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minotaursmaze's review against another edition
I need to try this not only because it sounds interesting. But because there is a fully clothed woman on the cover. I thought that was against the rules of paranormal covers these days.
tyrshand's review against another edition
4.0
Pretty well written story, though it kind of felt like a short novella that had a bunch of text added on the end to make it a full novel. The book had some flaws, but it's the author's first book, so I'm willing to give the second a try. I think the parts that bothered me the most were the inclusion of some overdone supernatural critters and much of the foreshadowing for twists was not very subtle. I really knew what was going on most of the way through.
cwebb's review against another edition
4.0
Im Wilden Westen findet James Townend Vampire vor. Er findet Hilfe in Cora Oglesby und ihrem Mann Ben. Doch es gibt einen Grund, wieso Cora verrückt genannt wird.
http://www.weberseite.at/buecher/the-dead-of-winter-lee-collins/
http://www.weberseite.at/buecher/the-dead-of-winter-lee-collins/
mackle13's review against another edition
2.0
This book was "ok", and that's about it.
In the Old West, Cora and her husband Ben are bounty hunters of supernatural critters. Ben annoyed me for most of the book, though, because he didn't really do much of anything. There's a reason for this you find out later, but it didn't really change how I felt about the earlier parts.
And Cora - well, Cora's a nasty drunk and a generally disagreeable person. I mean, I liked flawed protagonists and all, but Cora was just kind of annoying, and it was hard to really get into her story all that much.
Anyway - there are sort of two stories, as the town we're in, whose name I forget, gets attacked first by one creature and then another. I did give the book some points for having the first creature be something you don't see everyday in these sorts of books - a, and also for sticking to the lore pretty well.
But a lot of the story was pretty basic - information sessions to discover the nature of the bounty, and some fights that ya gotta lose a bit first, and then win, so on and so forth.
As I was never really invested in the characters, and as the plotline didn't offer much in the way of originality - the one twist having been telegraphed from about a mile away and, thus, offering no surprise or pathos - nor was it written in any kind of interesting way, I was pretty meh about the whole thing.
Not a horrible book, but far from great, and I doubt I'll be continuing the series.
In the Old West, Cora and her husband Ben are bounty hunters of supernatural critters. Ben annoyed me for most of the book, though, because he didn't really do much of anything. There's a reason for this you find out later, but it didn't really change how I felt about the earlier parts.
And Cora - well, Cora's a nasty drunk and a generally disagreeable person. I mean, I liked flawed protagonists and all, but Cora was just kind of annoying, and it was hard to really get into her story all that much.
Anyway - there are sort of two stories, as the town we're in, whose name I forget, gets attacked first by one creature and then another. I did give the book some points for having the first creature be something you don't see everyday in these sorts of books - a
Spoiler
WendigoBut a lot of the story was pretty basic - information sessions to discover the nature of the bounty, and some fights that ya gotta lose a bit first, and then win, so on and so forth.
As I was never really invested in the characters, and as the plotline didn't offer much in the way of originality - the one twist having been telegraphed from about a mile away and, thus, offering no surprise or pathos - nor was it written in any kind of interesting way, I was pretty meh about the whole thing.
Not a horrible book, but far from great, and I doubt I'll be continuing the series.
book__man's review against another edition
5.0
A really good book, something different for the imagination, good book worth reading
bookprocrastinator85's review against another edition
3.0
Review found here on my blog
When I first read the synopsis of The Dead of Winter even though the cover said True Grit meets True Blood , one of my first thoughts was of the show Supernatural which is one of my favorites. I would say it is True Grit meets Supernatural. The one thing that links these two together for me is because there are two people who travel around hunting down scary monsters, but instead of a modern day world, it’s a western one. It sounded somewhat similar and so I thought it might be worth a shot, especially since Halloween was close and that’s the perfect time for a little scare/horror.
