Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - Dark Corners

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Dark Corners by Megan Goldin

7 reviews

amberlfaris's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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vereadsbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

The Night Swin is one of my favorite thrillers. I wasn’t expecting another book about Rachel Krall. So, I was very excited to listen to her podcast again. That’s why I immediately grabbed the book.

In this book, we follow our favorite crime podcaster to Daytona Beach. There, Rachel helps FBI agent Martínez investigate the disappearance of well-known influencer Madison Logan, who disappeared hours before visiting a serial killer in prison.

Dark Corners is an intriguing, fast-paced thriller that grabs you from the start. The story explores the world of influencers and adds some interesting social commentary on how influencers portray a perfect life on social media. And this is not always a faithful reflection of their reality. However, I didn’t like this part of the plot and found it boring.

Rachael is a likable character, intelligent, and easy to follow. Her role in this story is more active than in The Night Swin. Here, we discover the woman behind the popular true-crime podcast. In this book, we learn more about her and see a small romance between her and the FBI agent. Also, in this book, Rachel becomes the protagonist of her case.

The book has 3 different points of view (Rachael, The FBI agent, and the murderer) and the Podcast chapters. I didn’t like the killer’s POV. It would have worked better if the author introduced his POV later in the story.

Unlike The Night Swin, where the podcast integrated smoothly with the story, here the podcast feels detached from the initial events of the book. Then, as the plot progresses, it becomes integrated into the main story.

The book does not disappoint. I hope the author continues this series. She has in me a loyal fan of the podcast and Rachael Krall.

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daniellesharp's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense

4.0

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lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I was so excited to pick this up because of how much I enjoyed "The Night Swim" last year.
"Dark Corners" is the next installment in the Rachel Krall series. Rachel Krall runs a very successful crime podcast and is responsible for solving several cold cases. Maddison Logan is a very successful influencer, who has recently gone missing after visiting Terence Bailey in prison. Terence is about to finally be released after serving his time for a breaking and entering crime, but the FBI believe he is also responsible for the death of six women. The FBI invite Rachel to Florida in the hopes that she can help keep Terrence behind bars and help to find Maddison alive.
This book was kind of a disappointment. What I had loved about Rachel in "The Night Swim" seemed to have vanished in this story. Rachel seemed like she got lucky with the "clues" to uncover what truly was going on, and it bothered me because I wanted to see her think more critically and highlight that she does have the mind to think creatively to solve crimes. She was just kind of a puppet that characters shared things with and Rachel in turn shared with the FBI. It felt like the FBI would have solved the case without her, and they were really only one step behind. Additionally, RACHEL DID NOT NEED A ROMANCE. This added nothing to the story and just annoyed me as a reader.
The crime and mystery were fine, but I did not think it was anything super special or interesting. We did get to read from the killer's perspective at times, which was an interesting writing tactic, but it kind of killed the mystery of what was going on.
I do not know if I really desire to read more from this world, but I would be inclined to pick up more from Megan Goldin in the future.

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kimveach's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This thriller combined serial killers with an Influencer conference and a true-crime podcast. I enjoyed the combination of serious crime with the absurdity of influencers.

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nrogers_1030's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Rachel Krall is back again! Dark Corners is a crime fiction thriller set in Florida. The audiobook is interestingly formatted - multiple narrators, background music, etc. Those extra features made it a bit more realistic. The pace felt pretty slow until the last hour. That being said, the story was intriguing and it was hard to put down. I liked the additional drama that came with the influencers. Nice twists and turns. I recommend!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing an advanced reader copy of the book for an honest review. Any quote(s) used in my review have been uncorrected.

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julienicole1106's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

“Always know what you’re walking into. Dark corners can be danger points.”

This book brings us back into the world of true crime podcaster Rachel Krall. Instead of taking place in a court room like the previous Rachel Krall book ‘Night Swim’, this one has us following Rachel as she goes undercover to assist the FBI on a case.

Terence Bailey was arrested for breaking and entering. However, police also suspect him of multiple murders even though they have never been able to dig up enough evidence to charge him. These suspicions become stronger after a prominent social media influencer, Madison Logan, goes missing right after visiting Bailey in prison. Now Terence Bailey is set to be released in just a few days, Maddison Logan is still missing and since Maddison is a ghost outside of her social media persona, the FBI is lacking leads. The FBI doesn’t want to see Bailey released so they reluctantly call in Rachel Krall to help with the investigation. Now it’s a race against the clock to find Maddison and to also try to find proof that Bailey was connected to the murders that took place prior to his jail sentence. One more thing the investigators need to find out: who is working with Bailey because he definitely isn’t working alone.

Rachel uses an old Instagram account to imbed herself in the heart of an influencer conference to learn more about Maddison Logan’s world and the people who had contact with her last. Things are definitely darker when the cameras aren’t on. Rachel discovers rivalry, betrayal and secrets lurk in this world of influencers. Who is telling the truth? Who can she trust?

Rachels acuity, attention to detail and keen sense of intuition her helps her uncover truths and facts that many others were unable to discover. The fact that she has this uncanny ability to engage people in conversation and make them want to spill their guts to her certainly doesn’t hurt her investigation.

Rachel seems to be a bit spicier in this one, often having clipped answers when someone puts her in a position that makes her uncomfortable. Even with that, I still found her to be a lovable character. Her overall kind nature and want to help is endearing and her inquisitiveness and demeaner just makes her likeable. She is smart and sees things that most others don’t. And she is very brave-maybe to a fault in this one!

I liked the addition of the FBI agent Joe Martinez. He was a great supporting character and I really enjoyed what he brought to the story. The chemistry between him and Rachel was great. I hope to see Joe in future Rachel Krall stories!

Critiques- I don’t really have many!

There were some duplicative statements throughout the book that I felt was unnecessary. One example of that is Fringe… ‘a man with a floppy fringe and horn-rimmed glasses’; a few pages later ‘her boyfriend with the floppy fringe and eyeglasses’; one page later ‘her boyfriend, sporting a floppy fringe and Clark Kent style glasses’; and yet again a handful of pages later the fringe is mentioned once again. Very repetitive and definitely not needed on back-to-back pages. We get it…. He has floppy fringe and glasses! =]

There was a spot where it appears the wrong pronoun was used. ‘Another had photographed herself sipping a whiskey in a snifter glass as he floated in the lagoon-sized pool’. I would think it should be himself/he or herself/she or themself/they.

Praise- Overall-another great book by Megan Goldin.

I was hooked from chapter one. “I’ve been looking for a predator. It turns out that a predator has also been looking for me”. Powerful statement and really drew me into the story. I just wanted to know what happened next. I am not super big into influencers personally, but even with that said I found the world of influencers in the book a great location for betrayal and deadly competition.

I loved night swim. I thought being in the court room was a fun way to amplify the drama. But I also loved the new perspective of Dark corners. Having Rachel involved in the investigation was a different approach that added excitement in totally different way! Megan has a way of making you want to keep reading to find out what happens next.

“The scariest monster is the one that hides in plain sight.” If you truly think about this statement and what it means- it’s truly horrifying. Monsters can be anywhere. They can be anyone. You might cross paths with them and not even know how close you were to danger. A brilliant depiction of how ‘unseen’ monsters can be-at first glance.

Rating

5 stars-I absolutely would recommend Dark Corners. It’s a great, fast read that keeps you engaged from the first chapter. Hope we get the privilege of more Rachel Krall books in the future!

~Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this fantastic book!~

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