Look, I need to be honest here, I have a love/hate relationship with Darcy Coates's books.

Their stories always have a plot that I love, characters I can get behind, and an atmosphere that I enjoy...at least for the first two-thirds of the book.

Every time they reach the two-thirds checkpoint, they start to drag on. The reveals are never surprising as you see them coming from a mile away, which is fine, but Coates contines to drag out the reveal with exposition and recaps that are completely unnecessary.

I'm going to keep reading Coates's stories because when I say I enjoy the first two-thirds, I mean, I really enjoy them! They're worth the read even if I expect to be disappointed with the final third of the story.

One day, Coates is going to write a story that doesn't have me jumping from dialogue to dialogue by the final chapters, and it is probably going to be my favourite book, ever.

As for "Dead of Winter," it's a pretty standard whodunnit plotline set in a snowstorm.

With no escape and no telecommunications, the members of a holiday tour need to work together to survive the freezing weather...and each other.

I do recommend this book, and I'd love to hear how other people found the last third of the story.

I will say that there's a couple of loose ends that make no sense to me, but they're not really relevant to the overall plot.