The Dead of Winter tells the story of husband and wife duo, Ben Oglesby and Cora Oglesby travel on horseback across Colorado in search of otherworldly creatures that are attacking people in order to eliminate them.
Cora is a no nonsense type of woman. She doesn’t take crap from anyone and is not afraid to voice her opinion even a little bit. She is a strong character, but she isn’t a character that I fell in love with. I felt like I couldn’t really connect with her as much as I had wanted to.
Cora’s husband, Ben seems to be the complete opposite of Cora. He is more prone to think about things. And he is kinder compared to Cora’s sometimes rough attitude. They make an interesting bounty hunting pair.
Ben and Cora arrive in Leadville Colorado on the hunt for whatever is killing people in this town. As Cora tries to effectively deal with her own inner demons of the past, her and Ben soon discover that the task of killing this beast may not be as simple or as easy as their previous ones. And even if they do find a way to kill it, is the threat over? Will the townspeople be safe or is there something far more sinister at work?
The Dead of Winter is not without its flaws, but it is a highly entertaining western horror story. If you like horror want to try something a little bit different then this story might be right up your alley.
** I received this ARC from Angry Robot in exchange for nothing, but my honest review. Thank you.**
When I first read the synopsis of The Dead of Winter even though the cover said True Grit meets True Blood , one of my first thoughts was of the show Supernatural which is one of my favorites. I would say it is True Grit meets Supernatural. The one thing that links these two together for me is because there are two people who travel around hunting down scary monsters, but instead of a modern day world, it’s a western one. It sounded somewhat similar and so I thought it might be worth a shot, especially since Halloween was close and that’s the perfect time for a little scare/horror.
The Dead of Winter tells the story of husband and wife duo, Ben Oglesby and Cora Oglesby travel on horseback across Colorado in search of otherworldly creatures that are attacking people in order to eliminate them.
Cora is a no nonsense type of woman. She doesn’t take crap from anyone and is not afraid to voice her opinion even a little bit. She is a strong character, but she isn’t a character that I fell in love with. I felt like I couldn’t really connect with her as much as I had wanted to.
Cora’s husband, Ben seems to be the complete opposite of Cora. He is more prone to think about things. And he is kinder compared to Cora’s sometimes rough attitude. They make an interesting bounty hunting pair.
Ben and Cora arrive in Leadville Colorado on the hunt for whatever is killing people in this town. As Cora tries to effectively deal with her own inner demons of the past, her and Ben soon discover that the task of killing this beast may not be as simple or as easy as their previous ones. And even if they do find a way to kill it, is the threat over? Will the townspeople be safe or is there something far more sinister at work?
The Dead of Winter is not without its flaws, but it is a highly entertaining western horror story. If you like horror want to try something a little bit different then this story might be right up your alley.
** I received this ARC from Angry Robot in exchange for nothing, but my honest review. Thank you.**
denizyildiz's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 Stars
Dead of Winter was an interesting read to say the least. It's a blend of several different genres: Western, Paranormal,Dark Fantasy,Historical … It's all in there. And it was done really well, actually.
When I first started I was wondering how Collins is going to blend in any thing Paranormal into the story… since it was so classic western actually.
And honestly to my surprise it actually worked.
I am not sure if it is because the world building is quite solid or because Collins didn't reinvent the wheel and just told a new story. Because none of the aspects were reinvented; your small town mining city is full of quite stereo typical Wild West characters and there are no new inventions in the paranormal side either. So somehow the plot takes center stage. And Collins tells a good story.
