Becky's Great Book Reviews The Inmate by Freida McFadden

The Inmate by Freida McFadden is an addictive page-turner. Brooke Sullivan is back in her hometown in upstate New York after being gone for eleven years. She and her ten-year-old son Josh have inherited her childhood home after Brooke's parents died in a car accident. With a house and new job working as a nurse practitioner, Brooke has every reason to feel good. Except she doesn't.

The only job that Brooke could land is in the penitentiary. And one of the inmates is Brooke's ex-boyfriend, Shane Nelson. He is also Josh's father, but he doesn't know that.

When Brooke was seventeen, she, Shane, and four other friends planned a night away to party at Shane's family farmhouse. While there, Brooke was almost murdered by Shane. Three others were killed that night and Brooke was lucky to get away alive. She went on to testify against Shane who now is locked away.

Now Brooke is doing all she can to stay away from Shane Nelson, but as the prison's only health care provider is finding that impossible. On the outside, Brooke has reconnected with Tim Reese, one of the others who was there that night at the farmhouse. As she develops a romantic relationship with Tim, Brooke begins to doubt her own traumatic experience in thinking Shane was actually the one who tried to kill her, since she didn't actually see his face at the time. Could it have been Tim instead? Or someone else entirely?

Freida McFadden builds the tension with each chapter, adding details that kept this reader guessing until almost the end about who the killer is. It's no wonder Freida McFadden is such a successful author with thrillers like this - and a marvel that she is also a practicing physician! So much talent! The Inmate is a thriller that is not to be missed! This novel gets four stars out of five from me.