The Inmate: Storyline and Book Review

The Inmate is a crime thriller by author Freida McFadden, who is famous for her Housemaid series. Like her previous books, this story revolves around three to four characters.

The protagonist is Brooke Sullivan, a young woman in her late twenties who is already a mother to a 10-year-old boy, Josh.

The story starts with Brooke returning to the town where she grew up after staying away for ten years. Brooke secures a job as a nurse practitioner at a penitentiary ( a men’s maximum security prison). She very well knows that her college sweetheart and the father to her son, Shane Nelson, is incarcerated there, and there is every chance that she may come across him. Shane is in prison because he was accused of multiple murders and an attempt to kill Brooke. Brooke’s testimony had played a crucial part in deciding Shanes’s fate. Brooke is terrified at the thought of encountering Shane. But what are the chances that a notorious prisoner who ends up having frequent fights with fellow prisoners doesn’t meet a nurse? Brooke does meet Shane. She is scared and anxious, but she tries to stay professional. But at every opportunity that Shane gets, he attempts to convince Brooke that it was not he who wanted to kill her but Tim. But Brooke, despite having not seen the face of the person who tried to strangle her, is sure it was Shane.

Brookes’s childhood friend and neighbour, Tim, whom Brooke trusts more than anyone else, was present on that dreadful night along with five more people, including Brooke and Shane. Out of the five, three got killed, and Tim, Shane and Brooke survived.

After returning to the town, Brooke meets Tim. Old friendship gets rekindled, and soon, the two start seeing each other. As interactions increase with Tim, Brooke starts feeling that she shouldn’t have unquestioningly trusted Tim. Her frequent interactions with Shane in the prison further strengthen this thought. On a day when Brooke visits Tim’s house and finds a dead body in his cellar, Brooke becomes convinced that her instincts are correct, that Tim is a habitual murderer and the real culprit. She regrets that she made a big mistake by falsely testifying against Shane ten years back.

The police arrive, and when Brooke testifies again, Tim is sent to prison, and Shane is released. Now Shane is back in Brooke’s life. Josh finally has a father, and Brooke can’t imagine a more perfect life. But soon, Brooke starts sensing a similar mistrust for Shane. A series of incidents convinced her that she was wrong to trust Shane. Brooke is scared more than ever. She feels that she spoilt all that was going right between her and Tim by setting Shane free.

Did Brooke make a mistake this time? Was it actually Shane who tried killing her that night? Or were both Tim and Shane in it together? Or was there a third person involved? And if so, why? What was the motive? Read the book to know more.

My Review:

The book seemed quite interesting in the beginning. Shane is portrayed as a decent fellow. He claims he was accused of a crime he didn’t commit and seems convincing. There is a mystery around Tim’s character, which also makes the reader curious and imagine if it was Tim, not Shane, who committed the crime and walked scot-free. After Tim goes to prison and Shane becomes free, the reader wonders how the story will proceed. As with all thrillers, a twist is expected, and the end can’t be ‘, and they lived happily ever after. But in my opinion, the end, though it had a twist ( and the epilogue had another twist), it didn’t do the trick. There seemed to be too many coincidences and loose ends. I was disappointed with the end and had hoped that the author had ended it differently. Brooke seemed too naive, and the motive of the crime didn’t seem convincing. To justify the crime, the author creates a series of events from the past involving characters with whom the reader doesn’t so deeply relate.

Overall, it’s not a bad book. It certainly is a one-time read and a page-turner for a large part.