Review: Dark Corners by Megan Goldin

Dark Corners by Megan Goldin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received both print and audio ARCs of this book via Netgalley. I mainly listened to the audiobook because I listened to The Night Swim prior to diving into this book and loved the narration. This follows a similar narrative but adds a male narrator in addition to the 2 female narrators. Rachel does a special report in this book versus a podcast.

You do not have to read Night Swim prior to reading this book. They are unrelated in content, but the style of the storytelling is similar. If you didn't like the way Night Swim was told, you probably won't like this as it has the same style with the special report mixed in with development of the plot. This does not feature a court room trial, so if you enjoyed that aspect it is missing here. I however really enjoyed the way the story was told, and looked forward to the special report segments. They delivered information that you didn't get from the regular chapters while summarizing information we already knew about the crime.

This installment follows Rachel as she is called in by the FBI to speak with an inmate who is about to be released from prison. Terrence Bailey is long suspected of murdering 6 women, but police were never able to prove it. They were able to get him on breaking and entering. As his release from prison looms, he receives a surprise visit from a popular influencer who then suspiciously diappears. People who know her don't think much about it as she is known to go off the grid periodically. Rachel's name popped up in their conversation, and the FBI want her to find out how she is connected to Terrence and the missing girl. Rachel's conversation with Terrence doesn't go well, prompting the FBI to think she may be in danger when he leaves prison in a few days.

Ever the investigative journalist, Rachel finds herself in the middle of the investigation for the missing girl, Maddison. In an attempt to find out more information about the missing girl, Rachel attends BuzzCon, a post influence conference that Maddison was supposed to attend. Rachel doesn't find Maddison at the conference, but she does uncover information that lead her and FBI Agent Joe to clues that they missed early on in the investigation. I don't want to spoil things, but I really enjoyed how the story unfolded. As with the previous book, I thought Goldin did a good job capturing the life of an influencer accurately in the "Instagram vs reality" conversations as well as the conversations about how cut throat and callous some influencers can be. The personas you see on the internet aren't always the real person.

This was just as entertaining as the first book, though not quite as suspenseful. I never really felt that Rachel was in real danger. I did think that the police and FBI made it way to easy for Rachel to gain access to case information. The plot is a bit predictable at times and I had some things figured out early on. Despite that, I still enjoyed the experience.
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