Dark Corners: A Novel (Rachel Krall, 2)
"A gripping story that is equal parts shocking, unnerving, and thrilling. Goldin takes the ‘true crime’ trope to new and unexpected territory.” —Karin Slaughter, New York Times and #1 international bestselling author of Girl, Forgotten
Rachel Krall, the true crime podcaster star of Megan Goldin’s acclaimed The Night Swim, returns to search for a popular influencer who disappears after visiting a suspected serial killer.
Terence Bailey is about to be released from prison for breaking and entering, though investigators have long suspected him in the murders of six women. As his release date approaches, Bailey gets a surprise visit from Maddison Logan, a hot, young influencer with a huge social media following. Hours later, Maddison disappears, and police suspect she’s been kidnapped—or worse. Is Maddison’s disappearance connected to her visit to Bailey? And why was she visiting him in the first place?
When they hit a wall in the investigation, the FBI reluctantly asks for Rachel Krall’s help in finding the missing influencer. Maddison seems to only exist on social media; she has no family, no friends, and other than in her posts, most people have never seen her. Who is she, really? Using a fake Instagram account, Rachel goes undercover to BuzzCon, a popular influencer conference, where she discovers a world of fierce rivalry that may have turned lethal.
When police find the body of a woman with a tattoo of a snake eating its tail—identical to a tattoo Rachel had seen on Bailey’s hand—the FBI must consider a chilling possibility: Bailey has an accomplice on the outside and a dangerous obsession with influencers, including Rachel Krall herself. Suddenly the target of a monster hiding in plain sight, Rachel is forced to confront the very real dangers that lurk in the dark corners of the internet.
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Community Reviews
Dark Corners by Megan Goldin (8/8/23) Review Published 8/7/23 4 Stars
Published by St. Martin’s Press
“Always know what you’re walking into. Dark corners can be danger points.”
After influencer Maddison Logan goes to a correctional facility in Florida to meet with Terence Bailey and inmate, she disappears without a trace. While Maddison and Terence were talking, Rachel Krall’s name come up in their conversation. Rachel is the true crime podcaster from Night Swim. The soon-to-be-released inmate, Terence Bailey, though incarcerated for breaking and entering, is also a suspect in the murders of six women, but the FBI has yet to prove their case.
That prompts the FBI to fly Rachel in, not quite revealing all the relevant details. When the meeting between Terence Bailey and Rachel Krall ends with Bailey’s veiled threats directed towards Rachel, the FBI, sensing that Bailey might target Rachel and requests her to fly back home.
Rachel decides to do some investigating of her own and joins the social influencer conference being held nearby, which Maddison was supposed to be attending. As an insider, she is privy to a lot more information on the attendees as compared to the investigators in charge of the case.
Rachel is now pursuing every lead possible in finding the truth behind Maddison's disappearance and her connection to Terence Bailey. She is all the while gathering more information about the other six victims of the serial killer. Will Rachel be able to help the FBI find Maddison before she becomes the seventh victim?
The Author is great at creating suspense and tension, and I turned the pages as fast as possible. Plenty of twists and turns kept me on my toes, trying to figure out who was involved and with whom. I loved how Megan pulls it all together with a satisfying ending that wraps up well. This is a must read for thriller and suspense junkies!
Many thanks to the author Megan Goldin, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the much-appreciated digital review copy of this novel.
Published by St. Martin’s Press
“Always know what you’re walking into. Dark corners can be danger points.”
After influencer Maddison Logan goes to a correctional facility in Florida to meet with Terence Bailey and inmate, she disappears without a trace. While Maddison and Terence were talking, Rachel Krall’s name come up in their conversation. Rachel is the true crime podcaster from Night Swim. The soon-to-be-released inmate, Terence Bailey, though incarcerated for breaking and entering, is also a suspect in the murders of six women, but the FBI has yet to prove their case.
That prompts the FBI to fly Rachel in, not quite revealing all the relevant details. When the meeting between Terence Bailey and Rachel Krall ends with Bailey’s veiled threats directed towards Rachel, the FBI, sensing that Bailey might target Rachel and requests her to fly back home.
Rachel decides to do some investigating of her own and joins the social influencer conference being held nearby, which Maddison was supposed to be attending. As an insider, she is privy to a lot more information on the attendees as compared to the investigators in charge of the case.
Rachel is now pursuing every lead possible in finding the truth behind Maddison's disappearance and her connection to Terence Bailey. She is all the while gathering more information about the other six victims of the serial killer. Will Rachel be able to help the FBI find Maddison before she becomes the seventh victim?
