Dead of Winter is a chilling beach read from Darcy Coates

Classics are classics for a reason yet giving them a modern twist doesn’t hurt. That’s exactly what I thought upon starting Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates.

Coates is an author I’ve heard a lot about but as someone who is primarily a romance reader, I don’t usually pick up something unless there’s a romance. Occasionally, I will pick up a contemporary or a thriller if the mood strikes.

With the summer heat blazing on me, I decided it was time to pick up Dead of Winter which is such a great title for a book being released in summer. I feel like the author and publisher made a deliberate choice with that one.

Even so, I’d like to thank the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press for sending me an ARC to read as I ended up finishing it in two sittings so I’m excited to hear my thoughts on Darcy Coates’ latest.

Dead of Winter is a twisty and frigid thriller from Darcy Coates.

With thrillers, it’s best to not know much before going in yet with Dead of Winter, the plot seems to unfold very quickly from the beginning. We follow Christa who is set to go on vacation at a snowy lodge with her boyfriend and everything seems great until a snowstorm hits, leaving everyone trapped away from the lodge.

From there, things start to pick up with Christa and Kiernan getting lost, Christa not remembering what went down and everyone in the group being suspicious. Honestly, I don’t want to talk too much about the plot but I will say that Dead of Winter is such a thrilling read from the very first page.

Within the first three chapters, Darcy Coates had me sucked in and I wanted to see what happened with these characters, their stories, and how everything was connected. As this was my first Darcy Coates, I really enjoyed her writing and felt like the way the story was plotted was amazing. She kept me engaged for the majority of the story which I loved.

Modeled after Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, you hold your breath, not knowing what will happen or who will be next. As this is a thriller, I don’t want to give away any twists or turns but I was pleasantly surprised with who the culprit was and how everything was connected.

I’m not normally a thriller reader, so this criticism might be completely off-the-wall but I do feel like there were a few too many red herrings. Then again, that might be the fun of the story or something this author has done in previous works. Either way, it sort of felt like whiplash toward the end of Dead of Winter.

All in all, if you’re looking for a fun and engaging thriller, then Dead of Winter won’t let you down. If anything, this makes me want to go back and read more of Darcy Coates’ massive backlist as she’s such a huge fixture in the horror/thriller genre.

Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates is out now wherever you buy books!

Will you be bringing Dead of Winter to the beach this summer? Let us know in the comments.