“There’s an old rule of thumb in prisons,” Martinez said as he rang an intercom buzzer for a guard to let them through. “Actually, it’s more of a life lesson. Always know what you’re walking into. Dark corners can be danger points.”

Dark Corners is a solidly entertaining thriller. Procedurals aren’t usually my favorite, but this one worked for me. It had the right amount of suspense, a brutally honest portrayal of influencers, and a podcast element that cleverly acted as a recap of the previous chapters. There were clever red herrings and satisfying twists, and the story was propelled by its strong, fast pacing.

I haven’t read Night Swim yet but it didn’t feel like I was missing anything. I really enjoyed Dark Corners and I’m looking forward to reading more from Megan Goldin in the future.

Thank you to St. Martins Press for the arc!

This is the second book in the Rachel Krull series. Rachel is a journalist with a famous podcast. She’s called by the FBI to speak to a prisoner who may know something about the disappearance of a popular influencer. When told to go home, Rachel decides to stay and go undercover at Buzz Con a convention for influencers.

I really enjoyed this book and this character. I haven’t read the first book (but I will), but I don’t think too much was revealed. I really enjoyed her foray into the influencer world. It took a heavy story and offered a little comic relief. The main story had me guessing on most things, but everything was neatly wrapped up. The book left me with one nagging question, but in hindsight perhaps I’m glad I don’t have the answer!

I liked Dark Corners but I didn’t r joy it as much as the first Rachel Krall book. Something was missing for me. It wasn’t as thrilling and Rachel wasn’t as interesting of a character in this book.

Last year I had the pleasure of reading Megan Goldin’s Stay Awake, which kept me guessing all throughout its twisty (occasionally absurd) plot, making for a chilling, compulsively readable thriller. So when I saw Dark Corners pop up (her latest release, out this August), I decided to take a chance on it, despite not having read the first book in her Rachel Krall series, Night Swim . . . which I definitely didn’t realize until I was already a few chapters in, oops. Fortunately it’s very much a standalone so I didn’t find myself floundering.

Red herrings, creepy killers, the world’s most annoying influencers, and shocking amounts of B.O. abound in this murder mystery, which sees investigative journalist and true crime podcaster Rachel Krall called to Daytona Beach, FL, to (somewhat reluctantly) aid the FBI in their latest case: popular travel vlogger and #vanlife influencer Maddison Logan has disappeared following a visit to prisoner Terence Bailey. He was locked up on a breaking and entering charge half a decade earlier, though the local police strongly suspected he had a hand in murdering six women (despite barely a shred of proof), and is due for release in a matter of days. A few hours after her conversation with him — during which he instructs her to reach out to Rachel Krall, which is why the FBI hauls her down to Florida in the first place — Maddison is kidnapped from her van at a deserted state park and everyone fears the worst.

This leads Rachel to BuzzCon, an influencer convention downtown, where she poses as a ‘fitfluencer’ herself in order to gain insight into Maddison’s circle of online friends and narrow down potential motives. Is this simply a case of fierce digital rivalry gone wrong? Or is Maddison’s mysterious past a factor? And how, exactly, does Terence fit into all this? Well, when a woman’s body turns up not far from Maddison’s campsite, Rachel — with the help of a hot FBI agent, because of course — is up against the clock to discover the truth.

I have to be honest: this wasn’t my favorite thriller in the world. But I did enjoy a lot of it! The pace moves quickly, the twists are fun (if not entirely unexpected), and a certain character is especially creepy. Yeeeesh. Just thinking about him makes my skin crawl. Not to mention, my paranoia about using Uber and Lyft has returned with a vengeance. Thank you, Dark Corners!!!!!!

What I wasn’t crazy about was everything to do with the BuzzCon plotline, which I found a smidge grating. From the unbelievably convenient run-ins Rachel repeatedly has with chatty guests at the hotel — all these dudes are just begging to tell her the exact clues she needs? Really? — to the multiple attempts at sprinkling in social media jargon, it had a very “how do you do, fellow kids” vibe.

I also think we’ve reached critical mass with basic commentary about how influencers are vacuous and narcissistic. There’s obviously truth behind the stereotype, but unless you’re going to dig deeper or put a new spin on it, acting like it’s some big, new critique about the state of social media, kinda feels *snobby YouTuber voice* so 2015, y’know? At this point, we’re painfully well aware of all the deranged, self-obsessed egomaniacs who have deep roots on the internet — one scroll through just about anyone’s TikTok FYP proves it. Not exploring that further felt a bit like a missed opportunity to me, that’s all.

