Freida is the queen of twisty thrillers! Like all of her previous books, I couldn’t put The Inmate down! So many twists and turns! Read in one sitting!

Brooke Sullivan takes the only job she can find, a nurse practitioner job at a maximum security prison. The very prison where Shane the man Brooke helped put behind bars is serving out his life sentence.
The book is a typical psychological thriller, or is it? I had it figured out a third of the way in, but then I didn’t. The twists in the story are so unpredictable. You will stay up late reading trying to figure out who is innocent and who is truly guilty.
Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for my ARC.

This book is in my top 5 Freida McFadden books. I realized once I got it I have actually read it before, maybe it was published previously on kindle unlimited? I think it had great mystery with twists and turns! I didn't see the ending coming at all and the story kept me engaged the whole time. 4.5/5 stars

Jaw. Drop. From start to finish in one setting, I was hooked. Frieda is one of the best psychological thriller authors I have read. I counted 5 twists and turns in this book. Each one more shocking than the last. Goosebumps at the epilogue.

So...this book is ridiculous.

It is HIGHLY entertaining. It is also HIGHLY illogical. I mean, if you added even a tiny bit of logic, the book would not exist.

Nothing in the real world works this way and the reasons behind everything are really banal.

3 stars for entertainment value alone, but turn off your brain before reading.

I’m a big fan of Freida! I’ve all of her books and I’ve enjoyed them all. I always know I’ll be on the edge of my seat and guessing until. This book had the perfect amount of twists and turns. I can’t recommend Freida’s books enough!
Thank you NetGalley, Freida and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC!

This was my first book of Freida McFaddens but it definitely won’t be my last! This book kept me on the edge of my seat and I couldn’t put it down! I absolutely needed to know what happened next! There were so many plot twists, some that I kind of anticipated but others completely shocked me! BRB while I go add all of Freida’s other books to my TBR!

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with a copy to read in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an early copy of The Inmate. It’s very hard to get an early copy of Freida McFaddens books so I was very excited to get this one and I appreciate it. She NEVER disappoints!!!! Of course I had it figured out early on ……… WRONG!!!! Her twists are like no other authors. All I can think of when this book ended was the apple doesn’t fall from the tree.

Throughout this thriller, there was one thing that was certain: there was always a new plot twist or clue to keep you interested and reading.

Brooke Sullivan is now a nurse practitioner and single mom who is just trying to make a better for her only son, Josh. While her motivation is pure, her method is questionable because she ends up as the nurse for the prison that her high school ex-boyfriend is in for a mass murder of their classmates. He also happens to be Josh’s father, but neither father nor son knows this truth. When Brooke reconnects with Tim, her childhood best friend and fellow survivor of the crime that Shane is in prison for, she starts to question if Shane is guilty or if he’s innocent. The book is split between the present day and the day of the crime.

Warning: there are spoilers ahead in this review.

Brooke’s profession and the setting of the book were unusual, which is to say, I haven’t read many, if any, thriller books that are based in prison. It allows the reader to see her compassion for the prisoners, even though they did not entirely deserve it, because Shane manipulates her into thinking he is innocent.

While this book has everything I typically look for in a thriller (lots of twists and turns, a few clues, and a plot that makes me unable to put the book down), it will not stick with me, nor is it groundbreaking in its genre.

One relationship I would have liked to see more fleshed out was the one between Brooke and her parents, particularly after the crime and while she was pregnant or had Josh. This is explained in the book’s ending, but the clues could have been mixed more than the simple statement that her dad cheated on her mom often. While the reader’s opinion of Brooke’s parents is manipulated for most of the book, there isn’t much background on them or their actions. Hence, the revelation of Shane’s motivation felt as if it came out of left field.

The setting is unique, and the plot is a great concept; there were some plot and character holes. As a character, Brooke was a bit wishy-washy on the actual event, and she couldn’t hold a strong opinion in the present day. The conviction behind her actions was lacking; even when she suspected that Shane was innocent and Tim was the perpetrator, she was in and out of that. Even certain events that were pertinent to the story were wishy-washy. For example, the girl who had been murdered earlier in the school year, it turns out Shane is responsible because he needed to practice. There was no way for Shane to be linked to her, so it felt more like a red herring.

The ending also seems unrealistic since Tim, despite Brooke sending him, an innocent man, to jail, he took her back and is still in love with her. Another problem with Tim and the ending is that it was tied up quickly in a bow. As Shane’s mother was dying from Brooke’s gunshot, she confessed everything to the authorities, which made sure Tim got out of prison pretty quickly afterward. This is nowhere realistic to what happens in the real world. Even with a confession of guilt from a deathbed, or just in general, if there is an innocent person incarcerated but the case is closed, it will typically not get reopened or happen so quickly. Shane was released so soon because Tim was found with a body in his basement.

The most significant complication with the ending is perhaps part of the intrigue since the reader gets some confirmation that Josh killed Shane, his dad, to protect his mother to show that the cycle of maternal protection murders was repeating.