The Author is great at creating suspense and tension, and I turned the pages as fast as possible. Plenty of twists and turns kept me on my toes, trying to figure out who was involved and with whom. I loved how Megan pulls it all together with a satisfying ending that wraps up well. This is a must read for thriller and suspense junkies!
Many thanks to the author Megan Goldin, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the much-appreciated digital review copy of this novel.
Full disclosure: I had not read “The Night Swim” prior to this ARC. But after reading “Dark Corners” and thus transforming into a Megan Goldin stan, I’m finally starting the book which precedes this one. All that is to say: you can fully follow this plot even without reading Goldin’s other books!
This was such one of my favorite thrillers that I’ve read so far this year! It felt almost like a grown-up version of Pip from Holly Jackson’s “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” series.
Like Pip, Rachel Krall hosts a popular true crime podcast which helped exonerate a wrongly convict man. So when the FBI tasks her with interviewing a suspected murderer two days before he’s scheduled to be released, she seems like the ideal person for the job. This is just the tip of the iceberg, though, and she quickly gets embroiled in tracking down a social media influencer who went missing after visiting that same suspected killer.
All of this happens in Florida, of course. A state that some would consider to be the dark corner of the U.S. (which I get to say, as a Floridian myself).
It took me probably about 30-40 pages to feel immersed in the plot & get a sense for the cast of characters, but once I did—I was hooked! I flew threw through this book in one day. There’s a great sense of momentum and the ending felt satisfying overall (though it would have benefited from spending more time on cleaning up some of the side plots). Plus, as someone who enjoys watching the social media influencer phenomenon from afar, the angle of this mystery made for an easy hook. I’d definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys thrillers!
Thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
This was such one of my favorite thrillers that I’ve read so far this year! It felt almost like a grown-up version of Pip from Holly Jackson’s “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” series.
Like Pip, Rachel Krall hosts a popular true crime podcast which helped exonerate a wrongly convict man. So when the FBI tasks her with interviewing a suspected murderer two days before he’s scheduled to be released, she seems like the ideal person for the job. This is just the tip of the iceberg, though, and she quickly gets embroiled in tracking down a social media influencer who went missing after visiting that same suspected killer.
All of this happens in Florida, of course. A state that some would consider to be the dark corner of the U.S. (which I get to say, as a Floridian myself).
It took me probably about 30-40 pages to feel immersed in the plot & get a sense for the cast of characters, but once I did—I was hooked! I flew threw through this book in one day. There’s a great sense of momentum and the ending felt satisfying overall (though it would have benefited from spending more time on cleaning up some of the side plots). Plus, as someone who enjoys watching the social media influencer phenomenon from afar, the angle of this mystery made for an easy hook. I’d definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys thrillers!
Thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Having absolutely loved The Night Swim (Rachel Krall #1), I was so excited to pick up its sequel Dark Corners. Both books follow Rachel Krall, host of "Guilty or Not Guilty" as she investigates crimes and tries to unearth the truth, while putting herself in the middle of the action.
The Night Swim tackles the important and complicated topic of rape culture. In it, author Megan Goldin beautifully weaves together two stories separated by 25 years, shifting between POVs and Rachel's podcast transcript. The novel felt unique in both its subject matter and narrative style, flipping between a classic thriller tale and a courtroom drama. I was sucked into the seaside village where this all takes place and the cast of characters we met along the way.
I was hoping Dark Corners would continue to suck me in and that it would be another five star read for me. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
Dark Corners takes place a few weeks after The Night Swim.
Maddison Logan, a popular social media influencer, visits inmate Terrance Bailey in a Daytona Beach prison. Bailey is a suspected serial killer arrested for petty theft. He only has two days left on his prison sentence.
During their visit, the name Rachel Krall comes up. Then Maddison disappears.
Rachel is then lured to Florida. Invited by FBI Special Agent Joe Martinez. Martinez promises Rachel exclusive access to the case if she agrees to help him by meeting with Bailey.
After her meeting with Bailey and being ignored by the FBI, Rachel sets to investigating Maddison's disappearance by herself. She easily infiltrates BuzzCon, a convention for the world's top influencers.
While I have long been a fan of Goldin's writing, this book didn't work for me for a few reasons.
1. I felt like it stepped away too drastically from the narrative structure of The Night Swim. The Night Swim covers a rape trial in seaside Neapolis, the topic for season three of Rachel's podcast "Guilty or Not Guilty". Rachel is an outsider and a journalist gathering facts for her audience. We get her POV of how she gathers the facts and then the actual story she tells her listeners. It doesn't feel like we get that in Dark Corners. There are exerts from a podcast transcript in the book; however, it isn't season four. But a special episode, I guess? I don't know, it didn't feel clear. The whole component of her being a podcaster felt like an after thought in Dark Corners whereas it was central to The Night Swim.
