(4.5 Stars, rounded up)
I read The Night Swim a few years ago and really enjoyed it; one of my favorite parts was the main character, podcaster Rachel Krall. I was excited to see the return of Rachel in Dark Corners!

I don't want to say much about the story - I came into it not knowing a lot and I enjoyed the ride. This second book is told from several different perspectives, including Rachel's podcast narrative. The mystery is good, Ms. Goldin has a lot of threads going that kept me wondering how everything tied together.

For me the mystery of Dark Corners wasn't quite as compelling as The Night Swim (I had a lot more empathy for the town in The Night Swim than the Influencers we meet in Dark Corners), but I really liked the addition of FBI agent Joe Martinez! I hope his character will be back because he and Rachel are a great investigating duo.

Huge thanks to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for letting me read an early copy of this book!

And my Fellow Readers - Dark Corners doesn't come out until August, so you have plenty of time to read The Night Swim (if you haven't already!) to meet Rachel Krall before publication.

Dark Corners A Novel by Megan Goldin

352 Pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Release Date: August 8, 2023

Fiction (Adult), General Fiction (Adult), Mystery, Suspense, Serial Killer, Abduction, Kidnapping, Torture, Woman Protagonist, Social Media, Influencers

Maddison Logan is a popular influencer competing for the top influencer award. Terrence Bailey is in prison after a breaking and entering charge was upgraded. Rachel Krall has a podcast called, Guilty or Not Guilty. These three people do not seem to have anything in common, but their lives are about to become entangled.

Maddison meets with Terrence in prison. She is the first visitor he had during his six-year prison sentence. Her van is found at a state campsite and after viewing video footage, it is obvious, she has been taken. Terrence is about to be released from prison and the local police along with the FBI believe he is a serial killer that was not caught. Rachel is contacted by the FBI to provide input after Maddison’s disappearance.

The story had a steady pace, the characters were developed, and it was written mostly in third person point of view. I learned quite a bit about influencers versus real life from this book. It shows people how they want the public to see them instead of their reality. Rachel is the main character, and we see how she thinks and analyzes situations. This is the second book where she is featured. The first is The Night Swim. If you like social media with murder mysteries, you will enjoy this book.

I loved Stay Awake by Goldin and was really excited to get her new book. The writing style felt oddly different from the other book and I had a hard time keeping track of what was going on. I'm not a fan of books about podcasters (I just read another past week) and I don't like stories around social media influencers. Maybe it just wasn't for me. I'd recommend people to read it if they read Night Swim and enjoyed it! But it's definitely a different read than Stay Awake. Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martins Press, and the author for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I found this book very captivating and thoroughly enjoyed all of the characters. The killer was very predictable, and I enjoy to he kept guessing, but overall a good read. I loved Rachel and Joe.

Really enjoyed this read as it was well written and pertained to present day.. could truly relate to what these characters were going through.

Enter into a world of influencers, podcasts and popularity competitions and you will meet Rachel Krall. Rachel has a popular true crime podcast and she has just been summoned by an inmate who is approaching his parole date. Perhaps he is willing to give her some inside information? I really liked the book in the beginning and towards the ending but was somewhat disappointed in a predictable ending.

Megan Goldin does it again in her next instalment of true crime podcasted Rachel Krall solving cases. Love the mix of podcast and real life crime solving.

Dark Corners is the second book about Rachel Krall, a true crime podcast host. I previously read The Night Swim which first introduced Rachel, but I would have enjoyed Dark Corners just as much as a stand-alone novel.

Dark Corners introduces us to inmate Terrence Bailey who is about to be released after serving an extended sentence for breaking and entering. He is suspected to also be involved with the murders of multiple women, but police have never been able to prove he was involved in the murders. Terrence is visiting in prison by a popular social media influencer named Maddison Logan. Shortly after their meeting, Maddison goes missing. The FBI reaches out to Rachel to assist them in locating Maddison.

Dark Corners held my attention throughout the book, and I enjoyed the pacing and characters throughout the novel. While I’m not overly invested in social media influencers, it was interesting to read about the darker side of this industry. I am hoping Rachel Krall will be featured in Goldin’s future novels at some point!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

This thriller kept me hooked from the beginning. The back and forth from the viewpoints was a little confusing at times, but I enjoyed the character development of Rachel and Joe. I also liked how you can guess who the killer is halfway but not the complete picture of what happened to the missing girls. Solid page turner! Would give 4.5 stars if I could.

I thoroughly enjoyed Megan Goldin’s recent thriller! Dark Corners was a sequel to The Night Swim which I loved and was eager to continue reading about Rachel Krall’s podcast journey. I was hooked from the start of Dark Corners until the end. It was unpredictable. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves fast paced, engaging thrillers.

