Freida McFadden’s “The Inmate” is a psychological thriller that revolves around Brooke Sullivan, a nurse practitioner appointed in the medical ward of a prison where she is forced to revisit her traumatic past when she encounters an inmate. The inmate Shane Nelson against whom Brooke testified in court is in prison for a series of murders involving their friends and school mates. When she meets Shane in prison after ten long years, she is forced to relive the one incident which she had had nightmares about over the past many years. But, was there something amiss in her testimony against Shane? Is Shane the real killer?
The novel starts off with this interesting premise and travels back and forth in the timeline with non-linear narration. The twists keep coming every now and then, but the novel is tad too predictable for the most part. The novel solely rests on the mystery of that one incident which the author somehow manages to keep it under wraps until the very end. But, the unravelling of mystery is not set up in stages. The twist at the end throws us off guard but doesn’t settle well mainly because there is no strong backstory or establishment anywhere in the novel to justify it.
With a weak protagonist who is dumb more than naive, a wafer thin suspense and a force fitted climax, this novel doesn’t hit the right chord!
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