Dark Corners

Rachel Krall, who we first met in The Night Swim, is a True Crime podcaster. In Dark Corners, the second book in the series, she is asked by the FBI to help on the case of a missing social media influencer by visiting serial killer Terence Bailey in prison to see if she can get info about the missing woman and discover if that case relates to unsolved cases, including a recently discovered charred body. 

The premise is strong, and the story starts off with a creepy serial killer vibe, but soon loses steam when readers are told early on who is doing the killing. This means the bulk of this suspense read isn't about figuring out whodunnit, but waiting around to see how the killer is connected to the story. Kind of disappointing.   

Unfortunately, I had a few issues with this book. Some were small issues (Rachel was rude and pompous, the forced and superfluous romance, repetitive and awkward dialogue) but one was a big problem - the heavy-handed focus on social media influencer culture. 

Too much page time was spent at a conference for social media influencers (who come off as stereotypical, vacuous, self-centred jerks) and despite Rachel being a blogger and podcaster herself, she is frustratingly ignorant about social influencing. I soon started to skim pages and even debated DNFing the book, but instead I switched to the audiobook and things got better - especially the bits of Rachel's podcast which made more sense in audio. 

Narration: I listened to the last half of the book in audio and the narrators did a good job but there were some odd dubbing fixes to the narration that were noticeable.

I enjoyed The Night Swim but Dark Corners left me with a story that was equally over the top and underwhelming and didn't give me the chilling story I was anticipating.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to St Martin's Press for the complimentary advanced ebook and eAudiobook of this title which were given to me in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 2.75 stars

Author: Megan Goldin

Genre: Suspense

Type and Source: ebook and eAudiobook

Narrators for Audiobook: Andre Santana, January LaVoy 

& Samantha Desz

Run Time for Audiobook: 11 hours, 30 min

Series: 2nd in Rachel Krall series

Publisher: St Martin's Press

First Published: August 8, 2023

Book Description from GoodReads: 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 freedom 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? Why was she visiting him in the first place?

When they hit a wall in the investigation, the FBI reluctantly asks for Rachel’s help in finding the missing influencer. Maddison seems only to 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 Krall 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, the FBI must consider a chilling possibility: Bailey has an accomplice on the outside and a dangerous obsession with influencers, including Rachel Krell herself. Suddenly a 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.

Rachel Krall, the true crime podcaster star of Megan Goldin’s acclaimed Night Swim returns to search for a popular social media influencer who disappeared after visiting a suspected serial killer.