by Darcy Coates
July 11, 2023
Publisher: Black Owl Books (Kindle) and Poisoned Pen Press (Paperback)
ASIN: B0BMVPDL79
ISBN: 9781728270258
Christa has always been anxious but, at this moment, life seems oh so hopeful with her hand in Kiernan's as the tour bus climbs a narrow road up the side of the Rockies. Blue skies turn bitterly cold mid-afternoon as a blizzard pushes the group of 8 strangers out of their bus and to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin.
Deep in the night, their tour guide goes missing…only to be discovered the following morning, his severed head impaled on a large pine tree outside the cabin. Eight drops to seven and it becomes clear that someone in the group is killing for sport.
Christa has always been anxious but, at this moment, life seems oh so hopeful with her hand in Kiernan's as the tour bus climbs a narrow road up the side of the Rockies. Blue skies turn bitterly cold mid-afternoon as a blizzard pushes the group of 8 strangers out of their bus and to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin.
Deep in the night, their tour guide goes missing…only to be discovered the following morning, his severed head impaled on a large pine tree outside the cabin. Eight drops to seven and it becomes clear that someone in the group is killing for sport.
Christa and her boyfriend, Kiernan, are traveling to Blackstone Alpine Lodge. Their bus stops due to a tree across the road. Kiernan convinces her to go exploring. She falls over a ledge, and she finds herself in the deepening snow, with Kiernan nowhere in sight. Christa manages to find an abandoned hunting cabin, where the others on the bus and their tour guide are, but no Kiernan. To make matters worse, someone or something is, killing them, the tour guide first. They find his head impaled on a branch of a large tree outside the cabin!
Darcy Coates is known for her haunted house horror, but now she is tackling a serial killer thriller. There is suspense and she still applies the horror, this time to an unknown killer and a snowy mountainous range where none of the victims know where they are, no cell phones are working, and are suspicious of each other, wondering who the killer among them is. Ms. Coates sends the reader through a thrilling icy race with the same heart-pounding scares she uses in her haunted-house books.
I give Dead of Winter 41/2 sheep.
Reviewed by Pamela K. Kinney
Darcy Coates is the USA Today bestselling author of more than a dozen horror and suspense novels.
She lives in the Central Coast of Australia with her family, cat, and a collection of chickens. Her home is surrounded by rolling wilderness on all sides, and she wouldn't have it any other way.
You can hear about her next book by joining her newsletter: www.darcycoates.com/updates