TL;DR: Dark Corners is undeniably entertaining, and fans of Goldin’s work should absolutely put it on their TBR lists. Also it serves as a great reminder that nothing good ever happens in Florida and it should be avoided at all costs 🙃

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review! Dark Corners by Megan Goldin is out now.

I was excited to read "Dark Corners" by Megan Goldin, the follow-up to her book, "The Night Swim." The novel features Rachel Krall, a true crime podcaster who is searching for a missing influencer who visited a suspected serial killer. While I had high expectations for this book, I, unfortunately, found it to be underwhelming.

Firstly, I found the story to be full of unanswered questions and plot holes. Another aspect that bothered me was Rachel's character. I found her to be arrogant and kind of rude, which was not how I remembered her in the first book.

I also did not care for the influencer angle in the book. As someone who is not interested in social media, the BuzzCon convention plotline did not appeal to me. However, I can understand why others might find it interesting. If you're someone who enjoys reading about influencers and social media, this aspect of the book might resonate with you.

Additionally, the dialogue felt clunky and unnatural at times. It seemed as though the characters were simply serving the plot instead of being authentic. This was a major detractor from the book as it made it harder to connect with the characters and their motivations.

Overall, "Dark Corners" was a disappointing read for me. While I enjoyed "The Night Swim," this book did not live up to my expectations. The plot felt lacking in substance, Rachel's character felt different from the previous book, and the dialogue felt clunky and unnatural.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy.

Books about influencers are usually hit or miss for me, but Megan Goldin is always a hit. I really enjoyed this book, about podcaster Rachel Krall. I don't think you need to read The Night Swim first, although it's referenced a few times.

Rachel gets summoned to a prison near Daytona Beach by the FBI because she's asked to help find missing influencer Maddison Logan. Maddison went to visit a man in prison, who is the suspect in several murders of young women. Then, Maddison goes missing. Rachel is asked to help investigate, and of course gets in deeper than she, and the FBI, expected.

I enjoyed the bits and pieces about social media influencers, and the plot was intriguing and held my interest. I liked how everything came together at the end. You do need to suspend belief a little bit, but that's fine with me.

Bingeable & incredibly eerie, this psychological thriller has you constantly wondering what's going to be thrown at you next. True Crime podcaster Rachel Krall gets tangled into a web with a dangerous serial killer when called to Florida by the FBI to assist in an investigation. This was my first Megan Goldin book and I immediately want to read the rest of her backlist. I tore through this book in two sittings within twelve hours. Fans of psychological thrillers will eat this one up!

Thank you to Netgalley & St. Martin's Press for this advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review!

This book is out now and available for purchase!

📖My Thoughts📖

I’ve only read one other book by Megan Goldin so far (I know, I know) and I didn’t realize this was the second book in a series (the first one is The Night Swim, which I do in fact own, but have yet to read). Despite the fact that I haven’t read the first book in the series, I was still able to follow along just fine and don’t feel as though I missed anything that was too pertinent to the story. The book was pretty fast paced and easy to keep up with. There was a lot going on in this book, so there were a few times I had to go back and reread what I had just finished. There were some twists along the way, but nothing too horrific, as well as the start of a romance, which wasn’t an ooshy gooshy romance, but this is a thriller and not a romance novel, so I’m ok with that. Overall the book held my attention and was a pretty good read. I plan to go back and read the first book and reread this to see if it changes things at all, maybe putting some things more into perspective.
Thank you Netgalley, Megan Goldin and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was fabulous. This time around Rachel, our podcast host, is brought to Florida at the request of the FBI via a Florida inmate at a correctional facility. He wants to see her for reasons unknown to the FBI, but the FBI is hoping she can uncover them when she goes in. She fails. But of course, her curiosity is super piqued, so she hangs around to poke the bee's nest...and uncovers so much more than she was expecting. Want to know what happens? Pick up the book to find out! It's available now, and it is totally worth the read. 4 stars.

This is my first book my Megan Goldwin and is the second in her series with True Crime podcaster Rachel Krall. Rachel was the star of Goldwin's first book with her, "Night Swim" which is fairly popular with 4 stars on Goodreads with over 95k reviews. That is impressive.