2. We went from something as heartbreaking and nuanced as rape culture in The Night Swim, to tackling the vapid world of influencers in Dark Corners. Imagine if Emily in Paris were a thriller and that would be 80% of this book. Rachel has somehow achieved 19,000 followers on a running Instagram account before she ever started the podcast, but still knows nothing about social media? This following allows her to go "under cover" at the Influencer podcast. When there, each person is as unlikable, shallow, and vapid as the next. While The Night Swim humanized each character especially the victims, Dark Corner paints many of its characters as cartoon characters chasing clout by using social media lingo from 2015.
3. Ultimately, so much of the book is wrapped up in this influencer culture but the actual story has little to nothing to do with it. It felt like a red herring turned into a chance for the author to get on a soap box about how destructive and toxic social media consumption and those who chase it for monetary gain are.
4. I saw the ending coming a mile away. Actually, I saw it coming about 300 pages away.
With all this being said, I still enjoyed a lot of the book because I enjoy Golidn's writing. She is able to paint a fictional world that (mostly) feels so reflective of ours. If there is a third book in the series, I will definitely pick it up as well as any other books Goldin releases.
Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for an ARC of this book in which I had the pleasure of reading. Publication date: August 8, 2023.
The Night Swim tackles the important and complicated topic of rape culture. In it, author Megan Goldin beautifully weaves together two stories separated by 25 years, shifting between POVs and Rachel's podcast transcript. The novel felt unique in both its subject matter and narrative style, flipping between a classic thriller tale and a courtroom drama. I was sucked into the seaside village where this all takes place and the cast of characters we met along the way.
I was hoping Dark Corners would continue to suck me in and that it would be another five star read for me. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
Dark Corners takes place a few weeks after The Night Swim.
Maddison Logan, a popular social media influencer, visits inmate Terrance Bailey in a Daytona Beach prison. Bailey is a suspected serial killer arrested for petty theft. He only has two days left on his prison sentence.
During their visit, the name Rachel Krall comes up. Then Maddison disappears.
Rachel is then lured to Florida. Invited by FBI Special Agent Joe Martinez. Martinez promises Rachel exclusive access to the case if she agrees to help him by meeting with Bailey.
After her meeting with Bailey and being ignored by the FBI, Rachel sets to investigating Maddison's disappearance by herself. She easily infiltrates BuzzCon, a convention for the world's top influencers.
While I have long been a fan of Goldin's writing, this book didn't work for me for a few reasons.
1. I felt like it stepped away too drastically from the narrative structure of The Night Swim. The Night Swim covers a rape trial in seaside Neapolis, the topic for season three of Rachel's podcast "Guilty or Not Guilty". Rachel is an outsider and a journalist gathering facts for her audience. We get her POV of how she gathers the facts and then the actual story she tells her listeners. It doesn't feel like we get that in Dark Corners. There are exerts from a podcast transcript in the book; however, it isn't season four. But a special episode, I guess? I don't know, it didn't feel clear. The whole component of her being a podcaster felt like an after thought in Dark Corners whereas it was central to The Night Swim.
2. We went from something as heartbreaking and nuanced as rape culture in The Night Swim, to tackling the vapid world of influencers in Dark Corners. Imagine if Emily in Paris were a thriller and that would be 80% of this book. Rachel has somehow achieved 19,000 followers on a running Instagram account before she ever started the podcast, but still knows nothing about social media? This following allows her to go "under cover" at the Influencer podcast. When there, each person is as unlikable, shallow, and vapid as the next. While The Night Swim humanized each character especially the victims, Dark Corner paints many of its characters as cartoon characters chasing clout by using social media lingo from 2015.
3. Ultimately, so much of the book is wrapped up in this influencer culture but the actual story has little to nothing to do with it. It felt like a red herring turned into a chance for the author to get on a soap box about how destructive and toxic social media consumption and those who chase it for monetary gain are.
4. I saw the ending coming a mile away. Actually, I saw it coming about 300 pages away.
With all this being said, I still enjoyed a lot of the book because I enjoy Golidn's writing. She is able to paint a fictional world that (mostly) feels so reflective of ours. If there is a third book in the series, I will definitely pick it up as well as any other books Goldin releases.
Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for an ARC of this book in which I had the pleasure of reading. Publication date: August 8, 2023.
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.
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.
Thank you to NetGalley and. St. Martin’s Press for this ARC of Dark Corners by Megan Goldin. This book is a twisty story about a Podcaster and the dark side of being a social influencer. Rachel Karll gets pulled into an investigation that she can’t resist. While digging deeper into this case, she learns more about the world of being a social influencer and what it takes to make it in this career. Is this world so cut throat that the cost is your life?
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