Dead of winter /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

USA TODAY BESTSELLER * JULY 2023 LIBRARYREADS SELECTION

Eight strangers. One killer. Nowhere left to run.

When Christa joins a tour group heading deep into the snowy expanse of the Rocky Mountains, she's hopeful this will be her chance to put the ghosts of her past to rest. But when a bitterly cold snowstorm sweeps the region, the small group is forced to take shelter in an abandoned hunting cabin. Despite the uncomfortably claustrophobic quarters and rapidly dropping temperature, Christa believes they'll be safe as they wait out the storm.

She couldn't be more wrong.

Deep in the night, their tour guide goes missing...only to be discovered the following morning, his severed head impaled on a tree outside the cabin. Terrified, and completely isolated by the storm, Christa finds herself trapped with eight total strangers. One of them kills for sport...and they're far from finished. As the storm grows more dangerous and the number of survivors dwindles one by one, Christa must decide who she can trust before this frozen mountain becomes her tomb.

Don't have enough scary books on your shelves?

More bestselling horror from Darcy Coates:

From Below Gallows Hill The Haunting of Ashburn House The Haunting of Blackwood House The Haunting of Rookward House The House Next Door The Folcroft Ghosts Hunted The Haunting of Gillespie House Parasite

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Christa expects a romantic winter getaway with boyfriend Kiernan and their small tour group at a remote lodge in the Rocky Mountains. She is hopeful that this trip will bring her and Kiernan closer and give her the opportunity to put some of her past demons to rest. The trip quickly turns nightmarish when a blizzard strands their bus and they are forced to seek shelter in an abandoned cabin. The 11 strangers believe that they'll be safe together until help arrives; however, nothing is as it seems. When their guide Brian goes missing, they begin to worry that their rescue is in jeopardy. Following the discovery of Brian's demise, the group quickly realizes a brutal killer intends to pick them off one by one. Christa has to decide whom she can trust, if these killings are random or connected, and how to make it out alive. VERDICT Coates's (The Twisted Dead) latest is a compelling page-turner for readers of horror and thriller fiction, in the vein of Dean Koontz and Stephen King. The writing is magnetic and descriptive in a way that will have readers shivering from both the cold and outright fear.--Linsey Milillo

Booklist Review

Coates (From Below, 2022) is primarily known for horror, but here--in this claustrophobic story about a group of people stranded in a small cabin in the blizzard-blasted Rocky Mountains--she turns in a fine blend of thriller and horror. When the group's tour guide disappears, that's unnerving; when he's found the next morning, that's terrifying. Because what they find is his head, separated from his body. Christa, the book's central character, realizes she's trapped in a small space with a handful of people she barely knows, at least one of whom is apparently a killer. While the basic story is familiar (see, for example, Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None), the execution is fresh, scary, and--especially for readers who are even a little claustrophobic--deeply unsettling. Coates' writing is so vivid that we can hear the winds buffeting the cabin, we can feel the bone-chilling cold, and we can smell the fear. Fine work.

Kirkus Book Review

A winter mountain getaway goes horribly wrong when a small group is stranded in the snow and a gruesome killer picks them off one by one. It was supposed to be a romantic getaway in the Rocky Mountains for Christa Bailey and her boyfriend, Kiernan. But when their private tour bus breaks down on the way to the Blackstone Alpine Lodge, Christa finds herself trapped in the woods and separated from Kiernan. After being rescued by other members of the group, who had been strangers to her until that day, Christa is determined to go back out into the woods to find Kiernan and bring him to safety. But the snowdrifts are high, and even the few members of the group who want to support Christa's rescue mission know it's a fool's errand. Tour guide Brian convinces Christa to leave a lantern as a beacon for Kiernan, and the group prepares to hunker down for the night in a little cabin they've found unlocked and vacant, perhaps their last piece of good luck. Christa has a premonition--"We're all going to die here"--and by morning, this isn't just a feeling anymore. Brian, their best hope for rescue, is missing, and when the group searches for him, they find his head impaled on a tree, a branch sticking out of his lifeless mouth. Her worst fears justified, Christa is equally terrified and resigned when whoever killed Brian starts targeting the other survivors in a graphically grim take on a locked-room mystery. A fast-paced thriller aimed at readers who enjoy a hunt ending with a head on a stake. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Darcy Coates is the USA Today bestselling author of more than a dozen horror and suspense novels. She lives on NSW's Central Coast 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.