This was my second Megan Goldin book, both of them with Rachel Krall as the main character. In this one we get a behind the scenes look at social media influencers & how they might get themselves into trouble. Set in Daytona Beach during #BuzzCon Maddison Logan goes missing & Rachel Krall is called to the prison by the FBI to speak with Terence Bailey who’s suspected of killing several women.

I enjoyed the way the story unfolded & the look at the power of social media. Rachel is a believable character & the podcast aspect is one of my favorite things about the books where she’s featured. My only issue is that the beginning of the book is very confusing. It took me to about 25% in to get a handle on what exactly was happening. Once I hit that point though I couldn’t put it down. A solid 4 star read!

I really enjoyed This read and excited to see more of Rachel Krall in a series! A good ole serial killer murder mystery with interesting characters and some twists and turns. Looking forward to more along these lines from the author. That’s to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC

Megan Goldin's newest novel is going to be a crowd pleaser! I'm so happy I finally read The Night Swim, because I have been obsessed ever since. Thank you so much to St Martin's Press for the copy to review.
Rachel Krall is back and this time she's right in the middle of the drama. I absolutely loved that we got to know her better and that there was a romantic background story for her. The possibilities of where her story could go are endless.
Dark Corners is a page turning thriller and I absolutely devoured it! I loved the plot and being entwined in the not so glamorous side of online *famedom*. Intricately plotted, Dark Corners is a riverting read that isn't to be missed!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
This is really a book that you should go in blind. It’s the second in the Rachel Krall series, the first being The Night Swim. I loved that one, but loved Dark Corners even more. Rachel is investigating a missing influencer, at the same time a dangerous prisoner is about to be released. How will these things tie together?
You don’t want to miss it!

True crime podcaster star, Rachel Krall returns in the novel, Dark Corners. A story about the disappearance of a popular social media influencer, Maddison Logan and a string of mysterious murders.

DARK CORNERS is a summer must read thriller! It can be read as a standalone, but if you’re a fan of thrillers, The Night Swim (Rachel Krall #1) is a brilliant read.

This story picks up after The Night Swim, where Rachel gets invited to Florida and for what she didn’t know at the time was due to her being a lead in a FBI case.

Rachel’s character throughout this book is rather strong and to some may be unlikeable. However for me I think her risky behavior is her feeling of confidence after her successes of her podcast and her detective work previous to this case.

Goldin provided multiple POVs, and why it’s not a “whodunnit” story, she did a stellar job introducing all the characters up front and revealing the truths along the way. An addicting read that I highly recommend.

🖤My new favorite author and true crime series! I highly recommend.

🖤 Available for preorder today!

🖤Thank you NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

🖤Congratulations to Megan Goldin on this upcoming release!

Maddison Logan a popular social media influencer, visits inmate Terence Bailey in a Central Florida Correctional Facility. Bailey is a suspected serial killer arrested aggravated burglary.
During their visit Bailey brings up Rachel Krall to Maddison then she disappears. Rachel is then lured to Florida by getting exclusive access to the case if she helps Special Agent Joe Martinez by meeting with Bailey.
After her meeting with Bailey doesn’t go well, FBI Special Agent Martinez asks her to leave Florida and return home. Rachel ignores him and is set to investigate Maddison’s disappearance on her own. Conveniently there is an event being held in Daytona for the world’s top social influencers called BUZZ CON. She calls Pete to help her get a hotel and an invite to the event under an alias @runningrach.com. She easily connects with a few of the influencers to get information on Maddison and other top players there.

I am going to stop there I don’t want to give up any spoilers.

My thoughts I hope this is an early draft and will be fixed in editing. I found the writing is choppy there is excessive repetition events from previous chapters are repeated verbatim. The spontaneous relationship between Rachel and agent Martinez late in the book felt forced and unnecessary. The very end was very abrupt. Also the continuous references in their full names repeatedly was annoying at times. I almost gave up and DNF, but I hung in till the end. I did want to see how everything played out in the end. The whole plot felt convoluted at times. One last thing to nitpick is the serial killer goes to change the license plates on his car and it states that he replaced them on both ends of the car. Florida only has license plates on the back , not the front. If she writes another book in the series I will read it, and her other titles in the future.

A special thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Maddison Logan, a very popular social media influencer has gone missing and the FBI has run out of leads. That's when they fly Rachel in to speak to a suspected serial killer, prisoner Terence Bailey, who was visited by Maddison right before she disappeared.

