always know what you're walking into

When true crime podcaster Rachel Krall was awakened from a deep sleep by the FBI to come to hop on a plane to Florida, she didn’t really know what to expect. She had just gotten home after spending time in North Carolina, at the rape trial of a champion swimmer. She was exhausted, but it was the FBI asking for her help. She packed a small bag and got dressed for when the FBI agent knocked on her door to take her to the airport, where they had a commercial flight waiting on her before it could take off.

It wasn’t until later that day, when she’d had time to wake up and think about what she had done that she had seen just how the FBI, notably agent Joseph Martinez, has set her up to make her agreeable to all his requests. And then he asks for the big one. There is a prisoner in the Central Florida Correctional Facility who is a very dangerous man. And Special Agent Martinez wants Rachel to talk to him.

Terence Bailey was set to be a free man in just days. He had served six years in prison, two for the breaking and entering charge he was convicted for originally, and then another four for a fight that he had gotten into in jail. But his time was almost up. In those six years, he had never had a visitor, until the previous day. A content creator, a travel influencer Named Maddison Logan, had lied to get in to see him. The microphone that was supposed to record their conversation was malfunctioning, so the FBI didn’t know what they’d said. But at one point Terence had used a small pencil to write a note on the table for only Maddison to read. However, there was a camera that caught the note also. After leaving the prison, Maddison had disappeared.

“Bring Rachel Krall to me. Do whatever it takes to find her. It’s time . . . “

When Agent Martinez shows Rachel the note, she has no idea what it could mean. After her podcast Guilty or Not Guilty had become a surprise hit, she’d been contacted by many people convicted or suspected of crimes. They all wanted her to take on their cases, to show that they are innocent. But she’d never heard from Terence Bailey before. And anyone searching for Maddison Logan couldn’t find anything other than her carefully curated #vanlife Influencer posts. The FBI was running out of time to find Maddison, and they had very little to go on. So they had found Rachel and brought her down to Florida to talk to a prisoner, a potentially dangerous killer.

Rachel could be putting her life in danger by doing this. In fact, when she did talk to Terence, he warned her, telling her, “The scariest monster is the one that hides in plain sight.” And when the dead body of a young woman turned up in the woods nearby, the FBI and Rachel fear the worst for Maddison. But what they find is far more complicated, far more depraved than what they originally thought.

Dark Corners is the deliciously creepy thriller from Megan Goldin, whose book Night Swim first brought us the character of Rachel Krall and introduced us to her podcast. And like that novel, this one is masterfully written, with layers of secrets and truths that are uncovered slowly and carefully by the podcaster’s insatiable curiosity and her skillful reporting.

Be careful with this book. It’s not one to be pulled out for a quick break or to distract you as you have to stand in line for a few minutes. If you’re anything like me, as soon as you start in on chapter one, you’ll need hours to immerse yourself in the story, in the words, in the chills and surprises that make their way through the lives of these characters and bring together all the breadcrumbs of the different stories into one cohesive whole, so the truth can come out at last. Dark Corners is breathtaking, and I for one will be waiting impatiently for the next season of the podcast, to see what story Rachel can piece together next.

Egalleys for Dark Corners were provided by St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley, with many thanks.