Most of the book is written in Cora's POV, so she is the character one gets to know the best. She is the kick-ass heroine of the book. She and her husband Ben are bounty hunters for the paranormal creatures that roam the west. She is kinda reckless, drinks lots of whisky and gambles. As she says herself: 'I ain't no lady'
While she is really good with gun and sword, she doesn't see it as something special. In fact in some ways she is rather humble about her own virtues. She does on the other hand not miss telling people that they are good on the job and thinks she is a good gambler. The book doesn't disclose if she actually is any good at gambling. But what we do come to know is that she is an incredible fighter and that she is fiercely loyal to Ben. Her love for him is actually very moving and her relationship with him beautiful. I think it shows the heart of Cora, a Cora stripped of years of hardship and how she truly were it not for the necessity to be a hunter. And while she does enjoy their lives as hunters she also starts feeling that the hardship of it is starting to take a toll on her so they decided to take one last extremely well paid job.
I really liked her interactions with Townsend, it showed a rather witty side of hers.
Cora is the most developed character as well. I also think if you don't like her, you won't like the book. Because for me the book hinges on her character to a huge part, needles to say I did like her. In fact of all the characters she is the least stereotypical.
Marshal Mart Duggan is your brave, good dude that keeps the town in order and sometimes drowns his despair secretly in whiskey (which he keeps in his desk drawer) . He can stand down an entire mob of miners on his own, and stands for true justice. As I said the book is full of typical western characters. So there is a young gun fighter who wants to be famous, there is your friendly bartender, the beautiful whore, the young goodhearted deputy who is in love with the whore, a kind priest and lastly the english men.
James Townsend is a Oxford Scholar and I had to chuckle so much about his character, because he was SOOOO english. He is a rather great fun, especially when Cora interacts with him. I have to say that only a non- English person could have written him, its rather stereotypical view of the english and I loved every minute of it.
Flava was interesting. I really enjoyed the brief moments of his POV, and while he was the villain I kinda liked him. He was intelligent and calculated
Which brings me to where for me his character disappointed me.. It the end of the book really.
The End of the book was a bit disappointing for me. So there was all this build up and all this planning and wooh it was suddenly all over. I couldn't believe what Wash did. And it left me with many questions actually. I would have personally preferred a bit of a more enigmatic end somehow.
Collins did touch on many issues very briefly, like slavery and racism of that time or the Civil Wars but doesn't go into detail. I didn't mind this, in fact i feel the way its done, its a clever way to solidify the world building. And since those issues are always addressed from Cora's POV, they take on her observation of them.
There is a very big christian theme in the book, since Cora and many other characters are believing christians, i have seen that other readers didn't like it. But I personally didn't mind, I sort of imagine that people where like that in that particular time and place
In fact I found the world build was great because the characters are a lot like I imagined people in the US to be at that time. But I am not from the States so I might be mistaken about it. Historically it is solid and the fact that there were mines and mining cities at that time, in fact Leadville was one of them (i googled it). Collins descriptions of the area and the seasons are brilliant.
Probably my favorite thing about the book is that its built up slowly, revealing layer after layer of the story. And there were many twists in it, that were slowly hinted at, and if one doesn't pay attention, they suddenly happen. In retrospective though the signs were appearing slowly and subtly.
I think all in all this is a solid debut novel. Certainly a book to enjoy for lovers of westerns and paranormal.
Dead of Winter was an interesting read to say the least. It's a blend of several different genres: Western, Paranormal,Dark Fantasy,Historical … It's all in there. And it was done really well, actually.
When I first started I was wondering how Collins is going to blend in any thing Paranormal into the story… since it was so classic western actually.
And honestly to my surprise it actually worked.
I am not sure if it is because the world building is quite solid or because Collins didn't reinvent the wheel and just told a new story. Because none of the aspects were reinvented; your small town mining city is full of quite stereo typical Wild West characters and there are no new inventions in the paranormal side either. So somehow the plot takes center stage. And Collins tells a good story.