You do not have to read that book to follow this one as I had no trouble diving in. Rachel gets invited by the FBI to interview Terence Baily, a (possibly) sentenced serial killer who is getting out of jail in 48 hours. Things go south during the interview as Bailey threatens Rachel and she also learns there are interior motives as to why the FBI wanted her there in the first place. The Agent in charge: Joe Martinez tells her to go home immediately for her safety but of course Rachel says, "Hell no" and stays to get to the bottom of this ordeal..... Mainly for her podcast.

My first thoughts of this book is that it is very well written. There are some books that are just totally linear and seemed to be thought of as the author writes and there are those who are mapped out and we thrown into a small piece of a way bigger puzzle as the author throws us clue by clue and leads us along. This book is the latter. There are some reviews who claim they saw this twist a mile away but they must be magicians because I totally didn't see this ending play out.

It's not perfect..... I have to throttle some back for the length. It got fairly slow is some places but didn't take away from the book overall. In the end, I highly recommend it.

I really appreciate St. Martin's Press for giving me a advance reader copy to read for free for my honest review and it is out now.

This was a great follow up to The Night Swim. I really like Rachel's character and how she approaches the cases she's working on. It's good to have someone in the mix who is more interested in finding out what happened to the victim and telling their story than just focusing on catching the bad guy. I accept that the bad guy needs to be caught, but I want to learn more about the victims too so I like this viewpoint. I appreciate that Megan took the moment to mention the lack of attention that non-white missing persons receive. It wasn't a large part of the book, but it was definitely present and I appreciate that she didn't just gloss over it all together.

The romance felt a bit shoehorned in to the story. It either needed to be more or less present. I did like the romance, I felt that Rachel and Joe were a good match. It just felt weird the way it was added into the story.

I also enjoyed the aspect of getting a POV from the villain. Those are some of my favorite things. I love getting the viewpoint into why they do the things they do. It's never a justification but I like to learn some things about how peoples brains work.

Overall this was a pretty good second book and I'd like to see more of Rachel (and Joe!) in the future.

Rachel Krall is called in by the FBI to help find Maddison Logan – an influencer who visited a criminal in prison and then immediately went missing. The criminal in question is Terence Bailey, who the police suspect of murdering young women. Rachel must work with the FBI to find Maddison and investigate Terence.

This novel can be read as a standalone, there is no requirement for the reader to have read the Night Swim. I enjoyed this book better than the Night Swim though. One thing I did not expect though was Rachel’s real hater mentality towards influencers and social media. This seemed like a new personality trait that wasn’t seen in the first book. Her critiques and complaints about social media honestly get tiring and it doesn’t add to the story at all.

Aside from that, this is a pretty basic thriller. Not ground-breaking by any means. It has a slow start but it picks up towards the middle. It’s a good light read but didn’t bring the amount of suspense or intrigue I like in thrillers.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Dark Corners by Megan Goldin. This was a fantastic thriller, with lots of twists, and turns, I didn’t think I could like a book of hers more than Stay Awake, but this was a wonderful surprise five out of five stars!

Dark Corners by Megan Goldin is the sequel to The Night Swim -- and wow what a follow up. I am not a huge thriller reader but I really enjoy Goldin's Rachel Krall books. Featuring a true crime podcaster, it seems Rachel Krall's podcast has really taken off. She now receives letters and communications from all around the country particularly from inmates looking for someone to prove them innocent. Rachel ends up getting a message from an influencer named Maddison who goes missing just before the release of suspected serial killer Terrance Bailey. This is connected because Maddison just recently visited Terrance in prison. And so, Rachel goes undercover at BuzzCon, an influencer extravaganza at Daytona Beach right by where Maddison went missing and where Terrance will be released.

I was absolutely CAPTIVATED by Dark Corners. The audiobook was the exact perfect way to experience Goldin's release. It is narrated to perfection by January LaVoy, Samantha Desz, and Andre Santana. Dark Corners is 10 hours and 46 minutes. There were twists. The villain was suitably creepy and scary. I was for sure on edge. I loved the development in Krall's character. For someone kind of famous for doing a podcast, she is intensely private with good reason. I also liked that she didn't know a ton about social media and influencers -- but that was also a surprise given her occupation. There's also the beginnings of a romance as well. This was such a solid, good audiobook. It is perfect for people who liked A Good Girl's Guide To Murder and want to listen to something aimed at adults.

