Megan Goldin

Bestselling author Megan Goldin brings back Rachel Krall, the main character of her hugely successful second novel, The Night Swim, in Bad Influence, a thriller about a missing social media influencer who may be the victim of a serial killer...

A Novel

Dark Corners

         I’m a voracious reader, I finish about a book a day.  There are many who read as much or more, so it’s not like I’m an anomaly, but I have always loved books and I try really hard to share my love with others (hence this whole blog thing).  I have discovered, however, that there are negative points to reading an absurd number of books.  Don’t worry, they’re few.  One of the worst things about the sheer number of books I read is that I just don’t remember all of them.  This book made it onto my TBR list because it was a Book of the Month selection, but because it was the second in what appeared to be a series, I dug into Goodreads to find the first one so I could read it first. 

            I had already read it. 

            So, I had to dive into my past book logs until I found it, but even after pulling up said book log entry, I still have no memory of that first Rachel Krall book.  I toyed around with reading it again, but considering how many books I have checked out from the library and thus have a time limit, I decided to forego rereading the first one.  Turns out it these two work as stand-alone books (at least, I assume they do, but since I have no memory of the first one, I am just making an educated guess here). 

            Rachel Krall is a true-crime podcaster.  She has an enormous following, though nobody knows what she really looks like because she keeps her face (not her identity) a well-guarded secret.  Her voice alone propels the stories she tells on her podcast; captivating her fans and drawing the attention of nefarious characters (Krall, herself, would include law-enforcement in the list of nefarious characters).  Rachel was unwittingly pulled into a missing-persons case involving an Instagram star and a seemingly menacing man spending an absurd amount of time in jail for a simple burglary charge.  Refusing law-enforcement’s pleas to return home after being dragged to Florida to interview the menacing man while he was in prison, Rachel decides to hang out in Daytona, infiltrating an influencer convention as her excuse to stick around.  Where Rachel is, violence seems to follow.

            This book is easy to read and easy to follow, despite dueling investigations that seem, on the surface, to have nothing to do with each other.  Rachel is a likable character who’s main goal is to get to whatever truth she is hunting.  Who doesn’t love the truth?  Goldin manages to weave a tale of murder, abduction, and even some romance all into one tidy novel that was thoroughly enjoyable.  This one doesn’t require an advanced degree to understand, and the story moved quickly with few meandering areas.  I didn’t find myself bored or baffled, which are two things that frequently turn me off of a book.  It’s not the best book I’ve ever read, but I enjoyed it. 

Kristen Claiborn

         I’m a voracious reader, I finish about a book a day.  There are many who read as much or more, so it’s not like I’m an anomaly, but I have always loved books and I try really hard to share my love with others (hence this whole blog thing).  I have discovered, however, that there are negative points to reading an absurd number of books.  Don’t worry, they’re few.  One of the worst things about the sheer number of books I read is that I just don’t remember all of them.  This book made it onto my TBR list because it was a Book of the Month selection, but because it was the second in what appeared to be a series, I dug into Goodreads to find the first one so I could read it first. 

            I had already read it. 

            So, I had to dive into my past book logs until I found it, but even after pulling up said book log entry, I still have no memory of that first Rachel Krall book.  I toyed around with reading it again, but considering how many books I have checked out from the library and thus have a time limit, I decided to forego rereading the first one.  Turns out it these two work as stand-alone books (at least, I assume they do, but since I have no memory of the first one, I am just making an educated guess here). 

            Rachel Krall is a true-crime podcaster.  She has an enormous following, though nobody knows what she really looks like because she keeps her face (not her identity) a well-guarded secret.  Her voice alone propels the stories she tells on her podcast; captivating her fans and drawing the attention of nefarious characters (Krall, herself, would include law-enforcement in the list of nefarious characters).  Rachel was unwittingly pulled into a missing-persons case involving an Instagram star and a seemingly menacing man spending an absurd amount of time in jail for a simple burglary charge.  Refusing law-enforcement’s pleas to return home after being dragged to Florida to interview the menacing man while he was in prison, Rachel decides to hang out in Daytona, infiltrating an influencer convention as her excuse to stick around.  Where Rachel is, violence seems to follow.

            This book is easy to read and easy to follow, despite dueling investigations that seem, on the surface, to have nothing to do with each other.  Rachel is a likable character who’s main goal is to get to whatever truth she is hunting.  Who doesn’t love the truth?  Goldin manages to weave a tale of murder, abduction, and even some romance all into one tidy novel that was thoroughly enjoyable.  This one doesn’t require an advanced degree to understand, and the story moved quickly with few meandering areas.  I didn’t find myself bored or baffled, which are two things that frequently turn me off of a book.  It’s not the best book I’ve ever read, but I enjoyed it. 

Dark Corners A Novel

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