Most of the book is written in Cora's POV, so she is the character one gets to know the best. She is the kick-ass heroine of the book. She and her husband Ben are bounty hunters for the paranormal creatures that roam the west. She is kinda reckless, drinks lots of whisky and gambles. As she says herself: 'I ain't no lady'
While she is really good with gun and sword, she doesn't see it as something special. In fact in some ways she is rather humble about her own virtues. She does on the other hand not miss telling people that they are good on the job and thinks she is a good gambler. The book doesn't disclose if she actually is any good at gambling. But what we do come to know is that she is an incredible fighter and that she is fiercely loyal to Ben. Her love for him is actually very moving and her relationship with him beautiful. I think it shows the heart of Cora, a Cora stripped of years of hardship and how she truly were it not for the necessity to be a hunter. And while she does enjoy their lives as hunters she also starts feeling that the hardship of it is starting to take a toll on her so they decided to take one last extremely well paid job.
I really liked her interactions with Townsend, it showed a rather witty side of hers.
Cora is the most developed character as well. I also think if you don't like her, you won't like the book. Because for me the book hinges on her character to a huge part, needles to say I did like her. In fact of all the characters she is the least stereotypical.
Marshal Mart Duggan is your brave, good dude that keeps the town in order and sometimes drowns his despair secretly in whiskey (which he keeps in his desk drawer) . He can stand down an entire mob of miners on his own, and stands for true justice. As I said the book is full of typical western characters. So there is a young gun fighter who wants to be famous, there is your friendly bartender, the beautiful whore, the young goodhearted deputy who is in love with the whore, a kind priest and lastly the english men.
James Townsend is a Oxford Scholar and I had to chuckle so much about his character, because he was SOOOO english. He is a rather great fun, especially when Cora interacts with him. I have to say that only a non- English person could have written him, its rather stereotypical view of the english and I loved every minute of it.
Flava was interesting. I really enjoyed the brief moments of his POV, and while he was the villain I kinda liked him. He was intelligent and calculated
Which brings me to where for me his character disappointed me.. It the end of the book really.
The End of the book was a bit disappointing for me. So there was all this build up and all this planning and wooh it was suddenly all over. I couldn't believe what Wash did. And it left me with many questions actually. I would have personally preferred a bit of a more enigmatic end somehow.
Collins did touch on many issues very briefly, like slavery and racism of that time or the Civil Wars but doesn't go into detail. I didn't mind this, in fact i feel the way its done, its a clever way to solidify the world building. And since those issues are always addressed from Cora's POV, they take on her observation of them.
There is a very big christian theme in the book, since Cora and many other characters are believing christians, i have seen that other readers didn't like it. But I personally didn't mind, I sort of imagine that people where like that in that particular time and place
In fact I found the world build was great because the characters are a lot like I imagined people in the US to be at that time. But I am not from the States so I might be mistaken about it. Historically it is solid and the fact that there were mines and mining cities at that time, in fact Leadville was one of them (i googled it). Collins descriptions of the area and the seasons are brilliant.
Probably my favorite thing about the book is that its built up slowly, revealing layer after layer of the story. And there were many twists in it, that were slowly hinted at, and if one doesn't pay attention, they suddenly happen. In retrospective though the signs were appearing slowly and subtly.
I think all in all this is a solid debut novel. Certainly a book to enjoy for lovers of westerns and paranormal.
lkeipp's review against another edition
4.0
Not bad. I'll read the next one, if there are more - after all, the main character is ready to retire.
coleyann's review against another edition
3.0
This series is a solid 7/10. It was not a quick read for me but I did enjoy it. The character dynamics are well developed and I liked the sections where other perspectives were featured. My biggest problem with the book is that I predicted the ending fairly early on and then I didn't have the push to keep reading. For a debut novel, it is well written and I will check out the next one.
woodge's review against another edition
3.0
This is a mix of a western with vampires and other ghouls. Cora and her husband Ben specialize in ridding towns of these unnatural monsters. When the marshall of Leadville, Colorado, encounters two mysterious deaths, he employs Cora to get to the bottom of it. This story had a nice flow to it and an engaging heroine. It's light reading in that sort of pulp genre and there's an interesting twist involved that really sets it apart from others of its ilk. I enjoyed this and might read the follow-up at some point.