Rachel Krall is back in another page-turning thriller from Megan Goldin and I am here for it!

We first meet Rachel, a true-crime podcaster who becomes famous for helping overturn a guilty verdict, in Night Swim. Fast forward a short time later and we reconnect with Rachel as she heads home to recoup from the trial. With barely a chance to unpack, she’s summoned by the FBI to assist in a series of killings in Florida. Add in a missing social media influencer, a prisoner about to be released from jail, and a budding romance, and you have yourself one unique, twisty treat of a read.

Fingers crossed this isn’t the last we see of Rachel!

Thank you to NetGalley, Megan Goldin and St. Martin’s Press for an early copy of this book for an honest review.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

I've read The Escape Room by Megan Goldin, and the first book in this series The Night Swim, both excellent books. Naturally, I was excited for the opportunity to read the next book in this series, Dark Corners.

This story doesn't cover a lot about Rachel’s life as a podcaster but rather includes a missing person who is a social media influencer. For those who haven't read the first book, Rachel Krall is the MC and host of a podcast called Guilty or Not Guilty.

When she is summoned by the FBI to join them in Florida, she has mixed feelings, but curiosity gets the best of her so she heads to Florida to see why she's needed. 

In Florida, we learn that an inmate had a visit from a social influencer right before she disappeared. One thing that the inmate said to the influencer is that he wanted to meet with Rachel. The FBI and Rachel are completely confused by the request but need Rachel there to see if they can learn anything.

Rachel and the FBI work to unravel the details of the connection between the missing girl and the inmate. But they need to hurry since the inmate is due to be released in a few days.

The chapters alternate between Rachel and a somewhat confusing story of an Uber-type of driver (rideshare), which isn't clear at first. To make it even more bizarre, the driver has grown up with a condition that causes him to have a very unpleasant body odor.

Is this enough to catch your attention? I was certainly curious. But, unfortunately, I had some concerns.

Concerns

I missed the podcast aspect that was so prominent in the first book.

It didn't hold my interest the way a five-star book would. I kept going back to the book but I wasn't drawn to the story the way I'd like to have been.

This book's focus was more on the influencer culture.

Much of the mystery was easy to solve, though there were definitely some twists and turns.

Final Thoughts

If you're interested in podcasts and influencers, definitely start with the first book The Night Swim, though this is a standalone book.

Without a doubt, this is a series and author that you'll want to keep up with.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a #gifted copy of this book. I was under no obligation to post a positive review.

Not as good as the first novel.

I remember loving the first novel in this series, The Night Swim. It was an intense and memorable read about a high-profile rape case. It was a novel I couldn't put down.
Regrettably, this novel did not match the quality of the first. The novel lacked the emotional pull and intense courtroom scenes, which were elements that I thoroughly enjoyed in the first novel. Also, I didn't care about the topic of influencers. As a result, the story didn't resonate with me as much as I had hoped it would.

Overall, decent but not a must-read. I do recommend checking out the first novel though. It was one of my top reads of 2021.

***Thank you to NetGalley, Megan Goldin, and St. Martin's Press for graciously sending me the ARC to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.***

I enjoyed the first book in this series, but I liked this one better. My only issue was that it got really weak at the end of the book. Like the author ran out of gas and just stopped. It moves along quickly and the story is compelling, I just wished it had held it’s. I’ll just have to wait for the third to see if I’ll continue on.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest opinion. 4⭐️

I jumped straight into this after finishing the night swim (book #1 of the series). I still really loved the format with sections of the podcast throughout. I also really liked we got the podcast in present day and it was looking back on Rachel’s time at the influencer event and as more information was being discovered in the case… total sucker for dual timelines.

I hope later in the series we get to see Rachel continue more interactions with a certain FBI agent!

Thank you to the author, @netgalley & @stmartinspress for the eArc in exchange for my honest opinions.

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This was a fast-paced thriller with a lot going on. I thought it was just ok. The plot has a lot of moving parts and characters who have motives for all sorts of things. Things wrapped up neatly and rather quickly. I thought the whole thing was a little bit ridiculous and the ending was rather abrupt.