Lots to like in this book, but some things missed the mark for me too. I think this will be a popular book on bookstagram, although I disagree that this is a thriller - more just a supense/mystery novel. Firstly, I recommend editing the book before final publication to capitalize the word "Black" when used to describe Aysh (or any other Black character). Now, here are my overall thoughts:

What I liked: multiple POVs, McCoy's character (his influence on the plot, not him as a person lol), use of the rare medical condition, Terence ending up being a good guy, pacing

What I disliked: how juvenile Rachel acted at times, she is not a trained investigator; plot line about the influencer conference made sense in the context of the info we needed to learn about Maddison, but it was kind of annoying since influencers are annoying; sexual relationship that developed between Rachel and Martinez was unprofessional and completely unnecessary; ending was incredibly abrupt (at least it read that way on kindle); death of Jonny was a bit too much of a sidebar

Like I said, I do think this book will be publicly popular. It was engaging and kept my attention, but didn't feel thriller-y. Some plot points were disjointed, like the focus on Owen finding Aysh's body. Really unnecessary info there, and some of the conference descriptions were unnecessary too.

Thanks for the advanced copy!

3.5 rounded down. It took awhile for me to get into this story but it picked up about 25% in. I hate how many books use influencers as a subject these days and I was on the cusp of just a 3, but I liked the suspense of the book. I wish the chapters that outlined the would-be podcast episodes were more clearly outlined as it took me out of the story and I consistently had to remind myself what this chapter was.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Megan Goldin is one of my auto-buy, go-to authors! Stay Awake was definitely my favorite thriller by her but The Night Swim & her newest Dark Corners were good as well.

Dark Corners definitely had a different tone than The Night Swim- both follow Rachel- a true crime podcaster. I found Rachel to be a little negative in Dark Corners but the storyline was creative and I enjoyed the plot!

I really enjoyed this read. The twists were so well planned out. There were multiple view points and information that have you parts of the story but still not the full picture until the end.

I loved this book. I was hesitant at first as it is not my usual genre. I took the book slow even though it kept pulling me in I just felt that Thomas Mccoy character would be too dark to read and I usually read before bedtime. But I felt the author did really well by using his POV in a way that wasn't diabolical. I was guessing for while but it didn't take too long to figure out the story. Especially when they introduced Hailey I knew it would be predictable but I still loved this book. Really well written and definitely recommend. I'm gonna read the first book the night swim sometime this month!

I think these two quotes perfectly describe the way Megan Golding writes her books with dark topics:

"He'd liked the way Rachel brought humanity to an unspeakable crime, focusing on the grief and the quest for justice more than on the gory details."

"We're so desensitized to evil, so obsessed with finding out what makes the likes of [character name] tick, that we forget about the victims. Not just those they kill, but those they leave behind."

Goldin has a clear and concise compassion to her writing that focuses on the victims and survivors of such horrific crimes in a very sensitive way. The subject matter is of course difficult to read at times but Golding navigates it perfectly so as to not continue the glorification of true crime.

By far my favorite writer of "the podcast book" trend we're seeing right now.

4.5
Dark Corners by Megan Goldin
I would like to thank #NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eCopy of Dark Corners by Megan Goldin. This novel was a quick read- fast-paced, many twists and turns and allows Rachell Krall, a true crime Podcaster to return to the pages of this thrilling novel. In Dark Corners, Rachell's character is a strong, independent woman living in a dangerous world involving missing girls, prison, the FBI and the cut-throat and competitive environment of social media influencers. Rachell is called in by the FBI when an influencer goes missing and Rachel's own status as a podcast influencer may help solve this ever- expanding case. The case was eventually resolved, but I did not find the very ending satisfying. I like open-ended conclusions,but this ending just puzzled me.

I initially loved the premise of this book, but I felt like it unraveled too soon. Terence Bailey is about to be released from prison when he gets an unexpected visitor, an influencer with a mysterious past named Maddison, who goes missing shortly after her visit. The FBI's only lead is that Terence and Maddison discussed Rachel Krall, who is a true crime podcast host. There were a lot of subplots within this book, people going missing, mysterious symbols, etc. It was an enjoyable read; however, I feel like a lot of the big clues were revealed too early and ruined the ending.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy.
I really enjoyed Night Swim and looking forward to the second in the series. Once again I enjoyed a great book from Megan Goldin.

Hot topic thriller checks all the boxes.
Missing influencer. Check
Podcaster. Check
Van life. Check
Stinky man. Check. Wait, what?!!! This was probably my favorite part. What a twist to build the story around. Love the chutzpah of that.
Yeah, yeah, there are some problems that better editing could fix. But overall, an entertaining second outing for our girl, Rachel Krall, the voice behind fictional podcast, Guilty or Not Guilty, introduced in Night Swim (which I loved).

Thank you to St. Martin's Press for access to an early copy. All opinions are mine alone.