Rachel seems to knock heads with everyone for much of the book and she and FBI agent Joe Martinez can't seem to agree on anything. In fact, just about anything Joe suggests will set her off. Nobody tells Rachel what to do or not do. With Terence getting out of prison in two days, while making obvious threats on Rachel's life, Joe wants her gone almost as soon as she arrives. But no, Rachel's not going home, instead she is all over this case.

Rachel easily infiltrates BuzzCon, a popular influencer conference, despite the attendees being the most elite of the social media elite snobs. Not only does being a social media influencer appear to be a sure way to an ulcer and/or a nervous breakdown, it seems dangerous in other ways, too. It doesn't take long until Rachel and Joe are following leads separately and together.

A lot of people do a lot of unwise things and Rachel certainly does her share of risky behavior. She claims that she's safe from the big bad serial killer because he's locked up, seeming to ignore the fact that he won't be locked up anymore in a couple of days. For a woman who knows just how dangerous life is for women, Rachel seems impervious to the fact that anything could happen to her. Situational awareness isn't in her tool kit much of the time.

I don't remember Rachel being unlikeable in Night Swim although she does warm in more ways than one towards the end of the book. There is a lot going on here and it can be hard to sort out all the victims of deadly happenings because there are so many of them over a long time span. I'm hoping the next time we see Rachel she'll be in a better mood. Actually, I'm pretty sure she'll be in a better mood...wink wink.

I enjoyed this story with Jayme and DeAnn and we had some great discussions. There is a lot to talk about and mull over. Lots of guessing, getting things correct and incorrect. And I had the strange experience of listening to an audiobook that included a woman named Maddison, a serial killer, and a basement dungeon during the same time period that I was reading this book, which contained those same things. How did that happen? 😳

4.5 stars. Dark Corners is the second book featuring the investigative podcaster Rachel Krall from Night Swim. Still, it can function as a standalone. In this book, Rachel is tasked with investigating the disappearance of Maddison Logan, a social media influencer, who was last seen visiting a prison inmate. Told through multiple POVs, this fast paced thriller will have you guessing until the very end. Sometimes the scariest monster is the one hiding in plain sight…

Megan Goldin continues the trend of unputdownable books with Dark Corners. Rachel Krall, star of The Night Swim and host of a popular true crime podcast, finds herself at the center of a mystery surrounding missing girls, influencers, and a person in prison. Dark Corners delivers an electric storyline, where page by page the puzzle slowly comes together.

I read through most of Dark Corners quickly, and unintentionally found myself slowing down towards the end because I didn’t want this to be over. I loved the switching POVs, giving us as readers insights the MC didn’t have. I also appreciated the subtle, romantic undertones in this story, providing a little light and joy to a dark and stressful period of time for Rachel. As always, Megan Goldin provided us with a wonderful twist at the end, and I personally cannot wait to see what she writes next!

Maddison Logan is a popular influencer, but no one knows anything about her apart from her glossy public persona. Thus, when she vanishes shortly after visiting prisoner Terry Bailey, the FBI have no leads but Rachel Krall, a true crime podcaster the pair discussed. The feds soon come to regret bringing Rachel into the investigation, since she digs in with speed, tenacity, and no regard for her personal safety. Going undercover at an influencer convention, Rachel uncovers vital clues amid the toxic narcissism. A fast-paced thriller with no more than the usual number of preposterous life choices.

3.5. I wish this book had been a stand alone instead of the second book - I really didn’t see Rachel as the same character, she felt completely different. I didn’t love the timeline and all the back and forth. The romance was pretty weird and unnecessary

"The scariest monster is the one that hides in plain sight."

Read this book if you like:
-True crime podcasts
-Social media influencers
-Murder mysteries
-"Only Murders in the Building"

Terrence Bailey is 48 hours away from being released from prison for breaking and entering, but he is a suspect in the unsolved murders of six women. Before his release, Bailey gets a surprise visit in prison from Maddison Logan, a popular social media influencer. Hours after their meeting, Maddison disappears. While investigating the suspected kidnapping, the FBI finds a connection to a famous true crime podcaster, Rachel Krall, and reluctantly asks for her help. Using a fake Instagram account, Rachel goes undercover at a popular influencer conference where she discovers the fierce—and possibly deadly—rivalries of social media influencers. Then, police find the body of a woman with a tattoo of a snake eating its tail, identical to one Bailey has. The FBI must consider the possibility that Bailey has an accomplice on the outside and an obsession with social media influencers, including Rachel. Finding herself the target of a monster hiding in plain sight, Rachel is forced to confront the very real dangers that lurk in dark corners.

