Leanne Olson

by Darcy Coates

released July 11, 2023 from Poisoned Pen Press

I don’t think I’ve been this anxious reading a thriller in a while. The pacing in Dead of Winter was unreal — the action and tension never let up. 

Our heroine Christa and her boyfriend are on a bus up to a remote lodge for a vacation.  The group takes shelter in a small cabin and start dying horribly, one by one…

I’m a sucker for an isolated location, survival-based thriller and this one didn’t disappoint.  I really felt the cold and the murders were appropriately horrifying.  Dead of Winter plays with the line between thriller and horror.

The characters are a bit shallow, but for this kind of thriller that’s fine.  Coates gives the reader enough on each character to speculate about their motives and who might be the killer, and I cared about them enough to feel it when my favourites were in trouble.

🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for my review copy of this book.