The Inmate (2022) is a novel by author and practicing physician Frieda McFadden, whose other popular works include The Locked Door (2021), The Housemaid (2022), and The Coworker (2023). The novel is a psychological thriller about a single mother who returns to her hometown in the aftermath of her parents’ deaths. Memories of her past begin to haunt her when she takes a job at the federal prison where the father of her child, who once tried to kill her, is serving a life sentence for a triple homicide.

This guide utilizes the Kindle e-book edition published by Hollywood Upstairs Press.

Plot Summary

Brooke Sullivan returns to her hometown upon the deaths of her parents in a car accident. Brooke decided to keep her parents’ house and live in it with her 10-year-old son, Josh. However, Brooke, a nurse practitioner, has trouble finding a job and ends up taking a position at Raker Maximum Security Penitentiary. Unfortunately, this prison happens to house Shane Nelson, Brooke’s ex-boyfriend and Josh’s father, who is serving a life sentence for attempting to murder her and for murdering three of their school friends. Within a few days, Brooke comes face to face with her ex after he gets injured in the yard. There is tension between them, but Brooke is surprised that she isn’t as afraid of Shane as she had imagined she would be.

On Josh’s first day of school, Brooke runs into Tim Reese, her childhood best friend and the other survivor of Shane’s murder spree. Tim asks Brooke out for drinks, and she hesitates, not sure she wants to surround herself with people from her past. However, she finally agrees, and they have a lovely evening despite the waitress, Kelli, flirting with Tim.

Brooke ignores Shane’s advice and begins seeing more of Tim. Josh invites Tim over to help fix up the house. Encouraged by her babysitter, Margie, Brooke finds herself thinking of Tim as a potential romantic partner. A month into their rekindled friendship, they begin an intimate relationship but are careful to keep it from Josh.

Brooke recalls the night 11 years ago that changed her life. Brooke, her best friend Chelsea, and a girl named Kayla, drove Tim to Shane’s farmhouse on a night when Shane’s mother was out of town. Shane and his best friend, Brandon, met them there. They ate pizza and drank screwdrivers while playing Never Have I Ever. After the game, the couples went to separate bedrooms. Brooke and Shane had sex for the first time and then fell asleep. Around 3:00 a.m., Brooke woke to the sound of someone screaming. Downstairs, Chelsea cradled the corpse of Brandon. Their cell phones had no signal, the landline was dead, and the tires on the kids’ cars were slashed. Brooke found Kayla dead upstairs. As Brooke ran downstairs, she was attacked, someone twisting her necklace around her throat to choke her. In the dark, she smelled Shane’s aftershave. The necklace broke and Brooke escaped, running out into the road where she was picked up by a man in a pickup truck.

Now, 11 years later, Brooke gets a better job. She goes to Tim’s house to celebrate, but when she goes into the basement to get a bottle of wine, she finds a body: the waitress, Kelli. Brooke realizes that Tim was responsible for the other murders as well; she recants her testimony against Shane, and he is released from prison pending a new trial.

Brooke brings Shane to stay at her house with her and Josh. Shane announces that his mother left him the farmhouse, where the party took place, and asks Brooke to take him there. At the farm, Brooke suddenly has a flash of memory that makes her realize that Shane and Tim were working together.

When Shane realizes Brook knows, he threatens to take Josh away from her. Brooke runs out of the house to find her son, slipping and injuring her ankle. Brooke limps out to the road and runs into Pamela Nelson, Shane’s mother. Pamela learned about Josh a year ago and set up the car accident that killed Brooke’s parents in order to draw her back to Raker. She admits that Tim wasn’t Shane’s partner the night of the murders: Shane’s mother was. The plan was always to kill Brooke because Pamela had an affair with Brooke’s father, but he wouldn’t leave Brooke and her mother, staying together for Brooke’s sake. Brooke and Pamela fight over a gun, and Pamela is shot. Brooke runs into the woods to find Josh. There, icicles fell from a tree and killed Shane in a freak accident. Tim is freed from prison after Pamela confesses to everything. Tim and Brooke make up and get back together. Then, Josh confesses that he killed Shane.