The inmate was a pretty interesting read. I will say I felt like I had to kind of suspend belief to get the full enjoyment. First of all Brooke was annoying, second I find it hard to believe the prison where her attempted murder was jailed would hire her, third why would she not feel immediate revulsion and fear when in the infirmary with the man she was so sure tried to strangle her that she testified against him?! But if you can rationalize those things in your mind then you can enjoy the story. I do think it was kind of predictable but that didn’t take away from the story for me. I do recommend you read it for yourself!

This is my second time reading this book. I'm not sure how I got the copy about a year ago, but apparently I did. This time I felt about the same as the previous time when reading this one. It had a lot of holes in it and I found it hard to believe. Having Brooke actually getting a job at the same prison was just too unbelievable for me. It was a bit more predictable than most of the books Frieda McFadden writes. I did like the little twist at the end with Josh was a great twist.
Thanks NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC.

Brooke Sullivan was a normal teenager. She was a cheerleader, had a group of friends, and she was madly in love with her boyfriend Shane Nelson. When Shane's mom goes out of town, Brooke and her friends have a sleepover at his house. It seemed like it was going to be a normal night of drinking and pizza, it was going to be the first time that Brooke and Shane sleep together. Everything was perfect until one of her friends turns up dead, then another, and soon someone attacks Brooke. She manages to escape and her testimony of that night lands Shane in jail for killing the others.

Ten years later, she is the new nurse practitioner at a maximum security men's prison. She recently moved back to her hometown with her 10 year old son Josh, into the house that she grew up in. Brooke had been estranged from her family for years but when both of her parents died, instead of selling their house she moved into it. When Brooke takes the job at the prison, she keeps one critical piece of information to herself. Shane is an inmate at the prison, locked away for life because of her testimony. When she gave her testimony, she was so sure that Shane was the one who killed their friends and attacked her but 10 years later she isn't so sure. Brooke is about to find about what really happened that night, and it's not at all what she had thought.

I didn't want to give away the spoiler of who done it, so I will leave it on that cliffhanger for you to read. The thing about Freida is that she writes books that have a twist that you never see coming. When I read The Housemaid and The Housemaid's Secret, I was so impressed when I was actually surprised at the ending. It was the same with this book. Just when you think you have it all figured out, something unexpected happens that you never saw coming. This book did not disappoint and it was a really exciting thriller.

Thank you so much NetGalley, Poison Pen Press, and Freida McFadden for the opportunity to read this book!

3/5

This book was not my favorite from Freida. Freida is my girl, and everyone loved this book, so I was really excited to read it. I thought the ending was predictable, and I think she could have made it so
much better. I think this book will be easily forgettable because there is nothing that stands out in it that will make me think about it over and over. I also hated all the characters except for the kid.

Publication date: June 13th, 2022
Page count: 388
Genre: domestic thriller
Setting: men’s maximum security prison

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. What a great ride! What an ending! There are a lot of synopses out there- but what I can add is my criteria (for a rarely given a 5 star review)- I am engaged throughout the book, I think that it is well written, clever, with unexpected twists, and I am disappointed when it is over. Also, it must be a book that I would read again.

Enjoy!


Thank you to author, publisher, NetGalley for advanced copy. This is an honest voluntary review.

Freida is the queen of twisty thrillers and this did not disappoint. The Inmate follows Brooke as she moves back to her home town with her 10 year old son and endsup working in the same prison that her son's father is serving a life sentence for murder. Did he really do it though? Or could it be someone else that she trusts. Halfway through this book I thought that perhaps this one was going to have a more straightforward conclusion but I couldn't have been more wrong. Fantastic read with chapter endings that make it hard to put down.

Whelp, I almost pulled an all-nighter to finish this book in one day. 2 a.m. people! That's how invested I was in this book!

Freida McFadden, your writing is so twisted - in a good way, lol!

The book alternates between Brooke's current situation (nurse in a penitentiary with a 10 year old son) and a night 10 years ago when she and her friends spent the night in a farmhouse belonging to her boyfriend.

SPOILER ALERT: I loved the nod to Rumplestiltskin near the end!

It's definitely not hype: McFadden writes twisty-turny stories that will keep you up until the wee hours of the morning - I should know, lol!

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an advance reader's copy.

This book was okay but honestly nowhere near as good as The Housemaid series. The main character Brooke and her boyfriend were very cliche'. The plot was predictable and it read very much like a YA novel. Not that there is anything wrong with a YA book. I read them often and they have their place but this one just fell flat for me because I had such high expectations.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review. I always enjoy a Freida McFadden book and this was no exception. A really good psychological thriller that was fast paced, interesting and kept me turning the pages as fast as possible. The author’s plot twists are always really good and sharp and this book had some brilliant twists that I never saw coming. Highly recommended. 5 stars from me.

Just like all Freida McFadden books, I could not put this one down. I was hooked from page one. Brooke attends a gathering with friends in high school. When friends are killed she is certain she knows who did it. Years later when paths cross again she wonders, did I really know who did this? Full of twists and turns this book sucks you in…. Who really killed everyone all those years ago?

Gosh I love Frieda McFadden so much. Her books are always quick and enticing. It’s what I love most about thrillers is fast paced, dramatic, realistic — and Frieda hit each and every mark.