A small New England town and a maximum-security prison sit at the center of The Inmate, where a long-buried teenage tragedy refuses to stay dead. Old romances, family grudges, and unreliable memories intertwine as the past forces its way into the present, pulling every character into a tightening trap. What begins as a bid for safety becomes a study in manipulation, obsession, and the catastrophic fallout of revenge.
Main Characters
Brooke Sullivan
Brooke is the novel’s anchor and primary narrator, a nurse practitioner and single mother who returns to Raker to work at the prison that holds her ex-boyfriend for murders her testimony helped secure. Protective to the point of self-sacrifice, she is driven by her love for her son, Josh, even as she’s plagued by trauma and the gaps in her memory from that long-ago night. As her certainty about the past erodes, she pivots from avoidance to active investigation, forcing herself to reexamine Shane, her feelings for her steady childhood best friend Tim, and her estrangement from her parents. Her arc traces a painful awakening: the safe harbor she chose proves treacherous, the danger she fled proves more complicated, and the truth demands a devastating price.
Shane Nelson
Shane is the titular inmate, a charismatic figure serving life for a triple homicide he insists he didn’t commit, and the secret father of Brooke’s child. Both resilient and deeply manipulative, he weaponizes charm and victimhood to reopen doors with Brooke while coordinating a long-game vendetta with his mother, Pamela. His history with Tim—apparent rivalry masking complicity—threads through the original crime and its cover-up. Initially positioned as a possible casualty of injustice, he’s ultimately revealed as a calculating co-architect of violence whose scheme collapses in a bitter twist when his own son kills him.
Tim Reese
Tim begins as Brooke’s dependable neighbor and childhood best friend, now an assistant principal who offers stability for her and Josh. The good-guy persona masks jealousy and obsessive love that led him to join the original killings and then betray his co-conspirator to claim Brooke for himself. He nurtures a genuine bond with Josh even as he manipulates Brooke’s trust, embodying the danger of evil in familiar guise. Once unmasked, he flips from sanctuary to threat, revealing how safety can be the most seductive lie.
Pamela Nelson (Margie)
Pamela enters Raker disguised as “Margie,” a kindly babysitter who wins Brooke’s trust while secretly orchestrating a decades-long revenge plot. As Shane’s fiercely devoted mother, she’s devious, patient, and ruthless—staging murders, framing enemies, and infiltrating Brooke’s family under a grandmotherly smile. Her grudge against Brooke’s father fuels a campaign that claims multiple victims and reshapes the lives of everyone left standing. The novel’s most chilling reveal reframes her from background helper to central architect of the carnage.
Supporting Characters
Josh Sullivan
Josh is Brooke and Shane’s ten-year-old son, the emotional axis of the story and the reason Brooke risks everything. Sensitive and perceptive, he longs for belonging and latches onto the two father figures in his life—first Tim, then Shane. Manipulated by adults who weaponize his fear, he commits a heartbreaking act in the name of protecting his mother, turning innocence into tragedy.
Marcus Hunt
Marcus Hunt is a correctional officer who abuses his authority to torment Shane, driven by old wounds from high school bullying. His menace toward Brooke and vendetta against Shane expose the prison’s brutality and the long reach of teenage cruelty. Targeted by Pamela and Shane, he becomes another casualty of their revenge.
Chelsea Cho
Chelsea Cho is Brooke’s outgoing high-school best friend and Brandon’s girlfriend, murdered the night of the farmhouse party. Existing primarily in flashback, she personifies the lost futures stolen by the killers and the grief that anchors Brooke’s guilt. Her death is a cornerstone of the mystery—and the lie—that shapes every choice to come.
Minor Characters
- Brandon Jensen: Shane’s friend and Chelsea’s boyfriend, a star athlete and the first victim at the farmhouse.
- Kayla Olivera: A cheerleader brought to the party as a date for Tim, later murdered as part of the spree.
- Dorothy Kuntz: A rigid prison nurse whose clashes with Brooke highlight the system’s cold bureaucracy.
- Kelli Underwood: A former classmate and waitress briefly involved with Tim, murdered by Pamela and planted in Tim’s basement to frame him.
- Brooke’s Parents: Disapproving of Shane and estranged from Brooke after her pregnancy, they are murdered by Pamela in a staged car crash to draw Brooke back to Raker.
Character Relationships & Dynamics
At the core is a volatile triangle: Brooke, Shane, and Tim. Brooke’s need for safety pulls her toward Tim, whose steady demeanor masks obsession, while her unresolved history with Shane—first love, father of her child, and supposed monster—draws her back into doubt. Tim and Shane, framed as rivals, were in fact secret partners in the farmhouse murders; their alliance fractures when Tim betrays Shane to claim Brooke, setting off the years of manipulation that follow.
Pamela’s presence reframes every bond. As the mastermind operating under the Margie persona, she exploits Brooke’s vulnerability to insert herself into the family’s daily life, then weaponizes that access to isolate, terrorize, and frame. Her absolute, twisted devotion to Shane drives a campaign against Brooke’s lineage, turning personal grudge into multigenerational harm.
Around them, secondary ties illuminate the story’s fault lines. Marcus Hunt’s prison vendetta shows how adolescent cruelty metastasizes into adult violence. The murdered teens—Brandon, Chelsea, and Kayla—form the tragic nucleus of the original crime that binds the perpetrators together and warps Brooke’s memories. The final, devastating link is Josh: loved by Brooke, courted by Tim, and belatedly claimed by Shane, he becomes the unwitting instrument of the adults’ lies and the proof that the past’s poison doesn’t fade—it spreads.