The Inmate

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-12

Chapters 13-22

Chapters 23-34

Chapters 35-46

Chapter 47-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Book Club Questions

Themes

Distrusting Others and Oneself

Throughout the novel, Brooke finds herself struggling to figure out who she can trust. Brooke announces in the first few chapters that she didn’t have a good relationship with her parents. This is the first break in trust Brooke experienced: She believes her parents were ashamed of her decision to have her son and raise him on her own, so she never gave them a chance to explain their true motivation for making her leave town. After this seeming betrayal, Brooke finds herself unable to gauge the trustworthiness of other people around her.

Brooke hires a babysitter for her son, taking the first person who fits her budget. This woman cooks and cleans, winning her trust with her gentle, grandmotherly behavior. Although Brooke has been lied to by people she cares about, she trusts Margie. It will prove to be a mistake.

Brooke went through a terrible episode when someone murdered three of her friends and attempted to murder her. Brooke has put this episode behind her, but when she rekindles a relationship with the other survivor of that night, it brings back bad memories. Tim is a kind, gentle man who helps Brooke with repairs to her parents’ aging house. When he confesses his love for her, Brooke initially trusts that their relationship can blossom into something safe and caring for her and her son, Josh. Yet, when Tim is thoughtless—wearing sandalwood aftershave and giving her a copy of the necklace she was strangled with—she questions his genuineness. Brooke’s doubtful nature makes it easy for her to lose her trust in Tim and believe he is capable of murdering a local waitress.

Brooke works at the prison where Shane, the man who tried to kill her—her ex-boyfriend and the father of her child—is housed. Brooke is initially firm in her belief that this man hurt her; therefore, she is understandably distant when they come face to face. However, he wins her over with his charm and his ability to make her believe that he might be falsely imprisoned. When Shane is unexpectedly released, she trusts him enough to move him into her home. Yet this trust is thin, and Brooke begins to doubt Shane soon after.

Brooke’s ability to trust and then distrust is not reserved just for the people around her. Brooke also struggles to trust herself. For 10 years, she has been persuaded into believing that she knows who tried to kill her, but within days of coming face to face with her attacker again, she doubts her memories, making up explanations for why she smelled and felt Shane’s body against hers that night. Only the real perpetrator’s confession finally convinces Brooke of the truth. If not for this admission of guilt, Brooke might have continued to waffle in her trust in herself and those around her for the rest of her life.

Manipulation and Lies

The genre of psychological thriller often depends on the building of relationships that are based on manipulation and lies. In this novel, Brooke finds herself involved in two relationships filled with deception. The first is her relationship with Margie, the kind, grandmotherly babysitter who watches Brooke’s son, Josh, and often offers her advice, both on parenting and on her romantic life. This woman becomes such a trusted member of Brooke’s household that she never notices that Margie has availed herself of the spare key to Tim’s house.

Brooke also reconnects with Shane Nelson, Brooke’s first boyfriend, the father of her son, and the man serving a life sentence in prison for the murder of three classmates and the attempted murder of Brooke. When Brooke comes face to face with Shane, he lies to her immediately, telling her that his mother is dead and he’s not guilty of the murders. Shane persuades Brooke to believe that her predecessor lied about him being drug-seeking and that he is always innocent in the frequent fights that bring him to the prison clinic. Eventually, Brooke is so convinced of Shane’s honesty that even when given the information that Shane was the instigator in a fight, she chooses not to believe it.

Brooke’s vulnerability to Margie and Shane’s lies makes her question her own memories. She reexamines the night of the murders and comes to the conclusion that Shane never tried to hurt her. Brooke testifies on Shane’s behalf, visits him in prison, and even allows him to live in her house when he is released. Brooke’s romantic delusions about forming a family with Josh and Shane cause her to dismiss warning signs and ignore clues that Shane is not being honest. This is a weakness in Brooke’s character, but it also highlights how a traumatized person could be the unwitting victim of manipulation.

Justice

At the novel’s center are the brutal murders of three teenagers and the near strangulation of a fourth. Not fully over what happened, Brooke nevertheless feels that justice has been served because the man she believes committed these crimes is serving a life sentence in prison. However, as the novel throws doubt on Shane’s guilt and Brooke doubts her own memories of that night, the inequities and mistreatment she sees befall inmates at Shane’s prison convince her that he might have been falsely convicted.

The novel dramatizes the criminal justice system rather than presenting it accurately. However, its side plots about a prison administrator refusing one inmate a medically necessary mattress and refusing to stock the infirmary with adequate supplies and a prison guard taking out past grievances on another inmate with impunity ring true. Dorothy and Marcus’s actions as corrections officers do not make the prison feel like a just place of punishment. Rather, it is a place where decisions are made on a whim—something that is confirmed when Brooke’s hastily recanted testimony gets Shane quickly released and Tim just as quickly lands behind bars. The timing has little basis in reality, but it adds to the sense that the justice system is failing Brooke.

The fact that Shane’s conviction is so reliant on Brooke’s testimony is also far-fetched. In the crime scene, there would have been other evidence, but none of this makes it into the book. Instead, the police rely on Brooke’s hazy and easily manipulated memories. This is partly why Brooke’s inability to accurately remember the events of that night causes her a great deal of anxiety. First, she believes Shane committed the murders. Then, she becomes convinced Tim is guilty. Finally, she decides that Shane and Tim committed the murders together. However, justice cannot be served because she has already recanted her testimony against Shane. When Brooke learns that there was another person involved—Margie, who is actually Shane’s mother, Pamela—only Pamela’s full confession allows the police to solve the murders once and for all.

The novel posits another type of justice—vigilante or retributive justice outside the law. Pamela’s explanation for her crimes is revenge—when Brooke’s father wronged her, she had no recourse in the justice system, so she decided to take matters into her own hands. Similarly, revenge also finds Shane, whose death feels earned and fitting. However, the question of what should happen to his murderer—10-year-old Josh—is left open.