"Dark Corners" is told mainly from Rachel's perspective and artfully weaves together multiple storylines that finally merge in a shocking turn. It is a gripping story that takes on the true crime trope in an intriguing way. This twisty thriller kept me on my toes from the very first page until the surprise conclusion. My only complaint is that I thought the story could have been condensed a bit. There was a lot of filler and repetition, and there was an entire storyline that, in my opinion, could have been written out entirely. This is the second book in the Rachel Krall series, but you do not need to read the first book to understand the storyline. Hopefully there is a third Rachel Krall novel in our future!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"The scariest monster is the one that hides in plain sight."

3.75 stars

Dark Corners is a mystery/thriller about a serial killer and a missing influencer.

When Maddison Logan, a famous influencer, goes missing after visiting a suspected serial killer in prison in Florida, the FBI is at a loss. The only clue links to podcaster and former investigative journalist Rachel Krall. The FBI brings Rachel into the case as a pawn in a bigger game, but she jumps in and begins to dig, and rather than become a case that she bases a podcast on, she becomes part of the story, leading her into grave danger.

The narrative alternates between Rachel, FBI Agent Joe Martinez, and the killer. The killer is depraved, and his character freaked me out. I enjoyed his chapters, even though they are dark and twisted. Martinez’s character is not fully formed, but it wouldn't surprise me if we get more out of him in future books.

Some readers have noted that Rachel’s character is harsher than in The Night Swim. I didn’t mind this about her, and nor did I find her off-putting; rather, I saw her reacting to the way she was being treated by others.

Readers are not privy to Rachel's podcast on this case, but one can imagine how the story would go.

Although this is the second Rachel Krall book, it can be read as a standalone. The events of the previous installment are alluded to, but they are not critical to enjoying this one.

I went into this with low expectations based on some negative reviews, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The pacing is slow, yet I found it compulsively readable. The mystery behind Maddison’s disappearance kept me intrigued, and I couldn’t quite figure out how all of the pieces connected. While they come together in the end, the ending is where my main gripes lie.

For such a tense and taught build-up, the ending was anticlimactic. The reader is told what occurred instead of allowing them the opportunity to see the events play out. I was also annoyed by the constant references to the characters by their full names multiple times within the same paragraph and/or page.

Overall, this is a tightly wound, suspenseful read that kept me guessing. I am looking forward to seeing what is up next for Rachel.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review.

Megan Golding is the best. I absolutely love her writing style. Her ideas are brilliant and she is definitely one of my favorites. While this one might not be my favorite book from her, it was entertaining seeing how the FMC had a live outside of her job. Nice touch there, but that is just me. I’m a sucker for love.

A note before I get into my review: while this is technically the second in a series, this can absolutely be read as a standalone. There are a few references to The Night Swim, and both stories feature Rachel Krall, but the stories themselves are separate. Honestly, I didn’t even realize this was technically a sequel until after I read it.

An investigation into the missing influencer Maddison Logan, has the FBI calling Rachel Krall to help the investigation. When current prisoner Terrance Bailey claims he’ll only talk to Rachel about the murders he’s suspected of committing, Rachel finds herself at the certain of a story much bigger than she ever anticipated.

While I enjoyed The Night Swim, I liked this story more but liked Rachel Krall less. I felt that she had a much stronger and forceful personality here. Normally I like that in a female lead, but Rachel seemed to just come off aggressive and slightly rude. I just remember her being much nicer and emphatic in the last book, but it has been a while since I read it. Regardless, while we get multiple POVs, Rachel’s narration is the dominate voice and I was certainly hooked on the story.

The podcast format is different in this book compared to The Night Swim. While I read this one, I think the way each of the sections are delivered, it would make a great audiobook.

I could have used less from the Influencer conference and found those portions to run a bit long. They seemed to take away from the greater mystery at play and I could have done without a few of those red herrings.

This was definitely an enjoyable thriller. It’s perfect for summer since it’s set primarily in and around Daytona Beach. Even though I felt Rachel had a different personality, I’ll certainly be reading more future books.


Dark Corners comes out August 8, 2023. Huge thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof.books.

I enjoyed this second book in the Rachel Krall series even more than the first. Rachel is a true crime podcaster who became famous after getting a wrongfully convicted man a new trial. Now convicted felons everywhere want her to cover their stories to see if they, too, can get a new trial.

