Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates
Poisoned Pen Press (July 11, 2023)
352 pages; $14.39 paperback; $4.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin
Darcy Coates upholds her reputation as a deft storyteller with a knack for conjuring atmospheric page-turners in her latest release, Dead of Winter, “an icy homage to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.”
We’re all going to die here.
Christa is always anxious. She wonders if she’ll ever feel normal after the accident. But with Kiernan, that gnawing angst subsides. She feels safe. Protected. Loved.
So, when the chance for their first trip together arises, Christa boards a tour bus headed for a vacation lodge in the mountains, beaming. But the weather takes a turn for the worst. It’s unrelenting. Deathly. The eight strangers take cover in an abandoned hunting cabin.
And heads will roll.
Seven. Six. The group diminishes as lodge guests are slaughtered and sinisterly displayed. Someone is hunting them.
We’re all going to die here.
Though Coates sets readers up for a cozy murder mystery, she only roosts the line between horror and thriller for a short time. With Adam Nevill-level scares, Dead of Winter blackens its pages with dread so dire readers will reach for the nearest night light.
The clever pacing makes each character detail suspect. The “killer is among us” paranoia mounts effectively, too, as each character assumes an archetype: the army vet with know-how; the strange father-son duo; the kind but lonesome artist on business; and so on. However, a few chapters, possibly intended for misdirection, sometimes bogged my anticipation. Still, I couldn’t help but reach for this book. I had to know how Dead of Winter ends. And it’s bloody masterful.
Darcy Coates’ Dead of Winter will be a favorite 2023 release for anyone who enjoys classic murder mysteries, Showtime’s Yellowjackets series, inspired by The Donner Party and the 1972 Andes Flight Disaster, and isolation horror.
This one will make readers feel like they opened a grimoire only to be trapped, frozen under its chaos.
A must-read.
