Inside Out By Chris McGeorge

‘Inside Out’ is the latest book by Chris McGeorge.

Cara Lockhart has just commenced a life sentence in HMP North Fern – the newest maximum security women’s prison in the country. She was convicted of a crime she is adamant she didn’t commit. One morning she wakes up to find her cellmate murdered – shot in the head with a gun that is missing. The door was locked all night, which makes Cara the only suspect. Cara needs to clear her name, unravelling an impossible case, with an investigation governed by a prison timetable. But as Cara starts to learn more about North Fern and the predicament she is in, she finds connections between the past and present that she never could have imagined. Indeed it seems that her conviction and her current situation might be linked in very strange ways.

I spent today reading ‘Inside Out’ and I have to admit it’s one of the best crime thrillers that I’ve read in a while, with so many twists weaved throughout that I was unable to put it down.

The story is primarily about Cara who’s just been moved to a new prison facility called North Fern. It’s a new concept prison with out actual access to the outdoors with screens projecting fake sunshine and the outside. But Cara and her cellmate Barnard are convinced that there’s something sinister at work at North Fern and when Barnard is found dead, all fingers point to Cara, even though she is innocent. Cara is trying to prove her innocence as well as stay away from the other inmates who hate her for her alleged crime.

Cara is an interesting character, she’s quiet and keeps to herself. She’s known as ‘The Butcher’ for brutally killing 2 children, even though she’s always denied it. Other inmates turn on her or fear her for her crimes.

I loved this story, it’s so chillingly written with creepy characters and horrible scenes of mental torture and hallucinations that made for unsettling reading. Every Saturday, the inmates were made watch the same film for movie night called ‘Rain on Elmore Street’ and the distress was evident on each page of how this ordeal made them feel.

The story is seen from the perspective of other characters and this really pulls the story together in the end and has led Cara to the situation that she’s in.

A fantastic thriller with unreliable characters and narratives that really pulled the reader in. ‘Inside Out’ is a complex and cleverly crafted book that is a real page turner and was impossible to put down until I reached the final page.

You can pre-order ‘Inside Out’ from Amazon and will be available to buy from good bookshops from 29th October.