Terrance Bailey has served six years for a B&E. He got a long term for a first offence because cops believe he’s responsible for the deaths of a least six women. But now he’s about to get out. Influencer Maddison comes to visit him just before he’s released. Soon after, she disappears. Does Bailey have a partner on the outside? When cops see that he wrote a note for Madison to call Rachel, they reluctantly bring her in to talk to him.

The FBI can’t find anything about Madison except what she posted online. Before she became an influencer, she didn’t seem to exist. Rachel goes undercover at BuzzCon, a conference for influencers, because influencers only talk to other influencers, pretending to they are all friendly when really they’re just trying to up their “likes” and so on.

The mystery and story is fun and well paced. NetGalley provided an advance reader copy of this novel, which RELEASES AUGUST 8, 2023.

I LOVED this book! I started reading this one as an ebook and then the audio became available so I switch and I’m SO glad I did. I HIGHLY recommend the audio version of this book. If you read THE NIGHT SWIM by Megan Goldin then you’ll already know our main character Rachel - she hosts a podcast talking about current cases. The podcast aspect gets a little lost in the ebook/physical book but the audio is fantastic! I really enjoyed this book. I’m a sucker for a podcast trope and think it makes for such an interesting read. You do not have to read THE NIGHT SWIM first before this one, although you’ll have a background of the main character.
I love how this story not only follows a podcast but also influencers. It made for a very interesting read and I still didn’t see the end coming.

In the sequel to Night Swim, podcaster Rachel Krall is called down to Florida by the FBI. They want her to talk to an imprisoned man who is suspected of committing many murders. He was recently visited by a famous social media influencer and Rachel's name came up. Now, that influencer is missing. As Rachel immerses herself into the influencer world, she finds that that world is more nefarious than it seems online. Is that why the influencer missing? Or is it connected to the string of murders tied to the man about be released from prison?

I'm really enjoying this series! If you haven't read Night Swim and want to read this one first, you absolutely can. I really appreciate that Golden references that case but doesn't reveal details of it so as not to spoil the whodunit. Interspersed throughout the present day chapters are snippets from the podcast episode that will be released in the future about this case. I thought these were such good teasers. It really helped progress the story along. Also, details that I doubt will be important (like a key character trait of someone you know from the start is bad) ultimately come back to be important later! I'm not sure why I ever doubted because Goldin is becoming a great mystery writer in my opinion. We also get some character development and a potential love interest here maybe for Rachel. I definitely look forward to more in this series!

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review!

I cannot get enough of Rachel Krall, the character at the center of The Night Swim and now Dark Corners. She is a tough as nails MC who always carries her own against her male law enforcement/FBI counterparts. While she is not in fact a detective, these books feel very much like a detective series in nature. I was enthralled as the case took many different twists and turns, and Rachel became the target herself. I never knew what to expect from moment to moment and could not put the book down. Literally.

The influencer life as a subplot is always fun to read and I love the way Goldin uses it here. The behind-the-scenes aspect of the convention added both to the story, and to the series, as Rachel is in fact an influencer herself. And the FBI agent in charge of the case? This was a subplot I did not know I wanted and it was perfection. I hope we have not seen the last of Joe Martinez, nor Rachel.

Dark Corners is formatted into a true podcast format during certain sections (complete with intro music if you listen to the audiobook), which gets lost on the printed page. Further, these sections do not really make sense, nor seem to fit, until you understand they are in fact, part of her podcast. I would recommend reading this book either as an immersive read, using both the physical/ebook and the audiobook or just listening to the audiobook.

Read if you like:
•podcast style books
•strong MCs
•romantic suspense
•serial killer plot lines
•the influencer life

Thank you {partners} St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for my gifted copies.

While the first book., The Night Swim, held my attention and kept me enthralled the entire time, I struggled to push through this one. There were so many characters and different directions things were going that it took me way too long to actually have a clear grasp of what was going and and by the time I did, I didn't have much incentive to care about the characters.

I feel like this story could have been just as effective if it were half the length that it is.

I listened to the audio version and I definitely appreciate the podcast segments (just like The Night Swim) and the narrators did a fantastic job. I'm not sure I would have finished had I been reading a physical copy.

I'll still read whatever Megan Goldin writes next, but hope this is the end of this series and that she writes more standalones!

Thanks so much to St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for the ARC/ALC.

This book will be available for purchase on Aug 8th.