ARC Review--A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall

 

A woman invited to her wealthy fiance’s family retreat realizes they are hiding a terrible secret—and that she’s been there before, by the bestselling author of What Lies in the Woods.

A whirlwind romance.
When Theodora Scott met Connor—wealthy, charming, and a member of the powerful Dalton family—she fell in love in an instant. Six months later, he’s brought her to Idlewood, his family’s isolated winter retreat, to win over his skeptical relatives.

Stay away from Connor Dalton.
Theo has tried to ignore the threatening messages on her phone, but she can’t ignore the footprints in the snow outside the cabin window or the strange sense of familiarity she has about this place. Then, in a disused cabin, Theo finds something impossible: a photo of herself as a child. A photo taken at Idlewood.

I’ve been here before.
Theo has almost no recollection of her earliest years, but now she begins to piece together the fragments of her memories. Someone here has a shocking secret that they will do anything to keep hidden, and Theo is in terrible danger. Because the Daltons do not lose, and discovering what happened at Idlewood may cost Theo everything.

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

Kate Alice Marshall is a contender for the thriller genre! Whether it's YA or adult, she can dominate with a compelling spine-gripping story that you cannot put down until the very end. A Killing Cold is no different in that sense as it was a read that immediately sucked me in and held me riveted until the very end.

First up, I do want to mention a bit of a possible trigger warning, there are a few pages where there is deer hunting involved. I don't know if that can really be called "trigger warning" worthy, but I usually cringe at violence against animals and though it is technically a sport, I just wanted to give you some advance notice. A few pages I noted that encountered this were pages 5, 53-54, and 182-183. Now I did read the ARC, so these pages could change, but just be on the lookout for them if this is something you want to skip over.

Onto the review! Theo is a young woman who just got engaged to her boyfriend, Connor. It was a fast engagement and a whirlwind of a romance. Connor wants her to meet his family by spending a few weeks at his family's mountain retreat for the Christmas holiday. Connor comes from money, his family is loaded and Theo, well, Theo doesn't really know where she came from. She was adopted at a very young age and raised by very strict and religious adoptive parents. She didn't have a kind childhood and it's shrouded in dark secrets and things she'd rather leave in the dark.

But when you're about to become a family member to one of the richest families around, well, dirty laundry is going to be aired. When Connor brings her to the mountain retreat, Theo is struck by a sense of deja vu. Things seem familiar but she can't really pinpoint what it is. And then we learn she recently received an ominous text message warning her away from Connor and his family. And the messages continue while she's there.

It soon becomes clear that someone on the mountain is the one sending her the messages and leaving little gifts outside the cabin she shares with Connor. Someone clearly does not want her joining the family by any means. Theo continues to explore the mountain and surrounding cabins never being able to shake off that familiar feeling she gets about this place and soon a mystery from the past begins to unravel. It seems all families have dark secrets that they'd rather keep hidden.

This book was so sinister! There's always something about being in a cabin setting at winter as you pretty much know the weather will soon turn into the enemy and keep the good trapped with the bad and as the reader, we're trying to puzzle out which character belongs in which category because let me tell you, this one was that kept you thinking long through the night!

Everyone is a suspect. Everyone seems to have their own plausibility for wanting Theo gone. It's hard to tell who among Connor's family is being genuine or fake. It's very twisty indeed!

We do get flashbacks from Theo, things from her childhood growing up that lead up to one dark secret she has kept from Connor since day one. But then we get ones that go further back that explain why she has a sense of familiarity with the mountaintop.

This one really did keep me guessing to all the whodunits! Connor's family seemed really vile! I guess that's the lifestyle of the rich and semi-famous due to being rich. They have a strong sense of entitlement that just makes you want to hate them. And all the while you're trying to figure out which among them has the gall to be even more vile than they appear to be.

I will say the whodunit mystery really did keep me guessing. There were so many suspects and just when I developed a theory for my guess, someone else would do something that had me changing my mind entirely. That being said, there were quite a few family members to keep track of that made things confusing every once in awhile. But in the end, all is finally, and fully revealed and it was astonishing!

Kate Alice Marshall is a master of the thriller genre! I do tend to lean more towards the paranormal side with my reads, which is how I found her with her YA books but I do enjoy a good "normal" thriller every now and then and Kate is fast becoming a favorite with her adult line of books! If you've been wanting to read an intense and fast paced thriller set in a snowy mountain landscape for this winter season, look no further than A Killing Cold!

Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars

A Killing Cold releases February 4, 2025