Dark Corners

Aspiring crime writers, read this book. If anyone can show you how to grab ahold of a reader and not let go, it’s Megan Goldin. It only took me eight pages to realise I wasn’t going to get anything else done until I finished this novel. Short, sharp chapters, every other one ending on a cliffhanger, were the real hook. Then add an intelligent, strong-willed and likeable main character, and a truly despicable bad guy, and you’ve got a cracker of a read.

Rachel Krall is a successful true crime podcaster. She has solved cold cases in the past and made quite the name for herself, to the point where she is curious, but not overly surprised, when the FBI ask her to fly to Daytona Beach, Florida, to visit a man in prison. She was mentioned in a conversation the prisoner, Terence Bailey, had with a visitor who has since disappeared. As Bailey is a suspect in several murders and due for imminent release, the Feds are desperate to find out more about his connection to the missing woman, a hugely popular social media influencer. Although Rachel doesn’t appear to achieve anything at the prison except a threat to her own life, and the FBI is keen for her to head home straightaway, she decides she is due for a holiday and stays on to do her own investigating. An ex-journalist would never walk away from a story like this.

As Rachel explores the shallow but extremely competitive world of content creators, Federal Agent Joe Martinez does his best to solve the case while keeping an eye on the renegade podcaster. Between the two of them, the killer is bound to be discovered eventually, and this is the only flaw in the story: there are no real surprises for the reader. I still loved it, and although I didn’t quite get through the whole book in one sitting, it was close.