{"id":4831,"date":"2026-09-04T15:12:46","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T15:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/?p=4831"},"modified":"2026-09-05T00:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T00:54:15","slug":"book-review-freida-mcfaddens-the-inmate-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/04\/book-review-freida-mcfaddens-the-inmate-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Freida McFadden\u2019s The Inmate (2022)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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No author quite knows how to grab their readers the way Freida McFadden does. She writes intoxicating mystery\/thrillers with believably lifelike, complicated, and relatable characters. She does this concisely and with no trace of pretension. Her novels are so effortless to read that the pages might as well be turning themselves. Fair warning: don\u2019t start one of her books unless you\u2019re prepared to spend your entire day lost in it because there\u2019s a good chance you won\u2019t be able to put it down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McFadden\u2019s The Inmate<\/em> is no exception to this. It\u2019s as brilliantly ridiculous, twisty, twisted, and shocking as her celebrated, best-selling Housemaid<\/em> series. The difference, however, is that this one hasn\u2019t had a film adaptation (yet), so it\u2019s easier to read spoiler-free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story centers on Brooke Sullivan, a young single mother who is starting a nurse practitioner job at Raker, New York\u2019s maximum-security prison. She\u2019s recently returned to her hometown after the death of her estranged parents. Her ten-year-old son, Josh, is entering fifth grade. The assistant principal at Josh\u2019s school, Tim Resse, is Brooke\u2019s childhood best friend, and the two of them reconnect and begin a long-time-in-the-making romance. We can\u2019t forget that this is a thriller, however, because while all this is going on, Brooke has repeated interactions with a prison inmate named Shane Nelson. Shane just happens to be Brooke\u2019s first love, and, most importantly, it was her testimony from a decade ago that sent him to prison for life for committing multiple murders. Shane says he\u2019s innocent and that Tim is the dangerous one. Tim, who also testified against Shane, insists that Shane is the dangerous one. McFadden\u2019s typically tantalizing, expectation-toying, and deliciously devious head games begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most impressive feats of The Inmate<\/em> is that it makes you care deeply for all of its main characters. You understand their backgrounds, their hardships, their mistakes, their hopes, and, for most of the novel\u2019s duration, you want everyone\u2019s fate to be positive. You don\u2019t want a single character to be guilty of anything at which the book hints. While you may not want<\/em> anyone to be the villain of the story, remember once again that this is a thriller and that you will ultimately find that someone is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brooke is a sympathetic, intelligent, and well-defined protagonist. She clearly conveys the book\u2019s many mysteries with her internal questioning of the increasingly suspicious events that surround her. Tim is hard not to like, but is almost too perfect not to suspect him of something<\/em>. Shane is, you will hope, a bad boy with a sweet soul. His suffering is sympathetic, and McFadden makes it easy to see the best in him. You will be as torn as Brooke when trying to figure out whether or not to believe a word of what he says. I would be remiss if I didn\u2019t also mention the elderly Margie, a wizardly cook\/lovable babysitter who showers Josh with much-needed affection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tension is constant and progressively intensifies until the book reaches its mind-blowing climax. No matter how comfortable you may want to be with certain characters, McFadden sets a stage where just about anything can happen. The further you get into the book, you\u2019ll realize that even the most pleasant and humorous of character interactions have a potential threat looming over them that could come to fruition at any moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McFadden\u2019s writing is clean and free of excess. She only relays the bare minimum of what you need to know, making sure that every word, every sentence, and every paragraph efficiently get to the point. Yes, she teases you with intentionally dragged-out action detail in pivotal moments of suspense that will make you so anxious you\u2019ll feel like you just can\u2019t read fast enough. <\/em>However, there\u2019s always a clear intention to be found in such moments, and you never feel like you are in the hands of a pompous embellisher. With Freida McFadden, you can always trust that what you\u2019re reading is important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Inmate<\/em> is another prime example of what a fantastic author Freida McFadden is. She is in full command of both the thriller genre and of her own individual voice. With a storyline that veers through countless and unpredictable twists and turns and through the use of effective writing that is impeccably crafted with simplicity, The Inmate<\/em> is a devilishly fun time that never fails to deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GRADE: A<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No author quite knows how to grab their readers the way Freida McFadden does. She writes intoxicating mystery\/thrillers with believably lifelike, complicated, and relatable characters. She does this concisely and with no trace of pretension. Her novels are so effortless to read that the pages might as well be turning themselves. Fair warning: don\u2019t start […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4831"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4835,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4831\/revisions\/4835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/otherpeoplesmovies.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}