition to the creeping sense of unease and terror. Although I did want to yell at the characters a couple of times when one or another of them decided to go on a walk or step outside for a cigarette. I mean, come on! There’s a killer out there just waiting to catch you alone and you are going on a walk? 

The scariest part for me, though, was that Christa and the others are getting to know each other on a personal level, since they’re stuck in a small cabin together with no where to go, but each time someone dies, the remaining characters can’t help but wonder which one of them is the killer. Eventually they start to turn on each other and things get even worse.

There’s an “Ah ha” moment about halfway through the story, a twist of sorts, where then pieces of the puzzle start to click into place. This completely changed the dynamic of the group, and the second half of the story is so tense it’s almost impossible to put down the book. There’s even a “final girl” scenario at the end with yet another big twist, and I loved every second of it.

I can’t really say much more due to spoilers, so I think I’ll end my review here. Readers who enjoy a fast-paced thriller with an intriguing mystery and don’t mind some (mild) graphic violence will want to get your hands on this book.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.